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January 2, 2025January 2, 2025Ahmad Zahra

The Symbiosis of Self-Service

When not disrupting City Council meetings Skaskia Kennedy is the editor of the still Yellowing Fullerton Observer. A few days ago she published a piece, which I reproduce below, verbatim. See if you can tell what immediately jumps out to me.

The City of Fullerton is working to establish limited inclement weather shelter options for families and seniors (62+) as temperatures drop below 40 degrees or during heavy rainfall. According to City Manager Eric Levitt, efforts have been made to collaborate with various agencies, but securing a provider to operate a dedicated shelter for this winter has proven challenging.

“Unfortunately, there are no similar shelters in Orange County due to the high costs and complexities involved,” Levitt stated. In response to these difficulties, Levitt and his colleague Housing Manager Daniel Valdez have developed alternative options following directives from recent City Council meetings.

The city plans to work with two local hotels to offer shelter specifically for families and individuals aged 62 and older when weather conditions reach critical levels. However, Levitt acknowledged that the initiative will have limited scope due to resource constraints. “We currently have approximately $5,000 allocated from the Housing Fund to assess the effectiveness of this program,” he added.

Council Member Ahmad Zahra sent an email thanking Levitt and Valdez for the update on cold weather shelter for the unhoused and agreed that this is a good alternative option. He wrote, “How would families or individuals over 62 know about this program? Also curious, why 62 specifically?”

In response to Council Member Zahra’s inquiry, Housing Manager Valdez emphasized the importance of prioritizing seniors, who are often among the most vulnerable populations. Citing federal guidelines, Valdez explained that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines seniors as those aged 62 and over. “While we will continue to utilize our local shelter whenever available, this initiative offers an additional option for those in need,” he said.

To facilitate outreach, the city will rely on the efforts of Community Outreach Specialists, HOPE Center personnel, and Homeless Liaison Officers, all of whom maintain ongoing communication with unsheltered residents.

As the winter months approach, Fullerton’s initiative aims to address the urgent needs of its most vulnerable citizens despite the limitations presented by funding and provider availability.

First, we know this isn’t even newsworthy because nothing has happened. The City Manager Eric Levitt and his hard-working Housing Manager Daniel Valdez are thinking about doing something, somewhere to help homeless somebodies. They haven’t actually accomplished anything worthy of alerting the public.

I will get what I want, one way or another…

But hold on a second. How and why is the email correspondence between Ahmad Zahra and the City Manager included in this nothing waste of space? The answers to both questions are easy. The “why” is: a free opportunity for Zahra to posture for his Observer followers – ever active, thoughtful, hands-on – even though his involvement is with…nothing! The “how” is just as easy. It is the ever self-promoting Zahra who has forwarded his correspondence to Skaskia Kennedy to make him look good and to give the Kennedy Sisters another opportunity to promote Zahra in a “news” story.

Legitimate journalism operations don’t let politicians promote themselves, especially when the vehicle is, as yet, a non-story.

Now this can be seen as beating a dead horse, since anybody paying attention already knows that the Fullerton Observer is not a legitimate journalistic endeavor, and the Kennedy Sisters are not purveyors of objective news. Still, we have yet another example of how the they gladly aid and abet Zahra under the cover of journalism – just like they did when they published water articles Zahra plagiarized from an OCWD PR flack.

December 30, 2024January 1, 2025Ahmad Zahra

Welcome to the No-tell Hotel

by The Desert Rat21 Comments

One thing you can always count on in Fullerton elections is that concrete, real issues will never be discussed. You’ll hear mostly generalities about this or that topic. Even roads and taxes melt away in general promises and vague hand-wringing. But, when it comes to specific projects with all sorts of facts and figures involved, you can forget it. A charming characteristic of all local elections, and especially in Fullerton, is that people aren’t elected on their knowledge of anything, but, rather on their acceptability as wise people who will do the right thing given the opportunity.

This is all nonsense, of course. The electeds, knowing nothing are in no intellectual position to push back on the lamest of lame ideas that percolate through the “experts” in the bureaucracy. Not knowing and not learning and not working are the natural siblings of the councilmember’s natural tendency to acquiesce to City Hall staff anyhow. It’s easier just to attend ribbon cuttings and golden shovel ceremonies, I suppose.

