I received a press release from the conservative Family Action PAC, withdrawing its endorsement of Melissa Melendez in Assembly District 67 in Riverside County:
Larry Smith, Chairman of the Family Action PAC stated, “It is with sadness that we withdraw our endorsement of Ms. Melendez. While we rarely take this kind of action, we have done so because we are concerned by her close ties to unions and the financial backing she’s received from unions across California. We believe that union influence in elections is the paramount public policy issue we must reform in our state and we can not stand along side a candidate who appears to disagree.”
The Orange County Register has expressed the same opinion about union influence on government and politics, and yet endorsed John Leos for Anaheim City Council, who is on his way to setting a record for the most government union money spent on a municipal candidate in county history.
The Orange County Register should give itself a similar reality check and withdraw its endorsement of John Leos. It’s never too late to start being right.
Bravo to Mr. Larry Smith and to the outstanding decision taken from the Family Action PAC. This is an example of an organization taking a strong stand for what is right.
To give the Orange County Register the benefit of the doubt, the largest union contributions were given to Leos at the 11th hour (probably to conceal Leos’ plan to fool The Register and to receive these gross sums of money all along). Now that the Orange County Register has witnessed the shady dealings of Leos and his union family, I would expect that they will rethink their position. If the Orange County Register truly cares about what is best for Anaheim, it must reconsider the Leos endorsement.
I thought the Register also oppposed tax increases. And Leos supports new taxes in Anaheim. He stated he supported a “gate” tax for entertainment venues. I would think that the Register would care about that. Or are they blinded by their devotion to Tait that they will overlook these simple indiscretions? They have thus far.
Tait has been heard over the years boasting about having one of his favorite writers, Eric Carpenter of the Orange County Register, at his beckon call. There will be no impartial reporting. Carpenter and Tait are long time friends.
I don’t know Eric Carpenter, but I do know is mother. She lives in town and is friends to Tom Tait. She is on the Sister City Commission, a total boondoggle. They traveled to Spain together this year, how did we find out? They got caught using city funds (taxpayer dollars) to subsidized their trip. Because not enough residents sign up for the trip, the cost per person went up, and Tait refused to pay more, so the City of Anaheim’s travel agent was reimbursed by the City to cover the difference. And it was never reported on his political donation forms. Not surprising, what would he report? “I stole money from the Anaheim taxpayers.” I wonder why Eric Carpenter does write that story.
The Tait’s modus operandi is to wine and dine reporters. For example, the Frank Mickadeit piece a few months ago. These reporters don’t even realize that they are being tooled. Basically, the reporter has a good time with their high-profile political “buddy” and of course the trade-off is a slanted article pretty much verbatim.