I’m 1st-District-Supervisor-Raced out. It’s been difficult to muster up enough excitement to write anything quasi-interesting about this race. And since there is very little going on in local politics, all of the local political blogs seem to be saturated with Nguyen/Nguyen coverage.
Bleh.
I can, however, find enough enthusiasm to speculate about who might get appointed to fill Janet Nguyen’s seat on the Garden Grove City Council when (if) she gets sworn in to the BOS. Here is my list, if you’ve got speculations, add them in the comments:
Harry Krebs – Kerbs was (controversially) appointed to his previous term on the council when Bill Dalton was elected to the mayoral seat.
He barely lost his seat in November to Dina Nguyen. He lost by just over 1,000 votes.
Mayor Dalton and Councilmember Mark Rosen both voted to appoint Krebs in 2004, and I could see him picking up support from Bruce Broadwater too.
Trung Nguyen – it might sound a little crazy, but I think that I could see Trung getting appointed to the GG council.
In the past, Trung has gotten some support from Rosen and Broadwater, so that could possibly be 2 votes, and Dina Nguyen was aligned with him in her run for GG council. It only takes 3.
At first it might sound nutty, but after breaking it down we could quite possibly see Trung on the GG council.
Benny Diaz – Just kidding.
Now don’t get me wrong, I like Benny Diaz a lot. I especially liked that during the debate at the Santa Ana City Council chambers in January he pulled out a bronze donkey and told the crowd that he was a proud Democrat.
I would really love to see Benny serve on my city council, but I don’t think that it’s in the cards. The votes just aren’t there for him. Benny’s Defeat (with a capital “d†because it was a pretty treacherous defeat) in the Sups race sealed Benny’s fate in Orange County politics.
He’s an awesome political activist with the biggest Democratic heart with nothing but good intentions. I hope that he continues to kick up dust.
I don’t follow Garden Grove politics closely enough to determine if it’s even a REMOTE possibility, but does anyone know if Mark Leyes would be eligible for the appointment?
Would Trung make the jump from School Board to City Council?
And how upset would it make the Vietnamese community in GG if Janet’s replacement did not come from that community?
Leyes isn’t eligible. He has to take a cycle off.
I can’t speak for the Vietnamese community…but I do know that when Janet leaves the council, Dina Nguyen is still sitting. So it isn’t as if they aren’t represented on the council. And Broadwater, Dalton, Rosen have done plenty to outreach to the huge bloc of ethnic voters in GG.
Good question.
Who replaces Trong on the GGUSD Board if he is appointed to the COuncil? More musical chairs.
Benny would be good candidate to support the Latino community on the council. However, Mike Levin and Frank Barbaro sealed his poilitcal future but good when the coaxed him into running for the BOS to try and get the latino vote away fropm carlos B. This is stupid to think that a brown wave would comeout for a Republican in a Special election when they dont even come out during general elections. Benny needs to thank Frank Barbaro and Mike Levin for destroying his political future.
Benny is not nearly as finished as Umberg is. How can anyone hold Benny’s results against him when he had NO MAIL? And Latinos did not turn out to vote, turned off as it were by Bush Reep Bustamante and carpetbagger Umberg…
Art,
I wasn’t commenting on why Benny lost, or even his personal politics when I said that his chances of getting elected in a future elections are over.
There comes a time when you’ve lost so many elections that it is hard for the public to see you as electable. Am I wrong?
Mark Leyes IS eligible. They could appoint him on Tuesday night right after Janet gets sworn in that morning.
Adam,
Really? I know that he has to take a cycle off before getting elected again, so I was assuming that he wouldn’t be eligible to get appointed. I’ll have to look into that.
With all of that said, do you think that there are three votes for Leyes?
No way in hell that Leyes would get a vote out of Dalton, Broadwater, or Rosen. I do not know if hate is the correct term, but I think it’s safe to say they were glad to see Leyes finally gone from the Council.
I think Adam might be right. Usually these local term limit things prevent a person from RUNNING for a third term, but not being appointed to serve.
The former mayor of Long Beach, Bev O’Neill was able to serve one more term by winning as a write-in.