And so it is that zero attention has been given by anybody (except FFFF) to various nonsense projects, the worst of which is the so-called boutique hotel project that started out as an idiotic scheme and naturally morphed into the worst kind of Redevelopment boondoggle. It even has a stupid name: It’s called The Tracks at Fullerton Station.

I’m not telling the truth and you can’t make me…

You may recall that the hare-brained idea was hatched by your former Mayor-for-Hire, Jennifer Fitzgerald who pushed a non-competitive agreement with some local dude who couldn’t build a birdhouse. Because the City had to declare the land on which the thing was supposed to sit as “surplus property” a deadline had to met to dodge a State law requiring first right of refusal to low-income housing “developers.”

Rather than shit-canning the whole thing, boobs Bruce Whitaker, Ahmad Zahra and Shana Charles approved of the project and the City actually deeded over the land before any agreements were in place. Pretty amazing, huh? Their convoluted reasoning was so dumb it doesn’t even deserve a description. That was December 2022.

The even bigger problem was that by then the original guy (now deceased) had been pushed out and a whole new partnership had taken over. The new players were a pair of bums – Johnny Lu and Larry Liu who had a record of fraud, embezzlement, and bankruptcies in their wake, and creditors foreclosing on them. Why Fullerton’s crack economic development team and City Attorney failed to pursue even the slightest investigation of Lu/Liu’s record like FFFF did, has never been discussed. And it never will be, Fullerton being Fullerton.

I don’t know the current situation with this project. Two years have passed. Johnny Lu and Larry Liu had many milestones to accomplish certain actions per the agreement they finally signed. Did they? Who knows? Not the public, that’s for sure. Obviously, no one in City Hall wants to talk about this vast embarrassment, and an insecure council isn’t making them. And naturally, the Fullerton electoral process doesn’t discuss such things – bad form to discuss City failures, you see.

But the public has a right to know the whole story, because in the end, the entitlements granted to Lu and Liu are worth a fortune; even worse, the sales price of 1.4 million, less site clearance, is a tenth of the market value the City created with those entitlements. And the new density with hotel and with the new apartments Liu suckered the City into approving, just to keep the mess alive, is two and a half times the density the Transportation Center Specific Plan allows for housing. Go figure.

The mileage is terrible and the wheels are bald…

It’s also critical to remember that in Fullerton projects take on a life of their own through institutional inertia and the human instinct to dodge responsibility whenever possible. The Fullerton Clown Car has never had a rear-view mirror.

December 26, 2024December 26, 2024Ahmad Zahra

The Words of George Bushala. Speaking Truth to BooHoos

by Mr. Peabody40 Comments

Thanks to the AI software employed by the Fullerton Observer we have a more or less accurate written account of the statement made by Fullerton resident George Bushala that caused all the fuss at the December 17th Fullerton City Council meeting. Included are the interruptions by Sharon Kennedy and her sister Skaskia in violation of rules of public behavior in the chambers.

There may be additions or subtraction of which I am unaware, but the whole thing has the ring of truth – meaning minimal Observer opinion masquerading as fact – links to Observer articles should be followed with skepticism. I notice Sharon Kennedy is referred to as the current Editor of the Observer. I have no idea who “Erin” is. And of course the Observer ever accurate, identifies the wrong Bushala.

George Bushala Jr. stated, “Here are eight reasons why I don’t believe Zahra should represent our City Council members as mayor and why he undermines voter rights.

