Former State Senator Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) will not challenge Janet Nguyen.
Sources are reporting to TheLiberalOC.com that Joe Dunn has decided that he will honor his contact with the California Medical Association and not seek election to the First District Supervisor seat in Orange County. The First District seat was previously represented by democratic Senator Lou Correa, who abandoned that position when he was elected to the 34th Senate seat when Joe Dunn retired because of term limits.
County labor and community leaders have been seeking a suitable challenger to Supervisor Janet Nguyen who won the 2007 special election by 3 votes. County workers have been frustrated by attacks from the Republican dominated board on their pensions and pay.
When Senator Correa ran for Supervisor in 2004 he had promised labor leaders that he would not abandon the Supervisor’s seat to run for the 34th Senate District in 2006. He changed his mind and successfully won that election. Correa’s victory created the vacancy that Nguyen was elected to fill.
It was hoped that Senator Dunn, who has been courted since the loss of the First District seat to challenge Nguyen in the 2008 election, would return to public service and enter the race. In choosing not to run, Dunn will spark a rush to identify a suitable challenger to Nguyen..
Elected Orange County Republican’s have been plagued by allegations of corruption and ethical lapses. Currently the Republican Sheriff Mike Carona is under federal indictment for corruption and two of his former assistants, have pleaded guilty to charges of public corruption. County Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street is under federal investigation for improper conduct while bankruptcy trustee for the Fruehauf Trailer Corp. In addition, Street is under investigation by the Orange County District Attorney for violation of county contracting guidelines including improper manipulation of grant awards, and violation of competitive bidding regulations.
The current Board has chosen, without any dissent or open discussion of the merits, to mount a taxpayer funded challenge of the constitutionality of pension benefits awarded to County Sheriff’s Deputies in 2002. An independent analysis, of the merits of the proposed challenge being promoted by Supervisor John Moorlach and his Chief of Staff Mario Mainero, leaked to the media raised serious questions about the likelihood of success. Nevertheless, the Board, in “lemming-like lock-step,” approved the pursuit of the challenge and hired legal counsel to pursue the case.
Supervisor Nguyen has had her share of “ethical questions” since her election as First District Supervisor. The recount that led to her victory caused her campaign to incure a huge amount of legal debt. To meet those needs, Nguyen established a legal defense fund. When it became clear that the fund was illegal it took her almost two months to disclose the donors to that fund and return the illegally obtained contributions.
While the election of a democrat to the Board would not create a majority needed to defeat many of the anti-worker, anti-human rights, and anti-minority attitudes and initiatives of the Board; it will offer a platform for honest debate and discussion of the impact of Board policies that have previously gone without discussion.
During the 2006 general election Republican Congressional candidate Tan Nguyen facilitated and paid for the fraudulent attempt to discourage Latino voters from voting in the general election. The Board, in a blatant partisan fashion, chose to prevent the County Registrar of Voters from notifying the affected voters of the fraudulent and false information they had received.
Janet Nguyen on the otherhand has been a big disappointment. She represents more of the same. Here are just a few reasons why she doesn’t deserve to represent the voters of the First District.
Wastes Public Funds
Support for Challenge to Sheriff Pensions $100K + so far Office Remodel $136,820 New District Office/Service Center in Westminster, Read Page 2 of this campaign mailer where she talks about “needless bureaucracyâ€Â. Indecisive
Always “needs more information†when a tough decision needs to be made. (i.e. Chriss Street Investment Authority or the Bus Drivers Strike.) While on GG City Council failed to improve Water System Infrastructure (caused higher rates) Won’t Follow Laws
Refused to disclose names of donors to illegal legal defense fund. (More than 50 days to disclose) Racist/Anti-Latino
Sent out a mailer to voters claiming her parents came here the right way not the wrong way (showing picture of Latino’s stepping over barbed wire fence). Sent out Campaign Mailer here, here, and here to Vietnamese voters telling them that they should vote for her to keep a (Mexican or White from being elected).
It is clear to me that the current Board of Supervisors has ignored the needs of minorities and working poor in Orange County. Joe Dunn would have given voice to those needs, and for ethical conduct by County elected officials, where none exists today.
