LAKE (Costa)FOREST(Mesa)
ANOTHER BIG STORY FROM THE VOICE OF OC
In case you missed it, Nick Gerda over at the Voice of OC had an interesting piece yesterday about Peter Herzog, a councilman down in Lake Forest who threw a hissy fit and resigned. That's pretty big news, but the bigger news is the letter he left behind. You can read Nick's piece HERE, and the fascinating letter HERE.
SOUNDS TOO FAMILIAR
As you read down through Herzog's letter I suspect you'll get the uneasy feeling that this sounds all too familiar - and way, way too close to home. Apparently, such is life among the political players within my Republican party. Sigh....
SOUNDS TOO FAMILIAR
As you read down through Herzog's letter I suspect you'll get the uneasy feeling that this sounds all too familiar - and way, way too close to home. Apparently, such is life among the political players within my Republican party. Sigh....Labels: Lake Forest, Nick Gerda, OCGOP, Peter Herzog, Voice of OC
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 10/25/2013 01:31:00 AM
23 Comments:
It's deja vu all over again. Welcome to the OC!
Yes, Geoff, the unprecedented outside money in a local election is troubling.
Why don't you share with all of us your thoughts on the entirely unprecedented amounts of money that out of town labor unions spent "effectively buying the last election?"
The "largest campaign spenders in the history of OUR City" were not the GOP boogeymen that you love to deride, Geoff, but your and CM4RG's allies - statewide labor unions.
That really is offensive, wouldn't you agree?
Uh, the top three vote-getters in the last election were Republicans... what's your point?
CM Resident is parroting talking points that are factually untrue. Compare mailer to mailer and it was about even. The OCGOP used a loophole to call their political pieces "informational member communications", so those don't even get included in the tabulation. Look at the amount of Developer money that flooded The THREE "M" campaign chests. Steve Mensinger had over $140,000. Even an unknown like Colin McCarthy had 70-80k.Then you had the assorted "dark money " PACS like OC Jobs Coalition and the Local Liberty PAC, ABC PAC, and a smattering of others using Atlas PAC funds. Even the City was using Taxpayers funds to push the Charter, while they were very careful in parsing their words, it still could be argued in court they were actively "campaigning" and not in a non-partisan manner. Even so...No amount of money will sway voters when it's a terrible idea. In Fullerton, Chevron outspent the local activists by almost a million dollars and they lost big time. No, amount of money will trump an awake and informed, activated electorate.
I live in Costa Mesa and work in Lake Forest. Lucky me!
But seriously, the problems in Lake Forest and in Costa Mesa are the same. It's simply apathy and ignorance. In both cities, not enough of the electorate cares or pays attention. All these knuckleheads got ELECTED. And re-elected.
The smaller the electorate, the easier it is to combat the influence of money. You can literally go door to door in LF or CM municipal elections. TV ads are extremely rare, so the money mostly buys signs, phone banks, and mail pieces, none of which are really effective if people actually care.
So yeah, let's "rise up" as Herzog in Lake Forest suggests. (Even though his position now as a populist is pretty funny. But that's a whole 'nother Lake Forest story...)CM4RG is a nice example of how a good number of people have risen up, but Righeimer, Mensinger and Monahan sitting on the council is a better example of how too many people don't give a damn.
I'm a cynical optimist (or maybe optimistic cynic?), so I sincerely hope that actions like Herzog's in Lake Forest at least stir up a few more people. But I will unsurprised if Riggy gets reelected because that's been our pattern.
Finally, Herzog's resigning leaves open a seat for the sitting majority to appoint another one of their own, so while it's a nice statement, it only exacerbates the problem. Same as Katrina resigning and opening the door for Mensinger. When elected, serve your term!
Ah, CM Resident.
You scream Union, I say Red Herring.
Do you not have a problem with developers contributing very large amounts to support council members who then in turn "Rubber Stamp," projects for those same developers? None? Council Member Herzog claims are clear. He feels that developers are wresting control of the City away from its citizens and their wishes? What do you think of the actual subject? He feels that there is a lack of respect given to those citizens who bravely stand up to speak at their Council Meetings. What do you think about this? Oh wait, I know, "Union, Union, UNION."
