If you’re looking for an example of how the OC Republican Party Central Committee endorsement process continues to misfire, Anaheim is a perfect example.
The main value to a candidate of this endorsement is the hope that somehow, from someone, money will arrive at the OC GOP to fund a “member communication” — usually a mail piece touting the endorsed candidates as “Team [fill in the city]” or something like that. They are mailed only to Republican voters, and are not independent expenditures because the member communication can be coordinated with the endorsed candidates campaign. Plus, they are sent out using the California Republican Party’s mail permit, which has a lower postage rate and thus gets the endorsed candidate more mileage for their postage dollar. The main drawback is member communications can’t be sent to non-Republicans.
In any case, the two OC GOP endorsed candidates in Anaheim are Lucille Kring and Brian Chuchua.
The Kring endorsement wasn’t surprising. She’s a former councilmember and was the GOP nominee in the 34th Senate District in 2010 against Lou Correa – which turned out to be a thankless task when the $1 million in support she’d been promised when she was recruited for the race never materialized.
But Chuchua? The committee endorsed him almost absent-mindedly, despite knowing of his support – including financial support — for the campaign of liberal Democrat John Santoianni, who ran for Anaheim City Council in 2010 and is running for Anaheim school board this year.
And now the party is stuck with a candidate who subsequently joined government union activist John Leos in supporting ticket tax in Anaheim to fund city social programs.
Here’s a screenshot of the money the OC GOP is now spending to ask Anaheim Republicans to vote for a guy who supports a new tax and has taken on the role of cheerleader for John Leos — who is also the choice of the county’s government unions:
Oh well – that’s the reward for the party endorsing a candidate about whom it knew little, and cared little about what little it did know.
The OCGOP are spending millions in Costa Mesa to support a charter amendment to battle OCEA but in Anaheim, they are using their member communications to get OCEA’s funded candidate – their highest priority countywide – elected to the largest city in Orange County. That is the end result of attacking Brandman. It is laughable to blame Brandman for GardenWalk or to say his friends in high places includes Obama. Tait and his supporters should be ashamed – this is the dirtiest election on record in Anaheim in recent memory – and it is well known in the GOP that Tait is the architect of these attacks on Brandman.
Santa Ana and Irvine both have Democrat Mayors, and now Anaheim has a Mayor who is a pawn for the public employee unions. Wake-up Orange County! Our three largest cities are now run by Democrats/Public Employee Unions. Who would have thought that Mayor Tom Tait’s “leadership” who mean riots and gang shootings in Anaheim, and that he would blame it on the Police. Tait should be recalled immediately.
And as for the OCGOP, don’t forget the OCGOP Chairman is a Sacramento lobbyist who holds private fundraisers for Democrats here in Orange County. Does anyone really think he is focused on electing Republicans. It has all become a game of Chicago-style politics for these guys.