The New 2010 Council Dynamic

Now that Shawn Nelson is moving up to the Supervisor’s office, his imminent departure creates an even more unpredictable Fullerton City Council campaign landscape.

Pam Keller has already announced that she’s out. With Nelson gone that means there will be two openings, plus the interminable candidacy of the antediluvian Don Bankhead.

It’s hard to believe that the four remaining councilmembers could decide on a replacement for Nelson, so the prospect of a rump council (okay that’s pretty funny if you think about it) and a November election to fill the remainder of Nelson’s term seems inevitable.

Then, of course, there’s the sad deterioration of Doc Jones, whose antics and idiocies continue to mount. Re-elected in 2008, there has been speculation that he would hold on for two years and then quit when a suitable Ackerman/Royce Chamber of Commerce zombie could be coughed up.

Could there be yet another seat up for grabs, come November?

It’s already getting late in the year so the interested and the ambitious must surely be contemplating their political futures today.

Good luck to them, with a caveat. The ones whose ambitions outweigh their brains will be scrutinized closely. By us.

Fullerton Voter Guide

Friends for Fullerton’s Future put together this handy voter guide for Republicans in Fullerton and North Orange County. Our voter guide covers important local races in Orange County along with the statewide primaries. It was put together with the help of a few of our trusted Friends. The statewide recommendations are passed along from our friend Allan Bartlett.

Orange County

4th District Supervisor – Shawn Nelson

Nelson will be a leading force against the unions when it’s time to negotiate out of control pensions. His voting record make shim a strong fiscal conservative who is not afraid to stick his neck out for taxpayers. Both of his main opponents are union-supported carpetbaggers who live outside the 4th district.

OC Sheriff-Coroner – Bill Hunt

Just mark the spot for Bill Hunt and watch the establishment scramble like cockroaches. This is one of the most important races in this June election.

Superior Court Judge #16 – Gerald L Klein

In the words of Attorney Bernie, we need to get private practice attorneys seated as judges. People don’t realize how important it is to keep insider government lifers from usurping the judicial powers

Superior Court Judge #50 – Julian Bailey

Mr Bailey’s opponent here, Lon Hurwitz has donated to a laundry list of national liberal Democrats.

County Assessor – Webster Guillory

Webster has done a good job as Assessor.

Clerk Recorder – Hugh Nguyen

The incumbent, Tom Daly, has been lashed over and over on this site for wasting our money and feeding expensive, do-nothing contracts to his pals. Hugh Nguyen is a great candidate.

District Attorney – None, Leave Blank

Sitting DA Tony Rackauckas could not be bothered to fully investigate the well-documented perjury accusations made against Harry Sidhu, although he did find time to prosecute Steve Rocco for a bottle of stolen ketchup.

Public Administrator – Steve Rocco

Treasurer – Shari Freidenrich

Republican Central Committee – 72nd AD

(all or parts of Fullerton, Brea, Placentia, Anaheim & La Habra)

Candidates are designated by Allan Bartlett based on certainty that candidates were Tea Party, Campaign For Liberty, and CRA friendly.

Bruce Whitaker – Tea Party, C4L, CRA friendly
Shawn Nelson – Tea Party friendly
Zonya Townsend – Tea Party, CRA friendly
Rick Rios – Tea Party, CRA friendly
Marilyn Davenport – Tea Party, CRA friendly
Micheal Nutto – CRA friendly

School

Superintendent of Public Instruction – Alexia Deligianni

Statewide

Lt Gov – Sam Aanestad

This is a no brainer. Abel Maldonado should not be rewarded for being the main reason that taxes are higher CA during the last budget cycle. Vote for Sam Aanestad.

Secretary of State – Damon Dunn

Orly Taitz  has not been helping herself in the media with her over the top stands on Obama’s birth certificate and a few other issues where she basically has taken herself out of contention because of the way she has come across to voters.

Controller – Tony Strickland

I’m not impressed with Tony’s endorsements the last few years, but he is our choice for Controller here.