Seriously, to just blindly respond Union this and Union that is not very intelligent or relevant to his particular issue.
You sound like my 9 year old son when he tells me that his "Sister did it first." I honestly feel badly for Mr. Herzog because it will be only a matter of time before he is besmirched, tarnished and sullied by his own party and the likes of you.
Just plain silly. I'll admit, I'm even more silly for wasting my time with a response.
CM resident- Why are you still echoing that OC GOP driven baloney?
Wait- isn't the OC GOP based outside of Costa Mesa, and its chairman an out of town Republican?
Why yes, indeed- they are an outside interest and they're running Costa Mesa right now.
Gericault,
Tell us how your numbers add up:
http://www.costamesaca.gov/index.aspx?page=1249
Mike Fountain,
Simple, the CM4RG, anti-council crowd are a bunch of flaming hypocrites who frequently make up "facts" and toss around accusations without ashred of evidence. They need to be constantly called-out on their BS.
Geoff supported it wholesale.
Lake Forest is Lake Forest and Costa Mesa is Costa Mesa. Provide one example of developers buying undue influence in Costa Mesa. Just one.
Link one campaign contribution to one project, or anything even remotely similar to what is alleged in Herzog's letter. Just one.
Well, at least you didn't prove my point CM Resident.
You point your finger and accusations for behavior and actions you yourself seem to mimic. You even manage to impeach the character of Mr. Herzog.
Nicely done sir. I will give you credit for managing to get through your response without one mention of "Union."
"Provide one example of developers buying undue influence in Costa Mesa. Just one."
It's called the 19th Street Bridge.
It's pretty obvious that Our Mayor has given the go-ahead to "hit the CM4RG people hard" with recent videos and "Fitzbombs."
Along those lines, I would also ask our CM Resident friend here the following: What kind of conservative are you? Don't you know money equals free speech in this country? Your whining about getting outspent makes you look weak, by the way.
Mike H...The "recent video" you refer to, and provide the link to, is just plain desperate and pathetic. And, of course, the coward who posted it (Art somebody) has disabled the rating feature.
Bought the election, hmm. That’s an interesting phrase when you look at the candidate filings and realize Sandy Genis won a landslide and only raised $23,789.00 with almost all small Costa Mesa contributors.
Steve M trailed her by thousands of votes but raised $105,568.32, with a lot of “outside” help.
Gary barely made it, pulling ahead of John Stephens by only 158 votes with a war chest of $47,546, also with a lot of outside Costa Mesa donations.
Colin lost, raised $64,527 with a majority of outside donations.
I’d also refer interested citizens to http://www.costamesaca.gov/index.aspx?page=1247
and note where the money came from to support Candidates and Measure V.
My award for the Most Ironic Pac Name: Citizens for Costa Mesa City Charter with a total of $78,750 received, a piddling $1650 of that from Costa Mesa!
As for measure V. it lost on its own merits, or rather lack of merit. Based on the evidence, both sides spent about the same, although you can’t find the entire “Yes on V” listings in the city findings.
I am a Republican and got all the mailings from the Republican Party, plus the robo-calls, and the push polls. These expenditures won’t show up on the Costa Mesa filings because they are “member communications”. They may show up at the County, but if so, only as a line item for member communications and not list the specific issues or candidates. Sometimes they don’t show up anywhere.
Anyone with a brain can see the expenditures had to be roughly the same. There are no freebies allowed. If someone donates printing for instance, it’s an in-lieu donation and has to be given the same dollar value as cash. The total number of mailers was equal for each side, but Yes on V had more large two pagers. Yes on V had expensive large plastic signs, No on V small paper ones. Yes on V had more newspaper advertising. The only thing that might have put the employee associations ahead was a TV Ad, but both campaigns produced roughly equal amounts of mailers, flyers, and signs. The edge for phone calls and newspaper ads went to Yes on V.
