Sandra Hutchens found it difficult to garner applause at the OC Young Republican’s Sheriff’s candidate forum last night, but she did have one shining moment. Unfortunately it came when she implored gun owners to vote for her opponents if they desire to see less restrictions on concealed weapons permits in Orange County.
We’ve heard that 4th Supervisorial candidate Shawn Nelson was a no show at the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs’ interviews this morning.
According to an informed source, Nelson had previously decided not to seek the sheriff union endorsement, and he didn’t want to waste their time interviewing him.
The AOCDS is a relatively powerful public employee union that has often demonstrated its willingness and ability to involve itself in local and County elections. How this may play out for Nelson is uncertain, although their endorsement was probably unlikely in any case given Nelson’s history as a pension watchdog in Fullerton.
Certainly adhering to the new no-union endorsement policy of OCGOP boss Scott Baugh should help Nelson among those Republicans who believed that Baugh meant what he said, and that what he said meant something.
Well, we’ll see.
And now, a year and a half after Fullerton Councilman Dick Jones was re-elected to a fourth dreadful term it only gets worse.
During the fall of 2008 FFFF shared Joneses’ mastery of the rude, ignorant, nutsy outburst. We even got creative. Last year we chronicled Jones’ comical misunderstanding of Redevelopment, as well as his crazy melt down at a Vector Control meeting. And just last week we related the story of Jones standing up during a meeting, walking out, and quitting the Vector Control Board.
Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt on the female cop derriere incident, I wonder how long the people who have propped up this asinine buffoon can continue to look the other way.
Well, enough is enough, already. This guy has spent 14 years making himself a laughingstock, and it seems he won’t be satisfied until he does the same thing for Fullerton.
The other night at the NUFF blogger forum, Dan C., the pompous co-proprietor of the Liberal OC blog held forth on the importance of fact checking prior to publishing something. See, with Dan, it’s all about credibility. Check it out:
And yet, just today Dan C. seems to have conveniently mislaid his own supposedly high standards. He wrote a post about Shirley Grindle filing a complaint against me for using an old political action committee in a new election. He put up a picture of a guy throwing a rock at a glass house. Hypocrisy, get it? Turns out that really was an apt image, but not in the way Dan C. meant it!
Ms. Grindle got it wrong, of course, as I have subsequently informed her. I already created the necessary committee for the 4th District election, but that didn’t stop Intrepid Boy Reporter #1 from passing along the false accusation – too damn lazy to go the California Secretary of State website to check! And guess who Dan’s first commenter was on this post? Yup, you guessed it! Intrepid Boy Reporter #2 – Matthew J. Cunningham, who was only to happy to hop onto the unsubstantiated post by his Blue comrade. He’s deep into credibility, too, you see.
A few comments into the thread Intrepid Boy Reporter #1 was forced to acknowledge the truth, but he lamely defended his post by claiming that the story was true – Grindle did file a complaint. Now if anybody had pulled this sort of cheap stunt on him or Jerbal, either one of them would have thrown a tantrum; but well, you know – the self-righteousness that pervades both of these establishment toadies make them perfectly unaware of their own hypocrisies. Or unconcerned about them.
And for Dan’s sake he better hope Shirley Grindle doesn’t start reporting Elvis sightings.
A group named OCCCWS has asked a series of probing questions to appointed OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens in what amounts to an accusation that she is covering up at least one incident of confidential records abuse within the SAFE division of the Sheriff’s department.
The letter asks if members of the OCSD SAFE division are currently under internal investigation for “illegally using law enforcement and/or DMV databases to probe the histories and/or personal information of individuals not under criminal investigation, such as current or former love interests, or romantic rivals.”
It goes on to question the legality of not reporting the investigation to authorities such as the FBI and DOJ. OCCCWS also wants to know why the incident was kept from public view after promises of transparency within the department.
The accusations specifically target the S.A.F.E. division, which was developed by Hutchens last year to “create policies and procedures to bring the department up to industry standards.” For her critics, that means bringing Los Angeles-style policing to a reluctant Orange County population.
