I cannot help but reflect on the last two years worth of elections. Public Employees backed Lou Correa for the 1st District Supervisor seat in 2004. At that time he promised that he would not dump us and run for Senate in 2006.
Lou Correa changed his mind and threw us under the bus. He ran for Senate anyway, he won, and we have now lost the 1st District seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors.
Lou has helped place a Republican back in the 1st District seat.
Scott Baugh owes Lou Correa a thank you note.
Thanks Lou!ÂÂ
I understand your point, Chris. Yes, I’m still frustrated about this…
But why should we blame Lou? He and his campaign helped us keep SD 34 when the GOP was nearly ready to snatch it from us. If Lou didn’t run, then who else could have kept SD 34 in the Dem column?
Now yes, I guess Lou may be to blame for us having to worry about a 1st Supe special election in the first place… But we still could have won. And hopefully by next year, we will have learned from the mistakes of this special election. Hopefully by then, we will be ready to take back the 1st Supe (and keep SD 34, AD 69, and CD 47).
: )
Chris,
You’re the first person to point out that Lou is responsible for this mess. And he is. Had he supported Umberg in the primary, instead of doing a hatchet job on him, Umberg would have won. But Lou just couldn’t wait to get back to Sacramento and his “perks” there. A lot of people are blaming different folks for this mess, but no one is even thinking about all the damage Correa has caused with his burning desire to get back his freedom so he didn’t have to go home every night.
Wow, Chris, you really are searching for someone to blame this time. One thing I’ve learned – until you take full responsibility for your loss, you won’t learn from your mistakes.
Lou had nothing to do with the Umberg loss. Blaming him makes no sense.
Lou was very careful not to make any promises to anyone that he would serve out the entire term as a supervisor? How do I know? I was there. And you weren’t. So whomever you’re hearing this information from has an issue with Lou and his success and needs to lie to you about what happened.
Sad.
UMBERG made it clear that his “constituency” was “public employees” of “the county” with endorsements from their “union bosses,” and emphatically deputies of the sheriff. These are the same “employees” that attempted to blackball another member of The Board of Supervisors who suggested “merit” based employment practice, which happens to be “the law of the land!” Why should public employees be exempt from the same concerns of Corporate America for efficiencies and productivity of workforces? Cumulative liability for The Sheriff and District Attorney billed as surcharges must be in millions of dollars?
Public employees are more than “fairly compensated,” their packages are obscene, frequently based upon fabricated data, and ultimately unfunded, one estimate nationally in Trillions of dollars; corporate moguls have signed into Federal Prisons for the same malfeasance. Dinosaurs of the private sector, these public unions demand and receive exception to consequences of performance and guarantee security to retirement and pensions. The public is funding this “gravy train” adverse to their own interests in taxes and fees that they cannot refuse that include the 2% union dues attached to those fat checks! Worse, costs are offset against funds otherwise available for allocation to critical social programs for the most vulnerable amongst us and the genuine public welfare, health and safety. Would you not agree that these are legitimate Democratic values?
As to newly elected State Senator Lou Correa (D), need you be reminded that UMBERG was not favored by The Pro-Tem of the State Senate as a candidate due to “baggage” possibly without appeal to voters? Correa was veritably drafted to run for the open Senate seat; UMBERG proceeded with an unsuccessful attack on character of Correa; do you think voters in the venue have collective “memory loss?” Correa took the “high road” and remained “aloof.”.
Chris,
I don’t think Lou is to blame at all. I hear some people wanting to blame Rosen as well. I think most of us gave it our best shot.
No one considered the Nguyen factor with any level of seriousness- The Vietnamese Community got out and voted.
Once again, Publius, you’re right on the money. Perhaps instead of blaming Lou for DOING US A FAVOR in keeping SD 34 in the Democratic column, we should focus on how to recover from the mistakes made this time around, and learn to avoid making the same mistakes in future campaigns.
If anything, Lou could teach us a thing or two on how to reach out to working-class voters in Central OC. : )
Bottom line here – voters in the Democratic base had no motivation to show up. I spoke to a number of high propensity voters, including a few who had supported Umberg in the past. None of them turned out this time. They didn’t have a stake in furthering Tom’s political career. They didn’t care. No mailer or robo-call or knock on the door could convince them otherwise.
As for reaching out to working class voters in Central OC, perhaps the key is not ignoring them when they are your constituents. Hiring a few local folks and showing up to occasional community events pays off in the long run.
But apparently that’s beneath some electeds.
Publius,
I do know what Lou promised my union, and I have had other Public Employee union leaders (thugs) tell me the same. Maybe Lou was careful at the meeting(s) you were at, but certainly not all and certainly not when directly asked by the leaders of those unions. I believe that my point is also supported by the fact that those same unions for the most part did not support Correa in the Primary.
At any rate, I did not blame the loss of the election on Lou. My point is that we would have been better off if we had elected a Supervisor willing to serve out his or her term. Had we done so, we wouldn’t be in this position. For being in this position, a thank you note from Scott Baugh to Lou Correa is due.