Why is it that people who spout the sort of line that "CM Resident" does are so disproportionately likely to hide their identities under an impenetrable pseudonym?
I've only seen Herzog twice, on the OCTA Board. He seemed like a smart guy. This letter reinforces that.
CM resident wrote,
"Simple, the CM4RG, anti-council crowd are a bunch of flaming hypocrites who frequently make up "facts" and toss around accusations without a shred of evidence. They need to be constantly called-out on their BS."
Do we see any examples?-No, just false accusations
and slander.
Then on "Art Vandaley's" video we see,
( Yes- the same "Art Vandaley" who said " Our side isn't telling lies" )
'Some of the recent bizarre and absurd behavior by the left-wing socialist group CM4RG and its benefactors. CM4RG is a Costa Mesa group that is supported, financially and/or otherwise, by local employee unions and the Democratic Party of Orange County.'
Now- who's spreading nothing BUT lies, false accusations and needs to constantly be called out on their BS??
I wasn't going to comment but.... CM resident says that CM4RG is a "left wing socialist group".... LOL!
I've noticed that there has been a shortage of pro council contributers here since registration was required and I figured that was because before, it was just one person (guess who) using multiple handles to support himself.
Now somebody shows up and that's what he's got? "Left wing socialists"? Be sure and throw in some commies and union thugs next time.
How is it possible that Righeimer hasn't been embarrassed by you enough to give you the boot?
Herzog's letter should have been written by Gary Monahan to the people of Costa Mesa back in 2011.
Oh yeah, that was the year selling some extra beer was more important than Huy Pham's death.
Never mind.
Squad 51, lol indeed! CM4RG won’t take money from any union or employee association. We have members from all the major political parties and many different walks of life, including some who are not fond of organized labor at all and some who belong to unions. We are people who are willing to put aside partisan politics for the good of the community. There are a lot of political topics we don’t discuss because we have sharp differences.
What unites us is a vision of Costa Mesa without the current strife and polarization, with a council who respects citizens and employees and can negotiate in good faith to solve real challenges in a collaborative way. All the other cities around us have been able to do that, without the drama. In 3 years we’ve accomplished nothing but deteriorating public safety and an increasing sense of unease in the community.
And if I hear someone try to give credit to the council majority for paving and other infrastructure improvements again I’ll laugh some more. Most of what’s been done was in the pipe before these guys got in, what’s been added is because of a fortunate rise in revenue as the economy recovers, and because we have CITY EMPLOYEES who are very good at writing grant applications. Some of the budgeted “improvements” are degradations in the eyes of many residents, such as $650,000.00 for lights in the parking lots of Fairview Park that are closed after dark. That money could do a lot of good paying down the underfunded liability or other areas where the City still needs to catch up to pre- recession levels.
Costa Mesa Residents who really want to know if there’s a connection between development in Costa Mesa and campaign donations can research it at:
http://www.costamesaca.gov/index.aspx?page=1249. It’s easy to see who got the developer dollars.
CM Resident forgot to include Nazis. You always have to throw Nazis in there, because, duh. You just do.
And I think we all know that Art Vandelay is Kent Mora, who might even be CM Resident, so I guess us 'haters' have them outnumbered 8 to 1.
Can't wait for Nov. 2014.
I wonder if the Lake Forest City Council will appoint a chest-bumping, phone dropping, DG path creating, public employee hating, really bored at Council meetings, fake badge carrying, Mayberry walking, Al Bundy high school failure, Biff look-alike frat boy cronie just like a certain City we all know did?
The Tea Party/ultra right-wing of the Republican party is killing it. Orange County will be blue soon, and all the true conservatives will regret letting people like Riggy hijack their party.
Muffin Top Bob, once I stopped laughing, I realized this is serious. He has a negative impact upon too many people's lives. So, you left out environmentalist who favors thinning the packs of coyotes. And marksman whose skill has been described as "the only safe place is directly in front of his gun." Then there's the injuries he's suffered, resulting in a lawsuit.
My bad, according to the fairy shrimp who now lives with me, it's actually pronounced and spelled as Environ Mental List.
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