Anyone know what to know a defining feature of shitty politician?
They never, ever, apologize.
Enter, Paulette Marshall Chaffee. Over the past week, FFFF’s crack investigative pool embarrassed Pilfering Paulette into suspending her campaign after posting not one, but two separate videos of Mrs. Chaffee taking down political signage and driving away with property that isn’t hers.
Hat tip to Sharon Kennedy at the Fullerton Observer for getting a statement from Chaffee:
“I have too much respect for the people in this community to put them through this clearly toxic campaign. therefore I have decided for the good of the community to suspend my campaign for Fullerton City Council District 5.”
Really? Too much respect?
Let’s consider that. Pilfering Paulette has “too much respect for the people in *this* community to put them through this clearly toxic campaign”, but not enough respect not to steal.
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.
In case you missed it, Paulette Marshall Chaffee looks to have been caught on video stealing signs from private property in her pretend district while illegally parked in a red zone because if one rule doesn’t apply to her – why should any amiright?
But Oops. It looks like she did it again.
Is it kleptomania? A spontaneous sign stealing spree?
We just received word that the vehicle seen used by the Fullerton sign thief was discovered this morning parked in the driveway of the home of Fullerton Mayor, and 4th District Supervisor Candidate, Doug Chaffee.
Despite Mayor Chaffee living up the hill in the 2nd District, his wife Paulette recently moved south to the 5th district, where she also happens to be running a city council campaign. Why would the vehicle in question drive all the way down to South Fullerton to meddle in a different district’s election?
If you watch the video which was posted earlier today, you’ll see a mysterious figure stealing a campaign sign from private property near downtown Fullerton. Looking at the video it certainly seems to match the Grand Cherokee that was discovered at Chaffee’s house by an intrepid Friend.
It is sadly common for those running for office to try and silence their opposition but it’s hard to believe the wife of a sitting Mayor would be so brazen, especially with both of them running for office simultaneously.
This is petty theft and is a misdemeanor with a maximum punishment of either 6 months or 1 year in a county jail, and/or a $1,000 fine.
That’s a decent sized risk for the rest of us but I suppose the Chaffees are above such considerations.
** UPDATE **
A request for comment was sent to both campaigns with neither responding by the time of publishing.
Should anyone hear from the Chaffees, please let us know.
Last we heard, Doug “expected to be briefed” about why Fullerton’s $400,000 a year Chief of Police had been placed on leave.
That was days ago. Still no word on what was so significant that we lost our top cop without a public hearing, without a public notice, without a freaking phone call early Saturday morning.
And now the City had cancelled the scheduled September 4th meeting. Hmph. I guess we have nothing important to discuss!
Maybe something has happened to our good Mayor Doug. He was last seen helping his wife move into her new $250,000 condo in the southeast corner of town.
We know that Doug is real busy working on his political campaign for his next job as our County Supervisor, but if someone could find him and let him know Fullerton doesn’t have a Police Chief and no one knows why, we’d really appreciate it.
I’m not sure what’s funnier, that Doug Chaffee is hiring canvassers to beat Tim Shaw in the top-two general election race or that he and his wife are spending an equal amount of money to help her buy a seat in District 5 in Fullerton.
It’s going to be hilarious to see how much money Doug blows to be outvoted 4-1 every meeting.
As for Paulette, you’d think with such deep roots in District 2 5 she’d be able to get grassroots support instead of simply paying for AstroTurf. But hey, you know how those his and hers gifts come as a packaged deal.
His and Hers Campaigns
We should also take note that she “prefers” that you live in 92831. Kind of like it’s only preferred that Paulette lives in and is not carpetbag into District 5.
Bulls**t or not, Josh Newman got crushed by the voters in the mid-term primary which is currently sitting at nearly 60/40 in favor of Recall (though the totals will change slightly). Newman’s supporters seem to be caterwauling about how (D)s only show up in Presidential races and low turnout caused Newman’s electoral demise but to that I say “so what?”.
