FLASHREPORT

I'll start with the most important news: the Wal-Mart near my house is now open 24 hours a day.  OK, I admit that has zero impact on the lives of 99% of FR readers -- but for a parent like me who is wont to forget until 11:00 o'clock at night that he's supposed to bring 30 juice boxes to his daughter's kindergarten class the next morning, it's a very significant development.

On to other news.

This is the most litigious OC election season in my political memory. Tom Umberg unsuccessfully sued to have Lou Correa thrown off the 34th SD primary ballot. The Umberg camp felt they had maybe a 1 in 5 shot at winning the suit (based on the reluctance of judges to throw candidates off the ballot) -- but you gotta take the shot, right? Even though Umberg lost, they threw the Correa campaign into disarray for a week or so.

Mike Carona forces, on the other hand, prevailed in a suit to have a phrase struck from challenger Bill Hunt's candidate statement. The passage attacked Carona, and state election law and court precedent prohibit candidate statements from being used for that purpose. The judge also barred the Hunt campaign from replacing the 19-word phrase with alternative language.

Down in the heated campaign for OC's 5th Supervisor District, Laguna Niguel Councilwoman Cassie DeYoung is suing former Assemblywoman Pat Bates over her ballot title, "Assemblywoman's Volunteer Representative" (the Assemblywoman in question being Mimi Walters). The lawsuit has failed to knock Pat Bates off-stride (full disclosure: I do some campaign work for Pat), and I have no doubt DeYoung's ridiculous suit will be tossed out.

In the race for Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector, John Moorlach's heir apparent, Chriss Street, is suing to have opponent Patrick Desmond (who filed a few days before filing closed) -- alleging Desmond incorrectly stated his position with the County Assessor's Office and because Desmond's CPA license is expired. As far as I know, no court date has been scheduled.

Street, on the hand, dealing with a controversy regarding his stewardship of a bankrupt trailer company.

Assemblyman Tom Harman and Dana Point Councilwoman Diane Harkey continue to wage an intense mail box war in the special election for the 35th Senate District, mixing positive mail with bare-knuckled negative pieces. OC Blog has doggedly tracked and posted virtually every mailer, TV ad and robo-call (you can peruse them all here). Although I'm supporting Diane Harkey, both campaigns are being run by friends of mine: Dave Gilliard and Scott Hart for Harkey, and Duane Dichiara (fellow FR Blogger) and Jennifer Jacobs for Harman. I think Harkey ultimately prevails by virtue of a more aggressive absentee ballot and grass roots campaign, not to mention to near universal support of OC Republican organizations, elected officials and leaders -- but the Harman campaign is fighting hard and it will likely be a near thing for either side.

Bill Hunt has been riding the crest of a media wave during the last week, following Carona's failure to win the Republican Party of Orange County endorsement by a single vote, and the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs endorsement of Hunt over Carona by a margin of 48% to 44%.

The election however, is 10 weeks away and Carona is still extremely well positioned to win outright in June and avoid a November run-off. Carona was first elected sheriff in 1998 against a very qualified opponent who had the support of the retiring 20-year incumbent sheriff and the AOCDS, which spent $600,000 to against Carona that year. Now that he's a two-term incumbent running for a third term in a county that has had only three sheriffs during the past half-century, I seriously doubt narrowly losing the union endorsement will be an impediment. OC Blog has a good analysis.

This post has gone on long enough. I'll write more next week on the GOP primary in the 72nd AD, OC Supervisor Chris Norby's re-election contest, the 67th AD donnybrook and the 34th Senate District bloodbath.