I hope the Democrats can field a candidate to challenge Nguyen for member of the Board of Supervisors who will listen to and consider the needs and concerns of county workers, the working poor, and all minority populations in Orange County. Unfortunately, Dunn’s dance has left very little time to find a suitable candidate.
That’s too bad. I was hoping Joe would run and take Janet out.
The only silver lining here, if any at all…
ART PEDROZA WAS WRONG! AGAIN.
Chris,
Are you intimating that Art Pedroza has been wrong in the past?
Next thing your gonna tell us is that he exagerates or just doesn’t tell the truth.
How can we be sure this is absolutley true? I wont believe it until I hear it straight from Joe Himself. Come out and say it Joe.
Chris. Just a point of clarification. Senator Correa had every intention of staying in the Supervisor’s seat. Assemblymember Umberg’s personal and professional problems lead to Congresswoman Sanchez to ask him to run for the Senate seat to prevent Lynn Daucher from winning the 34th. I know you are disappointed, but can you please refrain from implying that Senator was not honorable in that particular situation? He took one for the team because Umberg would have lost – huge. What is sad is that we don’t have a decent candidate other than Joe Dunn to run. Let’s begin to work on the positive rather than dwell on the negative.
I keep wondering where Chris gets this “Lou promised” BS.
I was sitting in on the meeting where many allege that he promised not to run for higher office. But I clearly heard Correa state that AT THAT TIME he had no plans to run for anything else. A rather prominent Democratic activist tried to push him to commit to fulfill the whole Supervisorial term, which he declined to do.
Time to get over your Lou Correa obsession, Chris.
When will we hear from Joe Dunn that he isn’t running?
Any ideas about other possible candidates?
Oh crap!
One little swipe at Lou Correa pointing out regrettable historical fact and the Correa apologists come out of the woodwork looking for blood.
The Lou Correa promised “BS” is not BS and I am not refering to some meeting of the Central Labor Council. The “promises” I am talking about were made “directly” to the labor leaders who dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into Correa’s Supervisor campaign.
The bottom line here is that we would not be in this position if Lou Correa had not run for and won the the 34th Senate seat. Good, bad, or indifferent, that is a fact.
What I do not hear yet from the Correa apologists is who they think the candidate should be? Who follows behind Correa? The theory of working on the positive is all well and good. Would someone please show me the positive side, because I haven’t found it yet.
Do we really want to back Claudia Alvarez, who would only want to hold the seat for one term until an opportunity to run for an open State Assembly seat as a sitting Supervisor comes up due to term limits?
This is not about hating Lou Correa. It’s about getting rid of an incompetent right-wing pawn of the Lincoln Club in the form of Janet Nguyen. Since Joe Dunn isn’t going to be the candidate of choice for Democrats and progressives? Who’s it gonna be?
For those who have asked about confirmation that Joe Dunn is not running for Supervisor…
Peggy lowe at Total Buzz spoke to him this afternoon. Here is what she reported.
I’m totally bummed that Dunn did’nt decide to gor for Dirty Gary’s seat.
He could have given it a good run, he live(d) in RSM for a time and the congressional district has great pockets of support, yet to be exploited.
His partisan carry-over may just have landed him in Washington.
Oh Well
As a Democrat, I will NOT support Claudia Alvarez for Supervisor!
Chris,
What you are forgetting is that Matt “Jubal” Cunningham verified my story. Dunn was going to run. What happened? Why didn’t he run?
I suspect his latest polling showed Janet was going to kick his a**. So he ran away. Good riddance.
Janet by the way is not a hard right nut, and you know that. If you really want to elect true progressives, help me get rid of Miguel Pulido and his crooked Council cabal. They are NOT progressives. Only Michele Martinez has lived up to that moniker.
Sean,
Why would you write that? Janet came through for Chepa’s family didn’t she, with the playground equipment your friends on the Council would NOT pay for?
Janet is not the enemy. Pulido and his Council cabal are. And we will be coming after them next…
Art,
You are correct that Matt did reach the same conclusion you did that Joe Dunn was “definitely in.” Convieniently you fail to mention the part of his commentary about the poll results you say scared Dunn away.