1. In 2018, after being elected to represent District 5, Mr. Zahra voted against allowing the voters of Fullerton to elect a replacement for an at-large seat vacated by Jesus Silva. Despite initially supporting a special election, he later opposed it, citing the cost. This contradicts his support for other questionable expenditures that far exceeded the projected costs of the election, raising concerns about his commitment to democratic processes and fiscal responsibility. (Click here to read the Fullerton Observer article) (Click here to read the Voice of OC article)

2. Mr. Zahra appointed himself to the Orange County Water District (OCWD), playing a key role in the appointment of Jan Flory to the City Council, which subsequently led to his own appointment to the OC WD Board. This raises concerns about a potential quid pro quo arrangement. Mr. Zahra seemed to support Flory’s appointment to the City Council in exchange for her backing his appointment to the OCWD Board. Such actions give the appearance of self-serving political maneuvering and erode public trust. (Click here to read the Daily Titan article) (Click here to read the Fullerton Observer article)

3. Mr. Zahra wasted public funds on a baseless lawsuit, supporting the expenditure of over $1,000,000 of taxpayer money to sue two local bloggers who downloaded a publicly available file from the city’s website. This lawsuit, which sought to suppress free speech and punish journalists for exposing city government missteps, was an unnecessary waste of public funds and a troubling attack on the press. (Click here to read the Fullerton Observer article) (Click here to read the Voice of OC article)

4. Mr. Zahra was involved in plagiarism and deceptive behavior. He falsely claimed authorship of an article in the Fullerton Observer that was actually written by staff at the Orange County Water District. This misrepresentation caused embarrassment for the newspaper.”

Sharon Kennedy, the current editor of the Fullerton Observer, shouted that the information being discussed was misinformation and lies as she stormed out Erin yelled at Saskia, calling her a loudmouth and telling her to be quiet.

Mayor Dunlap intervened from the dais, urging the audience to be quiet. “Let the man speak. Excuse me? Okay, you’regoing to take a recess in a minute. If you’re going to keep this up, knock it off,” he said. He then asked the police chief to help control the situation.

Bushala continued, stating, “This misrepresentation has caused Zahra embarrassment for the newspaper and raises doubts about Mr. Zahra’s honesty and transparency. His actions suggest a willingness to mislead the public for political gain.”

Saskia Kennedy shouted that Bushala was lying.

Mayor Dunlap raised concern again from the dais, insisting, “Let the man speak. You know what? We’re going to call a recess. Everyone has the right to talk. Knock it off. Can we behave like adults? If not, I’m trying to figure out if we can conduct ourselves like adults. Can you refrain from heckling? Okay, let’s get back on track.”

Bushala continued, “I’ll skip to point six: manipulating the 2022 election. During his reelection campaign, Mr. Zahra was accused of recruiting a fake candidate, Tony Castro, to split the vote with Oscar Valdez, the leading candidate in District 5. This manipulation of the electoral process undermines the integrity of our democratic system and puts Mr. Zahra’s commitment to fair elections into question. I was interrupted earlier, but I have two more quick points.

Point #7 addresses deceptive actions to gain U.S. citizenship. Mr. Zahra, a self-identified gay man, married a woman from Arkansas shortly after arriving in the United States, presumably to obtain citizenship. This action raises concerns about his ethics and integrity, particularly regarding the use of marriage for immigration benefits. While his sexual orientation is a personal matter, this maneuver to secure citizenship raises serious ethical questions about his character.”

Ahmad Zahra attempted to defend himself against slander and personal attacks but was shouted down by Mayor Dunlap.

Bushala then addressed point #8: the allegation of filing a false police report against Vice Mayor Jung. In 2021, Mr. Zahra was involved in filing a false police report against Vice Mayor Jung. Such actions not only undermine trust in public City Council members but also threaten to damage the public’s confidence in their elected officials. Fabricating accusations against colleagues sets a dangerous precedent and raises significant ethical concerns.

Mayor Dunlap stated, “We’re not going to allow disruptions during meetings, and we won’t tolerate cheering from the audience. If you wish to speak, you have the same right as everyone else to express your view within our democratic process. You can do this her in the chambers or on Zoom. However, we will not accept heckling from the audience. Whether you like me or dislike me, or if you agree or disagree with my views, it’s all in the process. But you veto, do it from the proper venue, which is to come forward to the microphone and allow others their opportunity to speak.”

December 23, 2024December 23, 2024Ahmad Zahra

Sharon Kennedy Wigs Out At Council Meeting

by Mr. Peabody23 Comments

At the December 17th Council Meeting, Sharon Kennedy, “former publisher” of the Fullerton Observer appeared to go bonkers when a public speaker began enumerating the reasons Ahmad Zahra was unfit to be Mayor of Fullerton.

