Anaheim Insider here.

If you read Orange County political blogs, you know there are a few very vocal, very deluded bloggers out there, claiming to represent blocs of voter opinion. Here’s an example from a rant Anaheim’s own Cynthia Ward wrote on the hit piece against Lucille Kring from the Orange County Employees Association-funded Voice of OC:

Enjoy that one last term girlfriend. Do you really think these people are going to re-elect you, Lucille? You blew off the support base that would have stood with you if you stood up for us. 

Who are “these people”? What “support base” is Ward talking about? The gaggle of people who come to her house for free food? Vern Nelson? Jason Young? Will she be as effective against Kring as she was in getting Robert Nelson elected in 2010? What a deluded threat.

Lucille Kring has won election to the Anaheim City Council three times. She has strong name ID and a strong base of supporters cultivated over many years of walking precincts, being involved in the community, running for office and serving on the city council. It’s delusional to think she was elected by this imaginary “support base” that exists in Ward’s mind. She has her own support base, and its members could care less what Ward thinks, assuming they even know who she is.

Kring didn’t need Tom Tait’s support to win election to the council last year. He needed her more than she needed him. It was better to have Tait’s endorsement than not to have it. It wasn’t the difference between Kring winning or losing. She finished more than 6,000 votes ahead of John Leos, the candidate whom Tait and the OCEA went all in for.

The outrage being directed at Lucille is amusing. Kring hasn’t changed her position on TOT-rebate programs like the agreement with the GardenWalk project. She did oppose the 2012-version of the GardenWalk deal, and supported a different GardenWalk deal this year. It was different in large part because it wouldn’t have earned her support otherwise. That’s not a flip-flop. That’s showing leadership.

Tom Tait, on the other hand, has flip-flopped on this issue. he has repudiated his 10-year city council record of support for TOT-rebate programs to assist hotel development in the Resort. Yet, Tait is portrayed as principled and Kring as a flip-flopper.