Resort unions are ratcheting up their effort to elect their political allies to the Anaheim City Council, pouring at least $125,000 into independent expenditure committees. On September 22, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 324 contributed $125,000 to an IE committee called “Helping Working Families Get Ahead in Support of Aitken for Mayor and Leon for Council 2022, Sponsored ...

A coalition of Resort unions, led by a militantly left-wing hotel workers union focused on imposing a $25 minimum wage on Anaheim hotels and event venues, has launched an independent expenditure (IE) campaign to elect Anaheim mayoral candidate Ashleigh Aitken and council candidates Carlos Leon (District 2) and Al Jabbar (District 2). All three Democrats are part of a candidate ...

On September 18, I broke the story that Hari Lal, running for Anaheim City Council from District 6, hadn’t paid his property taxes the beginning of 2019 and owed $146,377.93 in delinquent property taxes. This is public information, and accessible to any member of the public on the OC Treasurer-Tax Collector’s website. The article also included Lal’s convoluted explanations, which ...

Hari Lal, an attorney running for Anaheim City Council from District 6, has falsely claimed endorsements from Assemblyman Tom Daly and Anaheim Councilman Avelino Valencia. He also submitted a “if I don’t hear from you, I’ll assume you said yes” endorsement request to a current member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors. Taken together, they call into question the ...

[Editor’s Note: this article was originally published the evening of September 13, but has since been updated with additional information. I sent several e-mails to Mr. Lal yesterday asking for additional information and clarification regarding his delinquent property taxes and his explanation for it. Mr. Lal has not responded.] In a September 8 post on his campaign Facebook page, District ...

The Anaheim mayoral race is more open – and Mayor Pro Tem Trevor O’Neil more strongly positioned – than prior convention wisdom assumed, according to polling results released by the O’Neil campaign. The poll was conducted on July 8-12 by Public Opinion Strategies, with a margin of error of +/- 4.9%. O’Neil’s opponents in the mayoral contest are OC Fair ...

One of the claims made by proponents of district elections used to make is they would spur greater political competition and encourage more residents to run for council. So far, there are barely enough candidates in each of Anaheim’s council districts to hold an election. In Districts 2 and 3, only two candidates qualified in each district. The filing deadline ...

Mayor Pro Tem Trevor O’Neil announced his campaign for Mayor of Anaheim today. He has served as acting Mayor of Anaheim since May, during which time he has maintained a balanced budget, led the way toward restoring public trust in City government, and promoted economic development policies that have benefited all Anaheim residents. “I am running for Mayor to represent ...

Anaheim mayoral candidate Lorri Galloway has come out against Councilman Jose F. Moreno’s plan for a 2% gate tax on large entertainment, sports and recreation venues, which Moreno is asking the city council to place on the November 2022 ballot. “I am opposed to requiring a gate tax without a defined need to do so,” Galloway, a former two-term councilmember, ...

Tomorrow evening the Anaheim City Council will take up a proposal by Councilman Jose F. Moreno to place a 2% gate tax on the November ballot. Moreno has advocated for such a tax for years. It is highly unlikely Moreno’s gate tax proposal will make it to the ballot: the city charter requires at least a two-thirds majority vote by ...