Former OC 4th District candidate for Supervisor, Coto Joe Kerr, has decided his latest campaign for Supervisor needed a little more clarity. Maybe this was because his website failed to indicate which of the seats he was going for this time. This announcement identifies his target: the 5th DIstrict.
Well, at least this time he can say with truth that he lives in the district he wants to represent, although truth doesn’t seem to be much of factor in Joe’s political ambition, one way or the other.
Now the 5th District can decide if it wants to elect the former union president and massive public pension beneficiary. Good luck with that.
Friends, as part of our ongoing fight against carpetbaggers, and even worse, perjuring faux-carpetbaggers, we here at FFFF like to follow up on the activities of failed carpetbaggers of all sorts – the legit ‘baggers, and the liar ‘baggers.
Here are some of the villains:
2009 Linda Ackerwoman – State Assembly (Irvine) 1 fake address
2010 Harry Sidhu, 4th District Supervisor (Anaheim Hills) 2 fake addresses
Guess what? Our former pal Joe Kerr, the union boss and well-public pensioned resident of 5th District Coto de Caza is running for County Supervisor. Again. In 2018 this miscreant cooked up fake addresses in Brea, and then in Placentia to run in the 4th District. We documented Coto Joe’s misbehaving and put his name at the bottom of our list!
An alert 4th District Friend has dialed in and notified us that Joe has not given up on elective politics and is giving it another go. The why is probably easier to answer now than the where.
Going to his Joe Kerr for County Supervisor website doesn’t inform us about his current declared office – or residence – leading cynical observers to suppose his ultimate dwelling locale is still a matter of convenient political flux. That’s not much of a confidence builder for somebody who is intent on emphasizing his hero-ness.
For once again Joe is touting his courage and leadership skills, honed, no doubt by leading the Orange County Fire Fighters union as it gouged its way deep into our solvency.
Even I beat this loser…
Last time Kerr was beaten by the hapless Bud Chaffee, so whichever district he decides to call home when the time comes, I really have wonder about his chances.
Who knew “firefighting” paid so well? Well, almost everybody…
Here is Coto Joe’s previous address, a million dollar house that he must be hanging on to since he hasn’t sold it. But if Joe did move, even pretend-like, he may have left an important item behind, namely, his wife. China Kerr, is still registered to vote in the posh environs of Coto de Caza:
Oops. I knew I forgot something…
And Joe’s alleged new crib? It’s a rather depressing little box owned by one Douglas C. Martinson, also the name of a jailer for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. So is Coto Joe really even living here? Hard to believe, isn’t it? Just as hard to believe as Irvine McMansion owner Linda Ackerman living in some Fullerton dude’s game room; or Elegant Yorba Estate owner Harry Sidhu, living in the Calabria apartments – behind a pool hall and bowling alley.
Like his carpetbagging predecessors, Coto Joe is wisely hanging on to his real estate – the big house in the swanky community behind guard gates, where his wife is still registered to vote. It’s not even listed for sale, although Joe declared his new abode, under penalty of perjury, ten weeks ago.
We have recently been introduced to Mr. Joe Kerr, former fireman union honcho who claims to be running for 4th District Supervisor. That’s a problem.
Joe and China Kerr have lived at 29 Palma Valley since 1999. The address is in Coto de Caza, a very wealthy enclave in South County – being a “public safety” union boss must pay real well. Unfortunately, Coto de Caza is in the 5th Supervisorial District. Mr. Kerr chooses not to run against the incumbent 5th District Supervisor, Lisa Bartlett. Instead he wants to run for the 4th District seat, obviously because there is no incumbent.
Over the past eight years many people living in comparatively rich places have tried to carpetbag their way into the hearts and minds of North Orange County. All failed dismally when a concerted effort was undertaken to share their shameless carpetbag hustle with the public, no matter how they tried to fluff up their resumés. Here is a list at the bottom of which Mr. Joe Kerr, of Coto deCaza, will soon find himself:
2009 Linda Ackerwoman – State Assembly (Irvine)
2010 Harry Sidhu, 4th District Supervisor (Anaheim Hills)
2010 Lorraine Galloway, 4th District Supervisor (Anaheim Hills)
2016 Sukhee Kang, State Senate (Irvine)
While it’s true that each of these losers carried quite a bit of baggage, the fatal flaw right out of the gate was their carpetbaggage. Because who, really, wants to vote for someone whose first communication with would be constituents is a fraud, a lie, a perjury, or a deliberate omission of fact?
Kerr’s press release announcing his candidacy omits any reference to where he has lived for the better part of 20 years, instead mentioning that he grew up in La Habra and Cypress(!) the slenderest filament of a link to the 4th District and a completely irrelevant one at that. I can’t find a record of Joseph V. Kerr anywhere near the 4th district.