And Art, Janet has hired a right-wing Federalist Society nut to her staff as well as hired one of the most right-wing-nut ideological staff of any of the Republican morons on the Board, including Moorlach. Sorry Art, Janet is the enemy.
Since you do not seeem to remember your own post, let me refresh your memory…
Art — Janet sells herself as a true conservative; it was on all her campaign lit. There was a battle between her and Trung over who was *more* conservative. Sorry, we need to get conservatives out of government
He coulda been a contender. Is there ever going to be a better year for the Dems then this?
Janet has some major vulnerabilities, notwithstanding her amen chorus led by Art. If Loretta and Lou and Jose can agree on a candidate and Nick can get out of the ICU he must be in tonight, and if Democratic activists can be open minded about the search for Mr. or Ms. Plan B, and if the Dark lord does to Janet what i think he is going to do to Janet, then the seat can be won.
Bladerunner,
Trust me…the dirt coming out on Trung is going to finish him. I cannot say anything else about that except that the evidence is in the hands of Register reporters already. He is done.
BTW, is there any truth to the rumor that one of the reasons Dunn pulled out was that Sanchez and Correa had already endorsed Claudia Alvarez? If that is true, I find it astounding. Alvarez is horrible. Why would Correa continue to waste his time with her?
Dan,
Of course she does. She had to run against several Republicans. She had no choice. But judge her not by her fliers but by her service as a Supervisor. She has been terrific. By no means has she been a right wing nut.
Please – and this goes for all of you – show me where Janet has been some kind of right wing nut – as a Supervisor. I don’t think you can qualify these charges.
Janet is not the enemy. In Santa Ana the enemies of open government that serves the people are all Democrats – Pulido and his crooked Council cabal. Only one of them is a Republican – Carlos Bustamante. Why aren’t you trying to take him out? He is a lot more damaging to the people of my city than any other Reep in the area.
Please. Take out the Space Commander. Leave Janet alone. She does not deserve all of this animus. What we need in our city is to clean house of the sell-out Democrats on our Council. THAT would make a difference.
Dan,
One more thing. Janet is the ONLY Supervisor who did not endorse disgraced OC Sheriff Mike Carona. The ONLY one. Even Lou Correa endorsed Carona! So did Pulido and SAPD Chief Paul Walters. In fact if I remember correctly the DPOC Chair, Frank Barbaro, also endorsed Carona. But Janet did not. Why won’t you guys give her any credit?
It looks bad when the DPOC is trying so bad to take out the first Vietnamese American Supervisor in the HISTORY of the O.C. You think you have problems with Vietnamese voters now? Wait until they see you trying to take out Janet…to replace her with the eternally incompetent Claudia “Clownia” Alvarez.
Mike Garcia for Supervisor!!!
2:56,
Mike Garcia was destroyed by Miguel Pulido. I truly doubt he will ever run for anything ever again. One more reason to vote No on Measure D.
This is terrible news. I was so hoping to get behind Joe Dunn this year. Janet Nguyen has been a complete disaster ever since she first took office, and she’s done hardly anything to help the First District. The only consequential action of hers that I remember is when she had the county pay for a
reelection campaign office“services” office in Westminster despite the fact that she’s done absolutely NOTHING to stave off the painful cuts to the services that working families in Central OC needed.But even though Joe Dunn’s decided not to run, I still hope that one good Democrat decides otherwise. We need to get rid of Janet and elect someone who actually cares about us in the First. We need a Supervisor who puts people first, not one’s own political aspirations.
Andrew,
You know I respect you Andrew. But why would you say that Janet has been a disaster? Can you point to anything in particular that she has done that you think is a disaster?
In fact, Janet has been a terrific Supervisor. I see her at more community meetings in Santa Ana than I see the Council Members! When Lou Correa held a meeting regarding the Renaissance Plan, Janet and MIchele Martinez were there. The other Santa Ana Council Members? MIA.
Janet has also funded a lot of great programs and projects in Santa Ana – many of these would be going nowhere if not for her help.
Janet always puts the people first. Again, please tell me when she hasn’t. Do you know why the Trannies hate her? Because she refused to participate in their insipid corruption! She also refused to back Carona. Those were brave acts on her part – but you fail to give her any credit.