She began screaming from the rear of the council chambers, accusing the speaker of being a liar and disseminating “disinformation” while interrupting both the speaker and the meeting.

Kennedy’s violent outburst continued – she kept interrupting the speaker, who calmly continued to recite the damning bill of indictment against Zahra.

Zahra himself interrupted the proceedings, too, as well he might, given that the list of objections to his mayoralty was so persuasive. Still, it’s bad form to engage public speakers – “chilling” is what County Supervisor Doug “Bud” Chaffee called it in 2012, and it treads upon free speech rights of a citizen, for sure.

Eventually, Kennedy removed herself from the chamber before Mayor Nick Dunlap could ask police Chief Radus to kick her out..

Why write about news when you can try to make your own! (Photo by Julie Leopo/Voice of OC)

Zahra’s supporters like Sharon Kennedy and her sister, fellow Observer Skaskia, continue to ignore his plagiarism, his marriage fraud, his false police report against Fred Jung, his assault and battery guilty plea, his ever-shifting coming out/coming to America tale, and his perpetual victimhood narratives.

Their emotional and psychological investment in Zahra is such that they will never see the real story. That’s the persuasion of the conman when his marks would rather buy into the con than face the truth of their own foolish gullibility. Or they are infinitely hypocritical. Either that or they’re really stupid.

December 21, 2024December 22, 2024Ahmad Zahra

Because YOU Asked for it

by The Fullerton Harpoon47 Comments

One of our frequent commenters, a loopy lefty and Ahmad Zahra fan complained of a post that included a picture of a kid holding a no Zahra sign, intimating that we were using kids as props.

Yeah precious. Little kid with no agency used a prop for some adult’s fucked point of view.

Kinda gross. No one’s winning anything for that.

I felt constrained to point out that the object of his affection, Zahra, uses little kids as props (and by the way others like Pam Keller, liked to do it too).

Our commenter replied:

I’m sure there’s no comparison to a kid being used as a prop for rank Bushala political schemes.

Hmm. Rank political schemes. Does getting elected and endless self-promotion count as “rank.”

Our boy Zahra created a fake family for a mailer when running for office in 2022, using four Latino looking kids as props in an effort to come off as a family man with a wife and kids. Oops! Hopefully “mom” got paid something for her smile and maybe passed down a few bucks to the dragooned kiddos. More likely none of them were even related, just trawled out of central casting.

And let’s not forget the Zahra photo-op of posing with Maple area kids in 2023 to explain their Latino culture to them.

Oh, well, these BooHoos seem incapable of seeing what rational, honest people see, which explains how a Middle Eastern miscreant who stayed in the USA via Marriage Fraud can yak it up about how we welcomed him to our shores, and in some circles, get away with it.

December 14, 2024December 14, 2024Ahmad Zahra

Let the BooHooing Begin

by Joe Sipowicz56 Comments

Yes, it’s that time of every year comes up when the Fullerton City Council chooses one of its own to be Mayor for the upcoming year. Another is chosen to be Mayor Pro Tem, which is Latin-ish for back up guy.

This will occur on Tuesday after newcomer Jamie Valencia is sworn in to replace Bruce Whitaker. The jobs are basically ceremonial, but the Mayor gets to run the meetings.

For the past several years the Council majority of Fred Jung, Nick Dunlap, and Bruce Whitaker have chosen one of their number to hold these offices and have deliberately excluded “Dr.” Ahmad Zahra. They have offered no explanation for this exclusion, which is too bad.

Zahra and his claque have attributed this exclusion to discrimination against his (dubious) Muslim beliefs or alternatively, his gayness – the two attributes that he relies on to promote his unique “brand.” What the public doesn’t get, but that council watchers know to be true is that those three really don’t like Zahra. Why? Maybe because of his public pontifications against them, and his even more egregious behavior behind the scenes that sometimes becomes hysterical, and one time led him to file a false police report against Fred Jung. We are aware of Zahra attempting to smear his colleagues via OC political blogs.

The Council majority is well-aware of Zahra’s penchant for self-promotion and camera hogging, even going so far as to leave a council meeting for a photo op.

