Today the OC Register Editorial Board endorsed Fred Jung and Nick Dunlap for re-election and newcomer Jamie Valencia in the 4th District against Vivian Jaramillo and Linda Whitaker.
Reproduced from the Orange County Register:
The city of Fullerton has three City Council seats up for grabs and the choices – at least in two of them – are fairly clear cut. Issues there center on the same kind of major issues that confront many older north Orange County cities: housing development, homelessness, crime and budgets.
District 1 pits incumbent Fred Jung against IT consultant Matt Truxaw. District 2 in pits current Mayor Nicholas Dunlap against Jan Flory, who previously served on the council. District 4 in the city’s less-affluent southwest corner has a crowded field for an open seat vacated by Councilman Bruce Whitaker.
His wife, former campaign manager Linda Whitaker, is running against retired community preservation officer Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo, registered nurse Jamie Valencia and data analyst, Scott Markowitz.
We endorse Jung for the District 1 race. We endorsed him in the previous race because of his nuts-and-bolts approach. He’s been solid on key budget, development and public-service issues. Truxaw and Jung both offered reasonable answers to our survey questions, but we see no reason to change course.
We endorse Dunlap for District 2. We like his libertarian-leaning approach and have been impressed by his time on the council. Flory did not respond to our survey, but she has a long record in Democratic politics. This is an easy call.
“I will continue to fight for taxpayers and a fiscally conservative approach to governance, so I will oppose new taxes and any tax increases,” Dunlap told us. “During her 14 years on the council, my opponent voted for the 3% at 50 pension plan, to raise the city’s sales tax rate and also voted to maintain an illegal water tax. Poor decision making and failed leadership (like this) is part of the reason we have the issues we do today.”
In District 4, we quickly eliminated two candidates from consideration. Markowitz has no apparent campaign presence. His campaign statement calls on “America First patriots” to get involved, but he appears to be backed by some Democrats. We have no use for alleged ghost candidates. Jaramillo is the Democratic Party’s choice. As a self-described “advocate for city employees,” we suspect she won’t be the best person to negotiate local union contracts.
Whitaker would be a reliable and sensible conservative voice on budget issues, but in our survey she wrote that Fullerton is “almost built out” and opposed new affordable-housing projects.
Valencia also seems good on budget issues and called for expedited housing construction.
“I want to make building and plan check processes more efficient and streamline to save small business owners money and time,” Valencia told us. “Fullerton will be known as a business friendly city and encourage entrepreneurs to invest.”
Housing remains perhaps the top issue in our cities, so for that reason we endorse Valencia for District 4.
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There you have it, including a shout-out link to FFFF, detailing the phony candidate Scott Markowitz and the lying Democrat operatives who created him. What effect this endorsement will have remains speculative, but in North Fullerton it’s worth something; and in District 4 it may carry some weight with the minority Republican and independent voters.
My favorite part of the story is Dunlap’s pithy takedown of the dreadful Jan Flory, who just can’t seem to go away once and for all.