If your electoral success is predicated upon people who are too lazy to mail back an absentee ballot more than once every four years I don’t have much sympathy in your loss.
Josh Newman could have easily survived this recall had be run as the man I interviewed on my podcast but instead he ran into the arms of Brown/deLeon and got the shellacking he deserved. A little less contempt for voters and a lot more explaining of facts/reasons would have gone a long way but alas that’s not how he rolled. His staff is now unemployed owing to his arrogance.
It is true that I likewise lost in the recall. Current results have me at about 12% of the vote across the 3 counties. Obviously I would have preferred a better showing but if this is the way I go out I’ll take it because removing Josh Newman was more important.
I’ll suffer through L2 if it means humbling a man who lied to my face at his swearing in ceremony. My bet is that Newman will be back in 2020 but for now he has 2 years to consider this an abject lesson in how Representative Democracy works in California. You don’t raise our taxes and then insult our intelligence without some consequences.
In other election news two of Fullerton’s own, and yet worst, appear to have made it passed the June 5th Primary in contentious races: Doug Chaffee & Young Kim.
In the still being counted Supervisor race, for the seat being vacated by Shawn Nelson, Chaffee is ahead of Kerr by a few hundred votes for Top2. Kerr may still have a shot to knock him out of it but it seems unlikely. It is also likely that provisional ballots could swing left and Kerr/Chaffee could knock Shaw out so I wouldn’t want to be sitting in Shaw’s seat right now.
Really? Doug for Supes?
In the big money race for Royce’s seat we see that Kim managed to absolutely STOMP local boy Shawn Nelson with the help of DCCC attack ads and other (R)s splitting the vote.
The End of Nelson?
Young Kim owes Huff and Libertore a round of drinks for their hard work in keeping Nelson out of Royce’s seat and then the (R)s will likely need to apologize to Nelson after Cisneros stomps Kim should she agree to a debate.
There were only two people running for Assembly so they both advance and that race stays uninteresting until November.
Did you vote in any of these races? Are you happy with the election results? What did the voters get right/wrong? What do you think we should expect in November?
Recently FFFF has been chronicling the goings on at the Fullerton Airport, specifically a lawsuit by a former tenant, AirCombat USA, and the non-aviation commercial use by another tenant, Hangar 21, who is desirous of expanding its party venue. The two issues are only conjoined only because Hangar 21 was recommended by staff to move into the space that CombatUSA was kicked out of.
With enough fuel the party will get off the ground. An aviation use.
On Tuesday, December 5th, the City Council reviewed and approved the selection of Hangar 21 to occupy the space and signaled its intention to change the Zoning Code to legalize what is obviously not permitted under current zoning regulations.
The issue of Federal Aviation Administration approval of hospitality use was raised by Councilman Greg Sebourn. Fullerton Airport Manager Brendan O’Reilly, in a convoluted statement, finally got around to claiming that he had received a “waiver” from the FAA for using the airport for parties. He didn’t produce this document. Maybe we can help.
We know that back in 2014, O’Reilly communicated with the local branch of the FAA seeking advice on establishment of a non-aeronautical use in a hangar at our airport. Who this proposed lessee was we don’t know because we don’t have the attachments described in the written response from an LA FAA dude, David Cushing. It may have been the establishment of a party venue known as Hangar 21 Venue.
Here’s what the FAA had to say:
Well, I don’t know about you, but I can read English pretty darn well. Once you strip away the cross-bureaucracy congratulations and the double-talk, the message is crystal clear: raise money to support the airport, but continue to keep non-aeronautical uses out of aeronautical areas. I don’t know which part of an airport is non-aeronautical, but an airplane hangar ain’t it.
Is O’Reilly’s FAA waiver in reality the Cushing letter of October 2014? I can’t be sure, but that’s what the City provided when asked for documentation of FAA approval. If it is we may be heading for turbulence up ahead.
Someone sent in this image of Fullerton City Councilman Doug “Bud” Chaffee and his mate Paulette Marshall. I’m not sure why. Maybe the friends can shed some illumination on this with a helpful caption.