And for the record, I am glad that Correa prevailed against Daucher in the general election. I even walked precincts for Lou, with my union, to make that happen.
But with this result I would have been much happier had Bruce Broadwater had won in November 2004.
Chris, I am sorry you are upset, but taking your personal feelings out on Lou is not healthy or productive. Our staff has been trying to communicate for a long time, the importance of the Vietnamese Community and that they should not be taken for granted. That day of reckoning has finally occured. Hopefully now, the DPOC will re-examine their intent and do voter registration and outreach in the Vietnamese Community and beyond – into the 34th in particular.
BTW – I was one of those who supported Umberg in 2004 with the intent of him running for the 34th in 2006. But two things happened, his dirty laundry and his lack of presence in central Orange County. I know – I have been working the area along with my co-workers for more than three years. He was a no-show. Yes, he voted the right way when he was in the Assembly, but being a politician is more than just voting, it is about bonding with the constituents you represent, showing up for the pancake breakfasts, the health fairs, the education summits, the law enforcement forums. Lou WAS there. I don’t agree with him on everything, but at least he showed up and listened. I was one of those people who asked him to run for the 34th when Tom lost his way with the constituents in the 69th. Tom did not invest in them so why would they invest in Tom? Tom would have lost in the general, even Lynn Daucher knew that going in.
We need to learn from this, dust off walking shoes, and demonsrate that we care about everyone. Not just those who support us, but those who are open-minded and are willing to give us a chance. Public service is not just lip-service. It is an opportunity. Our opportunity is now.
Chris –
Were you physically present in any of these meetings where Lou made these promises?
If not, I suggest you stop repeating these unproven claims. “Someone told me so” is not enough.
It’s called hearsay.
And claiming that you’re not blaming the election loss on Lou when you created this thread called “Thanks for nothing Lou” is rather misleading, I think.
Publius:
Nothing misleading about the headline here. As a county worker who must now work once more under a Board of Supervisors 100% dominated by hate mongering Republican control with no opportunity for a dissenting voice to be presented; I think the statement “Thanks For Nothing Lou” is quite appropriate.
To claim that Lou Correa has no responsibility in the matter of an open seat that was caused by his successful run for Senate, is misleading.
Lou Correa made it quite clear that he had no intentions of using the Supervisor’s seat for a launching pad for Senate in 2006. He said, and I will paraphrase because I cannot find the exact quote, I want to be closer to my family. He made it clear to labor leaders that he had no intention of running for Senate. To claim otherwise is simply untrue. Claiming that you have no intention of running is virtually the same as promising that you will not run.
Circumstances changed and Lou jumped at the chance to dump his seat on the Board if he could become a State Senator. With the bankroll of Senator Perata, Lou won the primary and then with our help went on to win the general election.
Lou threw the Orange County public employees under the bus because he wanted to be in the Senate. Political leaders such as Don Perata and Loretta Sanchez saw the Senate seat as more important to keep than the Supervisors seat. So I guess you could say they threw OC Public Employees under the bus as well.
Neither one of these people, or Lou Correa for that matter, lifted a finger to help in the Supervisors election. So to Don and Loretta, I will share the same message:
Thanks for nothing! And thanks for throwing Orange County public employees under the bus.
Chris – You’ve finally completely lost it!
Claiming that you have no intention of running is NOT “virtually the same as” promising that you will not run.
Perhaps Senator Perata, Senator Correa, and Congresswoman Sanchez did nothing to help Umberg’s campaign because they simply did not support him. I think he’s lucky that none of them actively campaigned against the guy.
Umberg was simpy the wrong guy at the wrong time for the wrong seat. When will you just admit that?
Finally, if you are so miserable working for the County, you’re free to find something else and move on. No one is forcing you to stay there.
Chris,
As I recall you complained in a column by Dana Parsons of The Times OC of The Los(t) Angeles Times that you had nothing to do but “blog” while “on duty,” AND that you were frustrated with the lack of “time on your hands?” This was a defense to an allegation of your “supervisor/s” that you were not making “prudent” use of your “time” as an “employee?” COUNTY TAXPAYERS might wonder why you are on “full time?”
Moving forward: Given your unhappiness as an EMPLOYEE of RESIDENTS OF ORANGE COUNTY, the validity of your quote in the aforementioned column, do you suggest it is the responsibility of those of us of Orange County to ensure your “job satisfaction” on OUR PAYROLL?
So Publius,
It must be easy to take shots from behind an anonymous post.
However, thanks for proving my point. Perata, Correa, Sanchez, and you for that matter must have found it to be more important to lose the 1st District than support Umberg.
As far as being miserable working fir the County, I did not say that. I said:
“As a county worker who must now work once more under a Board of Supervisors 100% dominated by hate mongering Republican control with no opportunity for a dissenting voice to be presented; I think the statement “Thanks For Nothing Lou†is quite appropriate.”
