Why is this man smiling?
The first independent expenditures of the 2014 Anaheim election season came from the Tom Tait for Mayor 2014 committee, which made $4,999 in IEs between March 26 and April 25 buying “No on Measure D” spots on slate mailers for the June primary election.
The Form 496 filed for the IE also offer an early glimpse at Tait’s mayoral fundraising since the New Year: since the mayoral/council election isn’t until November, campaign reports ordinarily would be due until June 30. According to the report, Tait’s 2014 fundraising has been robust, adding $51,099 to his re-election war chest – the bulk of it in March and April.
When you consider Tait raised $84,574 during all 12 months of 2013, his haul this year is pretty impressive – especially for someone who really doesn’t like fundraising. The IE filing only lists contributions and not expenses, so it’s hard to say what the Tait for Mayor cash-on-hand is – but I’d guess it’s a little over $100,000 at this point.
A question prompted by this expenditure is whether it’s the beginning of a larger IE effort by the Tait for Mayor committee to defeat Measure D, or merely nailing down slates until there’s money in the newly-established Committee Against Measure D.
Vote-by-mail ballots went out today. It’s a pretty safe bet that well over 50% of Anaheim voters will cast VBMs this June, we’ll find out pretty soon how much of his re-election funds Mayor Tait will put into beating Measure D.
Stay tuned.
That’s $4,999 Tait won’t be spending on his re-election. Tait’s the only one with a vested interest in defeating Measure D; other than Lucille Kring, that is, and she won’t to spend any of her money to stop it.
The unintended silver lining here is Measure D drains dollars from Tait’s re-election campaign. (Now the Taitbots will scream “that was the plan all along!”):
A 2 year term is hardly long enough to find a way to endanger the remaining economic engines within the city. I see why he is doubling down on this.
$51,000 in two months? That sure undermines Tait’s claim that a two-year term would force him to spend all his time fundraising.
So they have done it again!!! Or rather they have really done it this time. What is Dr. Roberto Baeza’s crime or sin that makes him the target of one superintendent’s indecent behavior at the behest of one power-hungry race-bating school board-member, aka 2012 Scariest OC Person winner, otherwise known as the hypocrite himself, Dr. Jose Moreno. It is shocking that one of our most successful principals Dr. Baeza can be treated with such disrespect and arbitrary impunity. Less than a year after taking the reins of Palm Lane Elementary, he is being demoted, although not yet clear if to a vice principal role, or worse yet to a teaching assignment. This would be a blow to any lead administrator, both in reputation and pay. Is that the intent?
So self-serving Jose Moreno and jennie-come-lately Linda Wagner have teamed up to ruin the career of a man who has dedicated his adult life to our children. Rumor has it that in cahoots with resistant teachers who were feeling the pressure from this unrelenting educator, Wagner and Moreno, with the blessing of the Board, took Baeza out three months ago to conduct an investigation into the complaints from these teachers who were known to run the show at Palm Lane. However, when Baeza became a force to be reckoned with they called on the Savvy Superintendent who swiftly removed Baeza who in turn hadn’t been heard from since late February. I have repeatedly called the school and it was as if he had never been there.
Now as the school year is about to close, the superintendent releases a press release that insinuates that Baeza had created a hostile work environment so he’s being re-assigned. How can school officials do this in 2014 to someone without a real explanation for his re-assignment or demotion, depending on who you believe. The silence around Dr. Baeza is so “loud” that when you walk the halls of the district office it is obvious people are afraid to even mention his name. Dr. Wagner and her cabinet have installed a form of an “authoritarian regime” culture in which no one is free to express original or contradictory ideas because there is strong fear of retribution.
As everyone watches, these two morally repugnant school district officials continue to run what was once a cutting-edge district into the ground as they simultaneously ruin a man who had the courage to stand up to them. Palm Lane needs the doctor back. He was really improving the conditions of our neighborhood and for the many kids who attend this elementary school. How can this be? PLEASE HELP BRING DR. BAEZA BACK!!!