Of course there are other good reasons to exclude Zahra, reasons that people are too polite to express, Fullerton being Fullerton. Like Zahra worming his way into the USA via marriage fraud – to a woman. Or his shifting biography, or his blatant plagiarism while pretending to be a water expert. Then there’s his assault and battery case, safely sealed now, in which he claims, fraudulently, that he was exonerated. Lying seems to be Zahra’s modus vivendi.

It turns out that there is a policy suggesting that everybody gets a chance to put “Mayor” in front of their name. Policy No. 226 in the Policy and Procedures Manual spells it out. The problem is that a policy is not an obligation, especially for those who didn’t cook it up in the first place. But this is what Fullerton BooHoo rests its confidence on year after year, as they turn up in their numbers to promote their darling, Zahra.

What will happen Tuesday? Will Valencia go with Jung and Dunlap and keep Zahra and his acolyte Shana Charles from being Fullerton’s figureheads?

Let’s hope so.

December 11, 2024December 11, 2024Ahmad Zahra

Who or What is A Connor Traut?

by The Fullerton Harpoon33 Comments

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

December 10, 2024December 10, 2024Ahmad Zahra

HIOZ It Going, Fullerton?

by Mr. Peabody16 Comments

A special meeting of Fullerton’s City Council is taking place tonight. Why? To address the so-called 6th Cycle of the Housing Element of the General Plan and the concomitant Housing Incentive Overlay Zone, or HIOZ, for those who prefer government acronyms.

The City Council has already postponed rubber stamping this twice which is odd, because they usually clean their plates like good little boys and girl.

Friends may recall that City staff proposed the opportunity overlay to construct as many as 30,000 new units with almost zero City control. This, even though the Sacramento houseacrats only demanded 13,000. I say “only” even though this lower number would still add twenty to thirty thousand new residents to Fullerton with new, massive apartment blocks on re-zoned commercial and industrial property.

I previously opined that the 30,000 number was just a dodge, to give the City Council the appearance of having fought a tough fight to “save” Fullerton, while quietly acquiescing on the destructive 13,000 mandate. This would be of particular benefit to the 2026 re-election chances of Shana Charles and Ahmad Zahra, both of whom are ardent lefties and both of whom would love to see those 13,000 units without regard for the damage dome to the City’s schools, roads, infrastructure and neighborhood cohesion.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a roll-out of the usual suspects singing hosannas to the Council for acceding to the 13,000 units.

And that hypothesis seems right on. The Council has already directed staff to remove the Chapman and Commonwealth “corridors” from the HIOZ plan where the application would have been the most damaging and controversial. And paring back the scale of the disingenuous plan gives a victory to the Save Fullerton crowd who may have actually believed the 30,000 units was an authentic proposal. That group includes some our friends at the Fullerton Observer who will happily embrace the 13,000 as a wonderful compromise.

Why all these meetings? Maybe it’s a necessary part of this Kabuki to give the façade of public review to something that was always a foregone conclusion – satisfying the knuckle headed legislators and the faceless bureaucrats in Sacramento; and their running buddies in the Southern California Association of Governments, and the California League of Cities.

And why a Special Meeting, other than to instill a sense of Heap Big Emergency about bowing to the diktats of an out-of-control legislature?

December 7, 2024December 7, 2024A Step in the Right Direction

Water, Water Everywhere Nor Any Drop to Drink

by Joe Sipowicz16 Comments

Friends may remember the tussle on the City Council in the weeks following City Councilmember Ahmad Zahra’s election in 2018. At first he opined that a replacement election to fill Jesus Quirk-Silva’s vacate at-large council seat was right and proper. There was applause.

But then something weird happened. A month later Zahra went back on his word and voted to appoint Council retread Jan Flory for another lap around the track. After Flory was safely installed on the council, she, Jennifer Fitzgerald, and Zahra voted to replace Bruce Whitaker on the OC Water District Board with…Zahra.

“Well, Joe, who cares” I can hear some of you saying. But apart from the role the OCWD plays in the OC water wars, and the huge pile of cash the agency sits on, the appointment pays. And pays damn well. For an unemployed “film producer” what could be better? Suddenly the Flory appointment didn’t look weird at all.