I have no idea how much money Kerr’s “public safety” union pals will be willing to unleash on his behalf – probably a boatload. But member what all that union money got “Hide-and-Seek” Sidhu? Two humiliating losses in just one year.
So come on in, Joe.
The FFFF Welcoming Committee is firing up the barbecue.
Remember last year when County Supervisor candidate Joe Kerr kicked off his 4th District campaign by claiming he had moved from his Coto de Caza palace to someone else’s house on Stony Lane in Brea?
Perhaps the rent was too high, or maybe the neighborhood just didn’t feel right. A few days ago Coto Joe registered to vote at the fine Merrick Apartments over in Placentia. Here’s a closer look at his new digs.
Free furniture.
Joe’s wife is still registered to vote 35 miles away behind the gate at Joe’s million dollar south county home.
Who knew “firefighting” paid so well? Well, almost everybody…Left behind for apartment 49D.
The clumsy execution of this carpetbagging scam reminds one of another failed Supervisor candidate from a few years ago.
The phony professor says: my residency in your town will be this long…
In 2015, the former Mayor of Irvine moved into a gated Fullerton neighborhood to run for the State Senate. His name is Sukhee Kang and his embarrassing and embarrassingly expensive campaign ended in a primary election disaster when he came in last, behind Fullerton’s Josh Newman.
Poor Sukhee had nothing to offer except a disastrous record in Irvine, a phony ballot designation as an educator, a vanity press “autobiography” written by somebody else, the dubious title of carpetbagger, and of course a long list of Democrat party big shots from up and down California who were unconcerned over the ethical problems of an incompetent politician moving into a district to hijack it for his own political aggrandizement.
One of Sukhee’s imbecile Democrat apologists actually tried to make it seem like a perfectly reasonable move – he and Mrs. Sukhee were just a couple of lonely, restless empty-nesters on the move. In reality the ploy was a race-based scam that necessitated hiding Sukhee’s political origins and record.
And now this poor fool is gone – back to Irvine according to Thy Vo of Voice of OC, thus abandoning his wafer-thin commitment to north Orange County. FFFF checked. Sure enough, Sukhee sold his golf course house on November 16, 2016 – eight days after the general Election created a new, Democrat State Senate incumbent. And after his realtor’s commission got paid, Sukhee took another loss.
Always look for the union label…
And here’s the fun, ironic bit. The campaign guy who took over the Josh Newman senate campaign after Sukhee hit the showers, a person named Derek Humphrey, is also working for our latest carpetbagging opportunist – millionaire union executive Joe Kerr, who, in reality lives in ritzy Coto de Caza and wants to be a county supervisor for us. Once again the Democrat establishment seems intent on coalescing around a man who is blithely unconcerned about the ethical problem of carpetbaggery – at least so long as victory seems even remotely plausible.
One of these creatures periodically exhibits common sense…
You would think Mr. Humphrey would be acutely aware of the pitfalls of north county carpetbagging, but, hey, a job’s a job, right?
For our local historians, and Humpy, too, here is a list of well-off carpetbaggers who have recently failed when folks in north Orange County were made aware that a carpetbagger was on the loose:
File this one under predictable public employee union self-service. The Orange County Employee Association has endorsed the carpetbagging candidacy of Joe Kerr to represent our 4th Supervisorial District.
The OCEA is a big union that represents the vast majority of County employees. As such, it is always involving itself in County politics, placing it’s own interests in the path of accountable, affordable government. And what better mission for a labor union than to elect one of its own – a former union boss, in fact.
It’s not surprising that the union would place its own self-interest ahead of the public. They obviously see nothing wrong with a guy who lives in a rich, South County enclave trying to represent the working class neighborhoods of north Orange County; or if they do, it takes a distant back seat to electing somebody that will pay attention to their needs. And their needs are ever greater pay and benefits, regardless of the quality of service they provide.
This “early endorsement” serves only one purpose: to clear the field of potential Democrat opponents for the carpetbagging Kerr.
In 2010 the field for this seat was cluttered with several Democrat small fry and none of them made the November run off. And that’s something the unionistas prefer to avoid this time around.
I don’t know much about someone called Connor Traut, but he’s running to represent Fullerton as our next County Supervisor for the 4th District. This lad, I am told, is on the City Council in Buena Park where he carpetbagged a while back to run for office. I am also informed he was once the political protégé of one-time wunderkind Jordan Brandman, the Anaheim councilman who went nuts and died of severe meth intoxication.
Catch and release?
