ward no fireworks for youAnaheim Insider here.

The irascible Cynthia Ward, along with Tait camp follower Brian Chuchua, makes up CATER, the non-profit that sues the city to obstruct policies that Mayor Tom Tait object to. Fresh from driving up the cost to Anaheim taxpayers of the Anaheim Convention Center Expansion, now Ward is waging class warfare against Measure E, which would bring legalized fireworks back to Anaheim after a quarter-century absence.

Ward sent out an e-mail today against Measure E. In her typically over-the-top style, Ward wages class warfare against fireworks, trying to paint the election as Hills elitists v. the salt of the Earth flatlands folk. She actually infers passage of measure will turn Independence Day into “Elitists Day!”

Ward makes it clear she opposes legalizing safe-and-sane fireworks, which she calls “carcinogen bombs.” For conservatives in Orange County, legalizing fireworks has long been an issue where rhetoric is supposed to meet the road. All the Fullerton libertarian-conservatives types Ward is super chummy with were rightly gong-ho to legalize them in 2012. However, the conservative principles Ward pretends to champion melt away because fireworks once a year bother her dogs, which she cites in her e-mail as the top reason for her hostility to Measure E.

The self-anointed “Truth-Teller” twists the truth into a pretzel:

“Steven Albert Chavez Lodge announces he will be using the sale of carcinogen bombs in the flatlands to backfill his inability to raise money for the Anaheim Hills fireworks displays, in an area not subject to the impacts of the fireworks his group will be dumping into OUR neighborhoods.”

In Ward’s convoluted mind, Measure E is a sinister conspiracy of Anaheim Hills elitists to gull flatlands rubes into funding the Anaheim Hills 4th of July fireworks show by buying boxes of safe and sane fireworks from greedy community groups. She gets all that by twisting beyond recognition a couple of quotes from a mail piece targeting Hills voters, who have a more heightened sensitivity to brush fires. that makes sense because there is a lot more brush in the Hills than the flatlands.

Real vote of confidence from Ward in her fellow flatlanders, thinking we’ll burn West Anaheim down the minute we light off a “Jumbo Purple Rain.”

Ward is one of those who claim City Hall shortchanged the flatlands in favor of the Hills. Fireworks sales are a guaranteed way for flatlands community and youth organizations to raise money everyone agrees they need. Does Ward think that is less important than her dogs’ nerves?

Freedom, charity and American tradition? Or Cynthia’s dogs? The Corgis, no contest.

Believe it or not, we can learn something from Ward’s e-mail. Ward adjusts her politics to conform with whichever politician she’s following at the moment. Her opposition to Measure E correlates with Mayor Tait’s increasingly adversarial attitude toward passing Measure E. Even though he has long supported legalizing safe-and-sane fireworks, Tait is the only member of the City Council who has not endorsed Measure E; apparently due to the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce’s strongly embrace of it. Not only is Tait not helping pass something he believes in, but he’s making himself an obstacle. Personalities and politics trump principles. 

At least it’s out there. We now know that CATER’s “brain” (I use the term apocryphally) opposes expanding freedom for Anaheimers to celebrate Independence Day as it was intended to be celebrated, and had been until a generation ago, which is a good thing to remember as Ward runs around acting as if she’s the keeper of the conservative flame.