If , as you say; “Claiming that you have no intention of running is NOT “virtually the same as†promising that you will not run,” then it is simply a matter of the Board of Supervisors seat not really being that important to Perata, Correa and Sanchez to support the candidate with the best chance to win.
Had we been left with Rosen as the carrier of the banner, I do not think he would have gotten enough votes to win. We needed a candidate with strong name ID to win in a special election, that was Umberg, warts and all.
It’s great that we held on to the 34th Senate seat. Too bad the people who supported Correa’s run failed to help out with a plan to keep the 1st District seat as well.
Viox Velour:
I never blogged from work, or on County time. I pointed out to Dana Parsons that I had little in the way of actual work to do because my “supervisors” had assigned me to do nothing because I reported improper management of federal grant funds and then raised hell when they reassigned me to a TB clinic immediately after my report. In fact, I did what I was paid to do, report improper conduct if I saw it.
It is the height of waste that county managers would be allowed to assign an employee to do nothing because that employee followed their policy and reported improper conduct. I did not chose my reassignments, I was dumped at a desk with a computer and little to do.
Chris, I am sorry you are in pain. I truly am. I know how much Tom means to you, but this is about more than you and the County Employees. They (and you) are extremely important, but so are the rest of the 800,000 constituents who live in the 1st Supervisorial. Those who a Democrats and non-union and those who are. It is about everyone, under one umbrella. We expect the best out of our electeds, and sadly, Tom just wasn’t the best candidate. No amount of endorsements, or lack there of would have changed the outcome. I hope you will have a better day tomorrow.
Alicia,
So I guess it doesn’t matter to you that there are five Republicans on the Board.
It is county employee jobs that will now be contracted out without objection from anyone on the Board. Those services will fail, just like those contracted out by OCTA and the losers will be the people of Orange County who rely on those services. It is reasonable salary increases that will not occur for county employees. It is the prospect of the loss of competitive pensions for future county employees. This is the real result we face. County employee contracts are up for renewal now, not in two or four years.
I presume you are happy with the results then. By your standard, since Umberg “just wasn’t the best candidate;” as long as Umberg lost the district wins.
Please be sure to let us know who the best candidate is the next time around so we know who to support. We know that you, Loretta, and Lou will always be there too get our backs.
CAVEAT – My tongue is in my cheek – if there is an icon for that, please show me.
Chris,
According to some of our more pure Democrats, Alicia makes ALL of the decisions when it comes to supporting candidates 😉
I do not blame anyone. The Vietnamese Community organized and did a heck of a job. Let’s regroup and see if we can do better the next time.
At 5:44 pm Chris Prevatt said:
“We needed a candidate with strong name ID to win in a special election, that was Umberg, warts and all.”
I believe the election results prove otherwise. Umberg was never even really close.
Before Correa joined the board, there were at least 8 solid years of a Board with 5 Reps.
The DPOC erred when they jumped in to support Tom without considering his baggage and background.
Finally, Chris, I fail to understand how Umberg’s SINGLE VOTE on the board would have prevented any of the problems you pointed out in your last comment between the BOS and the County Employees.
I think Alicia was being nice when she said Tom wasn’t the best candidate. In my opinion he was one of the worst.
demmother,
I agree. As I said in a post last night:
“I think we may need to give credit where credit is due here. The Vietnamese community turned out for Vietnamese candidates and dominated this election. Imagine, if they only had one candidate.”
Publius:
It is not that the Board has been dominated by Republicans, that’s been the case since I believe Ralph Clarke. The issue is that never have the Republicans on the Board been so hostile to their workforce.
Chris, I have tried to express my opinion to you with the utmost respect. All I am trying to say that rather than blame Lou Correa, Loretta Sanchez, Don Perata and the Cookie Monster, we need to really take a look at this race and try a do better for all worthy candidates and voters. This is just my opinion, but I believed Mark Rosen was the most experienced candidate and deserved to be in that race if he so chose. Again, I am sorry for the pain you are going through, but rather spitting venom at me, my boss, my fellow bloggers or the electeds, let’s learn from this and move on. It’s over. But hey, if it makes you feel better to take your anger out on me, so be it. I hope it allows you some perspective later on. Much love.
For the record, my choice for Supervisor if Umberg had not run was Mark Rosen. I am afraid however that the effort necessary to boost his name ID high enough during a 6 week special election campaign would not have been possible. The reality here is that the Vietnamese community picked the winner here. They had the motivation of redemption from the Tan Nguyen episode and the real opportunity to win if they turned out their votes. It probably did not really matter what Democrat ran in this race.
I look forward to the support and leadership from Loretta and Lou to help take back the 1st District seat. Now that Umberg is out of the picture, I suppose that wont be a problem. Right?
Umberg was never going to get my vote. No gitmo prosecutor would. But accross the board, you needed a better candidate for this independent lefty to vote for. I voted yesterday, as I always do.