Treasurer – Mimi Walters

It’s either this or leave it blank. Her endorsement of repuglican carpetbagger Linda Ackerman last year makes her suspect.

Attorney General – John Eastman

John Eastman is far and away the best conservative choice for CA Attorney General.

Insurance Commissioner – Brian Fitzgerald

The other candidate Mike Villines was the GOP leader in the State Assembly that helped deliver the largest tax increase in CA history. Don’t reward him with your vote here.

BOE 3rd District – Vic Baker or leave blank

No Republican in good conscience could support Michelle Steel anymore after what she did to Irvine Republicans. She has been giving aid and comfort to Democratic Mayor Suhkee Kang because they’re both Korean. Last time I checked, that’s not a very good reason to support anybody, especially if they are ideologically against most everything that you say you are for.

US Senator – Chuck DeVore

This is another no brainer. Chuck gets it. He understands that in the Constitution, there are less than 18 specific enumerated powers delegated to the Congress. He will be a great US Senator and he can beat Barbara Boxer in the fall.

Introducing: Marty Burbank

UPDATE: HERE IS A POST THE HARPOON PUBLISHED LAST SUMMER. AFTER YESTERDAY’S ITEM ON A COUNCIL-WANNABE NAMED MARTY BURBANK, WE FIGURED IT MIGHT BE TIMELY TO POST THIS AGAIN – JUST TO LET THE FRIENDS GET AN EYE AND EARFUL OF A MAN WHO WANTS TO BE OUR LEADER.

WHAT A GUY. EVEN THOUGHT HE KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT HOW REDEVELOPMENT WORKS, HE IS PERFECTLY HAPPY TO SUPORT IT, MISCHARACTERIZE IT, AND START GIVING LECTURES TO THOSE WHO ARE JUST AS UNINFORMED AS HE IS.

THE COMMENTS WE RECEIVED WERE ALSO RIGHT ON.

When the Redevelopment expansion proposal was first trotted out by the City Council a while back, we noted that one of the orchestrated cheers came from a chap named Marty Burbank. Now, we had never even heard of Mr. Burbank until he popped up to announce his support of the plan that necessarily requires the City Council to making legal findings of blight where none exists, thus requiring them to mislead the public about the basis for the whole deal. Well, okay. Just another sycophantic Chamber of Commerce shill who doesn’t even appear to understand what he is cheering for. If he does, so much the worse.

But, as they say, the plot thickens. One of our pajaritos informed us that Mr. Burbank is not only a lawyer and an up-and-coming Chamber of Commerce figure, but that he has politicalaspirations, too. Well, that figures. This is Fullerton where knowledge of municipal government is an immediate disqualification for office, and stoogery always gets you a leg up. Sure enough, we located his website promoting a campaign for City Council in 2010. And the guy’s a Rotarian! Be still Dick Jones’ throbbing…er, heart.

Well, we hate to be spoilsports, but we don’t think starting out a campaign for public office by encouraging the City Council to perpetrate an illegal fraud is a great beginning.

Also we have grown a bit weary of the Chamber of Commerce being represented by “professionals” and educrats who really aren’t in business at all, especially when they perform as stooges for City Hall. And Chamber Executive Director Theresa Harvey is one of the biggest City Hall stooges we can recall – and that’s saying something! She is deliberately screwing all the Chamber members who will be ultimately hurt by Redevelopment discrimination and corporate subsidies.

OrganGrinder4
City staff enjoys strong Chamber of Commerce support...

Marty, Theresa, et al., here’s a quick Redevelopment primer and one you will take to heart if in fact you care anything about free enterprise and small businesses, or your members, for that matter:

Redevelopment favors a relative few selected businesses at the expense of the all the others in the pursuit to claim a share of a finite amount of consumer disposable income. Any government policy that favors a minority of businesses at the expense of the majority is, a fortiori,  ANTI-BUSINESS!

Get it? Good.