The letter contains no details or evidence to back up the accusations, so we’ll just hope that more information is forthcoming. It’s worth noting that the guys behind OCCCWS are well connected within the OCSD and their disdain for Hutchens is notorious, making it very plausible that news of an internal investigation would get leaked through them.
So was there an incident? An internal investigation? Will the department respond to requests for transparency? We’ll find out.
On the street corner
Bold courtesans ply their trade
A cold, clean rain falls
So far as we can tell, no. He has already committed perjury twice in his attempt to carpetbag the 4th Supervisorial District where he doesn’t live. We have filed a complaint with the DA.
Okay. So honesty is not Sidhu’s strong suit (whatever that may be still escapes me). So when a Friend from Anaheim sent along a recent Sidhu mailer, I really wasn’t too surprised by one incredible statement. According to Hide ‘N Seek, he claims:
“I have never voted to increase fees or expand the reach of government”
Now Sidhu has been on the Anaheim City Council for almost six years. Is he really going to ask us to believe that in this time he has opposed all of the myriad fees that are chronically and habitually passed by city councils? Things like utility rates, park fees on developers, parks and rec charges, permit fees on builders. even the fees to make copies of documents, etc., etc., etc.? And how about on other boards on which he serves as by virtue of being a city councilman? He states positively that he has never voted for a single one – for almost six years.
Anybody wanna bet?
You know what Harry? I think that’s another lie we can chalk up to you – as fraudulent as your so-called registration at the dismal Calabria Apartments.
Shall we start the investigation?
Four short years ago – 2006 – Bill Hunt challenged Sheriff Mike Carona’s re-election. Carona was well funded and had the backing of the entire OC political establishment – including me. That was my mistake. Our mistake. We already knew there were serious leadership issues in the Sheriff’s Department, serious enough to at least stay neutral. But we didn’t.
Three challengers received 49% of the votes, just a shy of forcing a November run-off. Of those three, Lieutenant Bill Hunt received by far the most votes. Give him credit for standing up and running, for taking an underfunded campaign without endorsements and nearly making it a 2-man run-off in November.
When Carona was forced to resign, I supported another candidate (Santa Ana Police Chief Walters) who had also nearly been elected – in 1998. I give my consideration and respect to those who want a job enough to actually place their name before the voters. Of the three current Sheriff’s candidates, only Hunt has actually received any votes in an election. The three votes our current Sheriff received came from the Supervisors who appointed her. Based on her subsequent performance, it is doubtful those three votes would still be there today.
A sheriff should protect people’s liberties – not restrict them. The current appointed Sheriff has arbitrarily revoked legally issued CCW permits of law-abiding citizens who did nothing to deserve such treatment.
A sheriff must face economic facts and work with the Board of Supervisors to adjust to revenue realities – not play a game of fiscal “chicken” and budget brinksmanship.
A sheriff must instill in staff a respect for elected decision-makers – not use security cameras to spy on them. They should respect citizens’ rights to voice their opinions – not use government-issued blackberries to belittle them in public meetings.
Bill Hunt understands this. He was there for us in 2006. He’s there now, again.
Craig Hunter is trying to pass himself off as a 2nd Amendment warrior, claiming to support gun-rights legislation to open up concealed weapons permits (CCW’s) to all citizens.
But the 2nd amendment hasn’t always been that simple for Hunter. A year and half ago, he approached the Board of Supervisors and expressed “comfort” with the current system that allows the Sheriff to arbitrarily restrict permits (and thus the Constitutional right to bear arms) to any law-abiding citizen.
So what changed Hunter’s position on constitutional gun rights?
The reality is that Hunter probably doesn’t really give a rat’s about anybody’s right to bear arms. Rather, his new fondness for the 2nd amendment was born at the behest of his political puppeteer Michael Schroeder and the Carona beneficiary Greg Block when they decided to run Hunter for sheriff late last year.
Passionate gun-rights supporters, while a minority, are high-value political target. They have money, grassroots energy and they’ve been kicked around by Sandra Hutchens so badly that they suffer from “Anybody But Hutchens Syndrome”. While that sounds nice on a bumper sticker, the danger of an “anybody but…” mindset is that we could end up with… well… anybody. Including another Mike Carona.