Orange County did as it always does, came through on the right side of just about every contest. See a .pdf run-down of the OC numbers here.
Chairman Scott Baugh is a clear winner tonight, having overseen an impressive county party run precinct operation. The OC GOP won each of the measures it endorsed, plus Steve Knoblock for San Clemente City Council (consultants Janice and Paul Glaab utilized well the county party endorsement there).
Measure D, a move by the firefighters to re-allocate some of the Prop. 172 monies from OC Sheriff and the DA to the OC Fire Authority lost big. The was a lot of wound licking and cheering in the respective two camps, this fight was the OC Sheriff’s Deputies Union with help from Sheriff Mike Carona and DA Rackauckas vs. the Firefighters Union with help from various local electeds who sit on the Fire Authority Board. The bottom-line analysis shows that if there is a pot of money, someone is going to go after it. Both sides do a great job (catching criminals and fighting fires) but each wants more money to do their job–hire more of ‘their own’ people. As of the polls closing, the Deputies won, they get to keep the money but remember, the firefighters are just as popular and respected as ever, they get to take a hard look at the political strategy that lost them the election.
There were several gatherings of politicos in OC on Election Night, I tried to hit as many as possible, even if I wasn’t exactly a card carrying member of their club.
My itinerary started at the HQ of the OC Professional Firefighters. I saw the first returns there, saw some old friends and drove on to the Registrar of Voters. I met Neal Kelley, the Acting Registrar who did a bang-up job. He implemented new result schemes, now technology and release results almost on a precision basis. Kelley deserves a resounding round of applause, Keep up the innovation! Next I stopped by the No on Planned Parenthood Prop. 73 event at Original Mikes on Main Street in Santa Ana. Yes I went there on purpose, no I am not pro-choice, no I have not taken any money from them. I just thought i would be interesting party to crash. Some abortion advocate gal was spinning OC Register writer Martin Wisckol as I arrived. I pushing him to ask the most important question of the night: How many abortions could you have done with the $5 million you spent to defeat 73? He didn’t even respond to my prodding. But if nothing else, perhaps that is $5 million less that is available to spend on taking of lives of innocent babies. Next I went off to the No on Measure D party where I saw some friends who work for the Sheriff’s Dept. along with some other electeds. My final stop was at the OC GOP HQ where I watched the statewide numbers go into the toilet.
Spotted in various places throughout the night: Santa Ana Councilman and Dem candidate for the 69th Jose Solorio, Supervisor Chris Norby and brother/COS Eric, Orange Councilmembers John Dumitru and Steve Ambriz and Jim Righeimer, the shadow Assemblyman from the 67th Assembly District.
Fun night, too bad we didn’t win anything.