Anyway, we’ll be keeping our eye on Marty and any other political aspirants who want to dump the Redevelopment load on the good folks of Fullerton.

Marty Burbank Hopes Norby Has Short Memory

Well, you’ve gotta give Marty Burbank credit for unmitigated gall; or as my friend Jeffrey Goldfarb’s Nana used to say in Yiddish: chutzpah.

This Chamber of Commerce/Repuglican/Rotarian/Redevelopment cheerleader-type zero (think Dick Jones and you have the model) who wants to be on the Fullerton City Council, recently sent this supplicating letter to 4th District Supervisor Chris Norby. One of our fearless white van investigators got a hold of it.

Marty the One Man Party
Marty The One Man Party...

Marty wants Norby’s endorsement, and tries to grease up Chris a little bit about how much Norby loves his town and ergo should consider giving Burbank his endorsement.

But wait! Only two weeks before he sent his letter to Norby, Burbank was supporting Linda Ackerwoman in the 72ndSpecial Election primary; he made a contribution to her carpetbagging, lying, smear-filled campaign against Norby on October 9th. Burbank’s contribution went to fund the slime Ackerwoman threw at Norby.Oy vey!

It’s pretty clear that Burbank was following along with of many other Fullerton drones who were swayed by Dick Ackerman’s promises of easy victory lubricated by a big ol’ sack o’ Sacto lobbyist cash. Too bad Marty chose to participate personally in contributing to the defamation of Norby, as well as being a willing participant in the Ackerman, Inc scampaign, of course.

Now, we know Chris, and we know him to be a very forgiving kind of guy. But really, you’d think ol’ Marty could have waited more than a couple of weeks to come a knockin’ at Norby’s door.

Hopefully Norby won’t forget. We won’t. And that’s a promise.

BooHooing Job Assigned to Vince Buck

Down periscope!
Down periscope!

We knew the first post-mayoral vote edition of the Yellowing Fullerton Observer was going to have a Page One sob story recounting how Pam Keller was robbed of her birthright. The only question was who was going to write the tale of woe. That duty fell upon Liberosaur Vince Buck, who’s been an uncompromising shill for the idiotic council lefties for years and years.

not known for agility
Not known for agility

Mr. Buck is not given to hysteria, so the tenor of the article is pretty calm. Still, the assertions therein were, as usual, appalling pea-brained: the woman was rejected by the boys; and it was her turn; Bankhead and Nelson voted they way they did for political reasons (Oh no, the horror!). 

Of course Buck didn’t bother to correct the previous erroneous assertions of his editoress that other localities have a “rotation” – implying some mechanism for school yard-type “sharing” of the mayor-ship. He also didn’t share the choice irony that The Observer has endorsed the chowderheads  Bankhead and Jones time and time and time again.

Vince Buck awaits the jello salad
Vince Buck awaits the salad

What was really funny was Buck’s claim that Nelson voted for Bankhead to get the latter’s endorsement for his upcoming Supervisorial campaign, while in the next breath he (accurately) reminds us of how little the Bankhead endorsement did for the Ackerwoman. Of course, we already knew that, and Nelson must, too! Bankhead’s endorsement is as worthless as Zimbabwean currency.

Pudding cups!
Oh, boy! Pudding cups!

It just doesn’t seem to have occurred to poor, cliche-riddled Vince that maybe Nelson just really dislikes Pam Keller. And by dislike we mean a don’t-walk-ahead-of-him-down-a-dark-alley sort of dislike.

Council Majority Pulls Plug on Pamette’s Posse; Proposes: Go Pound Pumice

Well it happened last night. Joe and I made a quick trip out to Pechanga to blow our lottery winnings and so we missed it.

Wait 'til next year. If there is a next year.
Wait 'til next year. If there is a next year.

Pam Keller was denied her turn in the Mayoral tether ball court, forgetting that to be Mayor you need three votes. Her posse must be sorely disappointed with the shut out. The Yellowing Fullerton Observer will no doubt be putting out a special edition decrying the end of civilization, and the barbarians at the gate, and whatever other nonsense they can cook up; maybe they can get some delish quotes from the gal with no “political whatevers.”

