We should know the answer to that question by the end of this week: campaign reports should be available tomorrow.
According to Leo’s campaign reports, the consultant for his 2010 council run was Andrew Gibson. You can read them here.
Andrew is the brother of Robert Gibson, who is president of both the Orange County Employees Association Board of Directors, and president of the OCEA PAC.
Here’s Robert Gibson with Leos in Sacramento in January 2011 — at an OCEA shindig celebrating the inauguration of Jerry Brown as Governor:
John Leos (center) with OCEA Prez Robert Gibson (right) at Jerry Brown inaugural shindig.
On the other hand, Leos only raised and spent a little more than $30,000 on his own campaign (mostly from unions), and it was the OCEA that did the heavy lifting on behalf of Leos – so how relevant is the identity of his campaign manager? Except that if it is once again the brother of the president of the OCEA (with which, it should be remembered, the Anaheim Municipal Employees Association is affiliated), that will tell us something about what kind of policies we can expect a Councilman John Leos to espouse. long-time Anaheim activist Cynthia Ward has convinced herself that it really won’t be big deal to have sitting on the Anaheim City Council an active member and former officer of the union that represents Anaheim city employees. Here’s the argument Cynthia makes:
Lucille Kring has been endorsed by the GOP Central Committee as well as the CRA, and is the only Anaheim candidate endorsed by the Lincoln Club. Her impeccable conservative credentials bring balance to Tait’s slate, which has already backed John Leos, a Republican with serious ties to the OCEA. (I know, I know. Hand me that Advil. But Leos does present the best opportunity to stop the special interest deals and actually watch Tait’s back so I cannot fault Tait for the choice. And frankly Leos would never have the nerve to have given away the obscenely generous AMEA deal that the current Council majority blew in June, so we will roll with it and support the Mayor…while watching Leos VERY carefully. You hear me, John? )
In other words, we’re supposed to believe Leos won’t be the OCEA councilman because he’ll be too embarassed. That’s wishful thinking and a pretty thin reed to hang a strategy on — especially when it runs counter to Leos’s deep and long-standing involvement with the OCEA, and the great debt he will owe them if he manages too get elected.
Cynthia routinely leaps to the conclusion that various councilmembers vote in certain ways in order to re-pay campaign donors and supporters, and yet here asserts the opposite will be the case. This is wishful thinking supported by specious reasoning.
What “special interest deals” is she relying on Leos to stop, when his political incubation took place in the womb of the city’s biggest and most organized special interest, the OCEA?
And as an aside regarding the OC GOP, CRA and Lincoln Club endorsements of Lucille Kring. Those are of very limited value unless some individual(s) or organization funds an expenditure through those organizations. The Lincoln Club is absorbed in the effort to pass Prop. 32, meaning it is extremely unlikely they would tap their membership to fund an IE for a candidate who is a member of a de facto slate that includes a government employee union activist.
For pete’s sake, Matt, for once would you please get it right? What I was saying is that Leos will be under such intense scrutiny that he would never DARE give away the kind of special interest deal that the current City Council members just handed over in June. But thanks for the idea for my next blog post, regarding the deal that the “conservative Republican” Council majority appear to have cut with OCEA. You want to connect Leos with the unions, that is fair, I have done the same, but do not in the next breath pretend that your favored candidates (employers?) are not going to pay back their patrons as well.
Cynthia: I quoted what you said directly, and my summation was accurate: you are laiming he will be too embarassed — due to the presumably intense scrutiny to which he will supposedly by subjected — to vote for what the OCEA wants.
I think you are whistling dixie, and logic, human nature and history lean toward my conclusion.
We’re supposed to believe that if elected, Leos will demonstrate independence from the organization to which he is closely tied by history, involvement, loyalty and financial support — and on the issue of central importance to OCEA?