This appears to be one of those Young (fill in the party name) types who hover around political circles and crave the attention that only elective office can bring. OC politics is full of these people who would rather have an unaccountable job in politics than honest work, even as a lawyer. He says he’s a “consumer protection trial attorney,” on his campaign website but on his business website we discover he’s really a personal injury lawyer, or so he says. Better to stick with consumer protection, which is probably a safe thing to say, in a space where you can sneak into the USA, have everyone call you doctor, and are actually dumb enough to believe you are sincere. But whatever it is Traut does, it’s obvious this youngster would rather be a full-time politician.
I don’t know about you, but it seems unseemly for somebody to start politicking for an office a year and a half before the primary in 2026. Could have at least waited a few weeks, ’til 2025.
Anyhow, it seems the young Trautlet has been super-busy getting endorsements from the usual suspects – the claque of local Democrat small fry. Check out the “partial” endorsement list.
That took real work!
If some of these names look familiar to you, you’d have good reason. Many of these establishment Democrats just endorsed the otiose campaign of Vivian Jaramillo. It appears that there is an effort to produce an inevitability around the callow Connor, the same strategy that failed so spectacularly for Team Jaramillo.
Nothing left but empty bloviation and Bulgarian clothing…
What’s interesting about this list is one name that is not on it – Dr. Ahmad Zahra. I wonder why this is. It’s pretty obvious that Zahra could try for something else in the 2026 Primary – like replacing Sharon Quirk in the State Assembly. So why not endorse The Traut? Is it just an embarrassing omission?
NUFFs enough…
As a fun side note, I see that Senator Josh Newman is euphemistically referred to as “retired,” although he is still in office. I guess this will avoid having to change the website in a few weeks. Some suggested Newman might run for Supervisor. Guess not. Ditto Quirk who is an endorser, or her husband, the limitlessly clownish Jesus Quirk-Silva.
Fred Jung. Rested and ready?
Who else might run for 4th District Supervisor? Well, Fullerton’s Fred Jung, for one. He has name ID and a huge pile o’ cash that will put the Traut Show to shame. He just got over 70% of the vote in his re-election bid without needing any institutional Democrat Party support at all. I wonder if Jung were to run we might not see a Zahra spoiler candidacy as a way to split the vote of Fullerton – the largest city completely within the 4th District. This could explain the non-endorsement by Zahra.
Fullerton’s Mayor, Nick Dunlap could give it a go. He’s just destroyed Jan Flory in his re-election by a huge margin and can raise cash. But he doesn’t seem the type who craves political office or the proverbial limelight. How about Bruce Whitaker? He could try, as the County has a long history of antiquated politicians looking for a nice Supervisorial pasture – incumbent Doug “Bud” Chaffee, for one. He could get Republican votes, but that doesn’t seem enough anymore; and he can’t raise money and will be out of office. Some Repuglican hack from Brea? Steve Vargas ran in 2022 and came in 4th.
I can see no other plausible candidates unless we see the return of Fire Hero, Coto Joe Kerr, who ran for this seat in 2022, or some other as yet unseen phony carpetbagger.
Over the weekend the rumors have been swirling as to the fate of Paulette Marshall Chaffee City Council campaign after having apparently been caught on camera removing No Paulette – Carpetbagger signs. We will probably have a clearer picture of the truth of that rumor at tomorrow’s City Council candidate form, but even if she does drop out of the race, this does not end the story.
Her husband, Doug Chaffee, is currently the Mayor of Fullerton and a candidate for Board of Supervisors. While he was not involved in either recorded sign theft, his title as Mayor creates a conflict for the City to investigate the crime. Also, as an active candidate for the Board of Supervisors race, he has an obligation to speak out on this matter and do what he can to make things right. especially since he was the direct beneficiary of an almost identical anti-carpetbagger campaign against his Democratic opponent in June (one Joe Kerr, aka Cotto Joe).
Tony Bushala (one of the founders of this very blog, although he divested his interest two years ago), though Residents for Reform and his brother George Bushala, paid for the political signs that were stolen and he wants them back. He has penned a written request to Mayor Chaffee requesting return of the signs in his residence and has authorized publication here. As an initial good faith gesture, Mayor Chaffee should be strongly encouraged to return the signs on his property forthwith.
This really isn’t much of a surprise, given the Little Corporal’s penchant to endorse unqualified candidates for office. Of course a ling cod would make a better congresscritter than Young Kim, but that cuts no ice with Royce, whose career has been marked by a decided indifference to the well-being of his constituents.
The Village People just called…
This is good news for Tim Shaw who is now the only Republican candidate for 4th District County Supervisor, and as things stand, would certainly make a run-off against the Democrat’s carpetbaggin’ union goon, Coto Joe Kerr.