Anyway, Friends, get ready for a tsunami of self-righteous boohoo outrage.

Those little marshmallows really make the cocoa better...
Those little marshmallows really make the cocoa better...

Don Bankhead, who has been on the City Council since right before The Flood, will be mayor again next year. He voted for himself, as did Dick Jones and Shawn Nelson. We have been told that Ol’ Doc Jones coughed up a supremely sublime HeeHaw Moment that we will be sharing later. Apparently Nelson kept his mouth shut, which shows unusual perspicacity for a politician; we have to wonder if he isn’t still plenty pissed off at Keller for her attacks on him after he stood up for the citizens of Fullerton on the pension spike finagle last year.

As a consolation prize Keller got to stay mayor pro tem, a pretty useless ballot designation, but at least the word mayor is in it.

Is Pam Keller Qualified to Be Mayor?

Yes. At least based on the abilities of those who have preceded her. People like Dick Jones, Don Bankhead, Mike Clesceri, Leland Wilson, etc., etc. Well, you get the point. To use a Harpoon line: a ling cod could do the job.

Yes. I could do that job.
Yes. I could do that job.

Yes, Friends it’s that time of year, when the largely brain-dead city council selects one of their own to preside over their meetings as they habitually rubber stamp what’s put in front of them by their staff. And so we pose the question in our title.

But let’s refine the question to address the idiot woman who showed up with Pam’s Pamette posse last week, and who insisted on framing the issue in gender terms: is Pam Keller qualified to be mayor because simple because she is a woman and it’s her turn? Here the whole thing breaks down into a pathetic little skirmish to see who can produce the stupidest reason for doing something.

If a food fish could do it, so could Pam, we think...
If a food fish could do it, so could Pam, we think...

The Ed Royce/Dick Ackerman team that recently crashed the Ackerwoman dirigible in a Raymond Hills fireball, will no doubt have been working hard behind the scenes to keep Keller out, using the same, brainless argument they always have: Fullerton is Republican so the mayor shoud be too; forget the fact that every RINO Royce and Ackerman have foisted on us in the past 20 years have virtually identical voting records with the handful of Democrats on the council. They probably will work the very two RINOS they have backed in the past – Bankhead and Jones to keep Keller out.

It wasn't pretty when she went down. Oh! The humanity!
It wasn't pretty when she went down. Oh! The humanity!

Counter that with the petulant fulminations of The Yellowing Fullerton Observers and the dopey gal at last meeting’s mike whose only recourse is: it’s her turn (hands clasped in fervent prayer, eyes transfixed on acoustical ceiling)! These alleged innocents proclaim their freedom from nasty political interests but never mention the fact that using the title “mayor” in her campaign propaganda will help Keller get re-elected.

We don't know our cloaca from a hole in the ground.
We don't know our cloaca from a hole in the ground.

Yech.

Apart from the fact that these cretins generally deserve each other, we will repeat the same thing said elsewhere on these pages: the person who can get two other votes is the one who “deserves” to be mayor.

More Phony Hand Wringing From the Skipper of the Yellowing Submarine

Ahoy there, reality - unable to surface...
Ahoy there, reality - unable to surface...

A new month, the same old weeping by the Fullerton Observer about how the good ol’ boys are keeping poor Pam Keller from her entitlement to be mayor when the next term starts. It’s not fair! Not fair!

(Ed. – Never a word about Keller’s dismal votes on massive projects or her unique working relationship with FSD/Fullerton Collaborative, but that’s another story.)

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the person who is entitled to be mayor is the council person who can get two other people on the council to vote for him. Pretty simple. Nothing else really matters.

The author of this indignant drivel lays out a conspiracy tale of events behind the scenes to keep a Democrat out of the presiding chair; and as usual the plot centers around Shawn Nelson, without whom the Observer would have a lot less to natter on about. Ironically the tangled web includes Observer favorite Don Bankhead and by necessity another Observer endorsement recipient – Dick Jones! Observer chickens coming home to roost? God, let’s hope so!

