Lame Duck Mansoor's Campaign

LIMPING INTO HISTORY
The Daily Pilot had a cover story by Mike Reicher about lame duck Mayor Allan Mansoor Sunday that attempted to provide a brief history of the man and his mission. For those of us who have followed Mansoor throughout his career in Costa Mesa politics, most of it is old news, but there were some pearls to be gleaned. You can read Reicher's piece HERE.


HYPOCRISY ON DISPLAY
We knew that he sold his house for a big profit several years ago and that he moved into an apartment. What Reicher didn't tell us was that during that time Mansoor has consistently bemoaned the imbalance of renters vs. owners in our city, while he was contributing to that imbalance.

DID HE RE-FI HIS PARENT'S HOME?
Reicher did tell us that Mansoor bought his parents a home in Virginia. What he didn't say was that the bulk of Mansoor's campaign war chest is comprised of a $100,000 loan from a bank in Virginia. Did he re-finance his parent's home to finance his Assembly campaign? Or, did he re-fi it so he could live for a year during his campaign after leaving his job as a jailer for the Orange County Sheriff's Department the end of 2009? Reicher apparently didn't ask Mansoor why he left that job - did he quit or was he fired? Why would he quit when he had a year to go before he might have an Assembly job? How smart is that?

RIGHT ON, ERIC!
I thought the quotation attributed to Eric Bever - who doesn't get it right very often - was the best comment in the article. Following a paragraph by Reicher that ended by stating, "Many, after knowing him for years, still can't tell you much about him — as a person.", Bever is quoted as saying, "There's not a lot of personality there." Gee, no kidding, Eric!

ENOUGH WHITE VOTES TO SWING IT?
Citing Mansoor's difficulties in the current campaign, Reicher states, "Alienating ethnic groups, especially large voting blocks, is perhaps Mansoor's tallest election hurdle." Do you think? He's apparently doing virtually no campaigning in the Vietnamese community, which traditionally votes heavily Republican. This time they may feel our dullard of a mayor is not a good choice and vote for Phu Nguyen, a Democrat, instead. And, if we could figure a way to get the Latinos in Assembly District 68 to actually vote, Mansoor would be dead meat and he'd be looking for a job as a security guard at Target come January.

LOYALTY IS AN ALIEN CONCEPT
In his article Reicher talks about how Mansoor alienated his fellow sheriffs to the extent that the Orange County Association of Deputy Sheriffs will probably not support him. I wonder how much of that has to do with his perceived lack of loyalty. You will recall that he rejected fellow Westside Improver and long time supporter Paul Bunney not once but three times when he was nominated for a planning commission slot back in 2007, following Mansoor's re-election. Instead, Mansoor lead the move to seat Republican activist, Dana Rohrabacher sidekick and recent Costa Mesa resident, carpetbagger Jim Righeimer instead. Apparently, for Mansoor, loyalty is an alien concept. Just ask Paul Bunney.

MOORLACH QUESTIONS HIS LEADERSHIP
Reicher also quotes Supervisor John Moorlach as questioning Mansoor's leadership, indicating that he has trouble being persuasive. Reicher quotes Moorlach as saying, "He can be stubborn. Sometimes that's an asset and sometimes that's a weakness." You're right, John... mules typically don't get elected to leadership positions. Wait a minute - maybe in this case they do - or did.

WHAT'S HE STAND FOR?
Reicher states, "Besides his anti-illegal immigration and pension reform postures, Mansoor's agenda is rather non-descript." Boy, that's for sure... As councilwoman Katrina Foley says, "I'm not sure what else he stands for."

DEVORE GETS IT WRONG - TWICE!
Reicher quotes termed-out fellow-lame duck 70th District Assemblyman Chuck DeVore as saying about Mansoor, "He brings a very important nuts-and-bolts law enforcement perspective to the Senate." Well, first off, Mansoor's running for the Assembly, not the Senate. And, second, you gotta be kidding, Chuck! Mansoor spent virtually his entire law enforcement career dodging urine and feces as a jailer in the bowels of the Orange County Jail system. His time on patrol was no more than a burp after a burrito for lunch, for goodness sake. His "law enforcement perspective" is strange, indeed. He has consistently ignored Costa Mesa's top cops when they've advised him on a variety of issues - letting his warped ideology get in the way of public safety and good law enforcement practices. A rookie Costa Mesa Police Officer knows more about real law enforcement than Mansoor does after a decade and a half as a Deputy Sheriff.

ACCIDENT? A TRAIN WRECK!
Reicher closes his article by quoting Mansoor as saying, "I got into politics by accident..." To many of us who have observed him over the past almost eight years, that "accident" was a train wreck!

WHO PROVIDES THE DIRECTION?
And then there's that lingering cloud of suspicion about the influence one particularly insidious activist - a Mesa North resident I refer to as "The Mouth" - has had on Mansoor and his philosophy...


HE WILL BE A DISASTER IN THE ASSEMBLY
With his record of inflexibility and his inability to negotiate and reach consensus, he will be a disaster in the Assembly. He will be a minority member - no small irony there, by the way - and, because of his "rule of law city" resolution, he will likely be assigned an office in the descending colon of the capitol, probably a broom closet in the basement with a 25 watt bulb. The residents and voters of the 68th Assembly District deserve better representation than that.

PLEASE, HAND HIM AN APPLICATION...
Will someone please send Mansoor an application for that job at Target - he'll need all the lead time he can get.