So check this out, Transparent California’s report for our hero, Zahra.

During his two years on the water board Zahra made some damn good money – tens of thousands of dollars in pay and benefits. And while on the board he pimped the awful Poseidon desal scam and got district PR people to write articles he published in the Fullerton Observer under his own name.

In 2021 Fitzgerald and Flory were mercifully gone; Zahra was removed from the OCWD, replaced with Bruce Whitaker. Zahra’s Mother’s Milk was turned off at the spigot and he has only collected his council stipend since

Fullerton Folk are now speculating about whether the 2024-elected council will appoint Zahra as Mayor, an honorific job he desperately wants. A Vivian Jaramillo victory in District 4 would have got him that. But it also would have gotten the ability to vote himself back onto the OCWD board, and back on that gravy train.

Alas ’twas not to be for Zahra. Jaramillo was beaten by newcomer Jamie Valencia who was denigrated by Jaramillo’s precinct walkers and by Jaramillo herself. She owes the Democrat nothing and may not have any inclination to do favors for the man who promoted her opponent, big time.

December 3, 2024December 3, 2024Ahmad Zahra

2024 Election is Over

by The Fullerton Harpoon12 Comments

Today the OC Registrar of Voters finally certified the November 2024 election results. In Fullerton’s 4th District race Jamie Valencia has defeated Vivian Jaramillo by 53 votes.

With hard work, the support of the “public safety” unions, and relentless public service announcements by Fullerton Taxpayers For Reform about Jaramillo, Valencia prevailed in her electoral debut.

Jaramillo, the handpicked candidate of the OC Democrat Party was backed by a small fortune invested by the marijuana dispensary lobby and the government paper-pushers union. Unfortunately for Jaramillo, her supporters (with or without her knowledge) created a phony candidate, Scott Markowitz to draw male and Republican voters away from Linda Whitaker. The plan backfired spectacularly as Markowitz was busted for perjury and falsifying public documents – charges to which he pleaded guilty.

I’d screw over my own mother for 10 votes. And I’ll do it again.

The scandal was used by FTFF to hammer the Jaramillo campaign.

Meanwhile, Linda Whitaker, wife of outgoing D4 Councilman Bruce Whitaker ran a lackluster campaign effort even though she raised a lot of money. She seems to have been hoping for enough name recognition to win. A mid-campaign excursion to Italy was symbolic of her campaign’s entropic trajectory.

Yes, I was a phony from Day 1. And it was obvious…

And then there’s Markowitz, the completely fraudulent candidate and perjurer who may or may not have ratted on his accomplices in a remarkably quick plea bargain deal with the District Attorney. Despite publicly disavowing his scampaign, Marko still got 1020 votes, an electoral testament of some kind, probably better left unexamined.

Matt Truxaw. Probably not the best look for a candidate…

Mayor Nick Dunlap and Councilman Fred Jung both won re-election easily. Jung’s 40 point win over a hitherto unknown comedian/science fiction writer named Matt Truxaw was a forgone conclusion.

Dunlap’s big win over former Councilperson Jan Flory may finally signal the demise of the self-righteous, morally bankrupt, and sclerotic Fullerton Gerontocracy.

The consequences of the Valencia victory may soon start to become apparent. The election winners will be sworn in on December 17th. The council will then choose the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem for 2025. The liberals in Fullerton will be in high dudgeon indeed if their darling, serial liar and immigration fraud Ahmad Zahra is not chosen Mayor. If that does not occur, we can expect a similar disappointment for America’s first openly gay, Muslim elected in America, again in 2025.

Finally, in other local election news, we are rid of soon to be ex-State Senator, Gas Tax Josh Newman, whose new district appended him to a vast area of central Orange County where he was an unknown, and this after being a loyal water bearer for the Sacto Smash N’ Grab Club. Oopsy. Newman lost to a former Assemblyman and buffoonish librarian from Irvine, Steven Choi. Newman rose from political obscurity eight years ago. Will he return to it? Some are saying he should run for County Supervisor in 2026. If so, he’s not going to get any help from those who hopes for him in 2016 as an outsider were badly misplaced.