Politics might be going on. The horror! Of course despite the Observer trying to emphasize the ceremonial (i.e. non-political) aspects of the mayorship, the fact is it is a very coveted title when re-election time rolls around – as it does for Pam Keller, next year. Aha! Politics!

So is a scheme being worked out to elect somebody else mayor for 2010? Possibly. Quite likely, although since none of the supposed principles would be likely to talk to Sharon Kennedy about it, it seems much more likely to be a pure guess on her part. Our congressman Ed Royce loves to meddle in these affairs; to him it seems easier than simply turning on the light and opening the closet door to discover that there really is no monster in there. Just some mops and brooms.

And speaking of politics, maybe The Observer should quit endorsing Ed Royce puppets like the chowderhead Jones and focus on somebody who could actually be counted on to support Keller for mayor. Oh no! More politics.

800 Pound Gorilla For Council in 2010?

A while back Congressman and purveyor of lousy RINO city council candidates, Ed Royce, was overheard bragging about the 800 pound gorilla he was going to be unleashing on Fullerton political scene. Who was this electoral juggernaut? None other than now former Police Chief Pat McKinley.

He's big. He's bad. He's baaaaack!
He's big. He's bad. He's baaaaack!

With McKinley’s endorsement of Mrs. Ackerman to replace her disgraced pal Mike Duvall, the pieces all seem to fit. It looks like McKinley has indeed decided to run for City Council next year and has worked out an endorsement swap with the Repuglican elite.

The choice of McKinley on the part of the Repugs would in no way be surprising. As an ex-cop he could be counted on to secure the law ‘n order vote as well as charm the bluehairs. He’s getting up there age-wise, and in poses zero political threat to the Repug machine. Who cares if he is an ex-city government employee and likely to go along with every staff proposal and boondoggle? He would be following in the proud footsteps of Don Bankhead, Dick Jones, Leland Wilson, Mike Clesceri, Julie Sa, Peter Godfrey, Buck Catlin, and even Dick Ackerman himself. Who knows? Maybe even the Yellowing Observers might go along for the ride. After all they went with Dick Jones, right?

Best of all, he’s not a female Democrat, the hideous monster that inhabits Ed Royce’s closet at night.

Ed left the closet door open again...
Oops! Ed's left the closet door open again...

Who Should Be Fullerton’s Next Mayor? Pam Keller?

it's really just a little wood hammer...
it's really just a little wood hammer...

The recent edition of the Fullerton Observer did some boohooing and hand wringing about whether or not Pam Keller will get to be Fullerton’s next mayor here . The little article points out some of the nefarious goings on in Fullerton Past and the current council’s refusal to adopt some sort of mechanism to ensure that everybody gets a chance to be mayor.

We believe the person who should be Mayor of Fullerton is the person who can get two other colleagues to vote for him/her. That’s pretty simple. If they can count to three it’s their turn.

Fullerton’s lefties know that come reorganization time (1st meeting in December) local Repuglican bigwigs like Ed Royce make it a point to lean on fellow Repugs (In Name Only) like Bankhead and Jones to keep the gavel away from the Dems. But that’s the way it goes. It’s called politics. Fullerton’s “progressives” like to play politics too, but they just won’t admit it. We wonder if they would be so energetic in the defense of Shawn Nelson’s turn to be mayor.

Is Pam Keller qualified to be mayor? Well, let’s face it – if Jones and Bankhead can do it, so could an orangutan.

Yes. Yes I can...
Yes. Yes I can...

But we’re still waiting to get some straight answers from Pam and her Collaborative about who foots their bills, and why the money is drip-dried through the FSD; and we were chagrined, although not surprised, to hear her inane defense of the indefensible blight scam behind the recent Redevelopment expansion vote. So maybe she isn’t the best person to be the face of Fullerton.