Anaheim City School District Trustee James Vanderbilt

Anaheim City School District Trustee James Vanderbilt

On February 18, we posted about a campaign poll of Anaheim voters testing various messages and reactions to a number of candidates – including Anaheim City School Board Trustee James Vanderbilt. As it turns out, Vanderbilt had formed a council candidate committee – “Vanderbilt 100% Anaheim – City Council 2014” four days earlier.

Judging by message selection and they key words and phrases to which respondents were asked to react, the poll was most likely paid for the by Tom Tait for Mayor campaign. Among other things, respondents were asked if they were more or less likely to support James Vanderbilt for city council if they knew he was endorsed by Tait.

Vanderbilt is a former member of the Anaheim Planning Commission and was first elected to the ACSD Board of Trustees in 2004 (when he ran as James Vanderbilt-Linares). His endorsement history is pretty establishment: John Koos for council in 2002 (Koos’s public affairs firm has been engaged by the Tait campaign); Jordan Brandman for AUHSD Board in 2010; Tom Daly for Assembly in 2012.

So, it looks more and more like Vanderbilt will be part of the presumed “Tait Slate” for city council, and part of an effort by the mayor to replace his colleagues Kris Murray and Gail Eastman with candidates of his own choosing. Vanderbilt has the advantage of having been elected by Anaheim voters three times, he’s a veteran and he is of Latino ancestry.