The fact is, the only reason you don’t like her is because she is not a Democrat. That my friend is a lame reason to attack her. She is a Supervisor. That is a NON-PARTISAN position. Again, show me where she has been acting overly Republican?
One more point, why are you guys so desperate to take out Janet? Lou Correa HATED being the only Democrat Supervisor. There is not much that a Democrat can do on the Board, by himself. Janet has proven to be effective at working with EVERYONE. So why try to take her out, if not for overtly partisan reasons?
Now there is a Republican that I would love to see your party target. That would be Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante. I wrote a piece about him on my blog today – that reveals why the Governor nominated him to the Fair Employment and Housing Commission. In short, Arnold is trying to dismantle the FEHC – and Bustamante is just the dumbass to help him do it!
Please – put your efforts into recruiting a good progressive to take out Carlos. I will back you all the way!
Art-
Please don’t go there. If Janet were a craptastic DINO like Miguel Pulido or Claudia Alvarez, I still wouldn’t be a big fan of hers. The fact is that while social services were being cut for the working poor that need them, Janet did nothing to help. Instead, she wasted our tax dollars on an unnecessary office in Westminster (why open a “services” office if she doesn’t even support the services that are supposed to be offered?) and on exorbitant “high concept” designer furniture for her 5th floor office. That she thinks her own wants are more important than our people’s needs is reason enough for me to oppose her.
But when we add to that Janet’s many flubs in not disclosing her campaign donors, using Health Care Agency money to pay for a staffer, being the ONLY Supe to oppose medical marijuana ID cards, and MUCH MORE, it becomes clear that Janet’s year as our Supe really has been quite disastrous. Sorry, but she doesn’t have my vote. If you can actually show me that she does more than just attend events, but that she actually WORKS FOR US, maybe I’ll reconsider.
Art, Mike Garcia was not “destroyed” by Miguel Pulido. You do not know what you are talking about. If you did, we would not be talking about Joe Dunn NOT running.
I will support Michele Martinez if she runs. She cares for people in Santa Ana and would be a good candidate from our party.
Chris. What did you expect? You admit you purposefully took a swipe at Correa and you don’t expect his supporters (not apologists) not to defend him? I could accuse you of being a Tom Umberg apologist, excusing his marital affair and fake military whereabouts in 06. Does that make me better than you? No, it doesn’t. Fact is Tom would have lost the general election to Lynn Daucher in 06. I am glad Lou ran and won and I am proud to support him. Stop being bitter and let’s work on a worthy farm team in OC to succeed our electeds.
art, you lick janet nguyen’s behind just like sean licks tinajero’s behind and in both cases, i just dont understand why!
Jose,
Honestly, you guys oppose Janet just because she is a Republican. I am so tired of such partisan hackery.
You think Claudia Alvarez or Trung Nguyen would be an improvement over Janet? No way! That is laughable.
Andrew,
Can you back up your claims? I doubt it. From what I hear the Westminster office has been quite busy. And I have not seen anything about Janet opposing the services offered there.
I can’t pin the furniture story on her either. If you recall, several Supervisors ordered this furniture, and Chriss Street was the one who insisted on the vendors in question.
As for the marijuana card situation, Janet felt that the Board should wait for a case in San Diego to conclude. The other supervisors felt differently. What about the fact that Pulido and all his Council Cabal voted to make medicinal pot illegal in Santa Ana, again? I don’t recall if you wrote about that fiasco.
BTW, did you somehow overlook all the funding Janet committed to Santa Ana? I cannot imagine that you did not read about that.
C’mon Andrew. Admit it. The only reason you don’t support Janet is that she is a Republican. That is not a very good reason to oppose someone. Did we not learn from Correa’s example? It blows being the only Democrat on an all-GOP Board, so why put so much energy into taking out Janet? We would be better off trying to take out the Space Commander, in Santa Ana. Now he IS a very bad example of a Republican.
Art,
Please spare us your assessment of Janet Nguyen.
FACTS or FICTIONS:
“From what I hear the Westminster office has been quite busy.”. First, give us a number and where did you hear that from? Not what you heard (btw, you heard not hear). Don’t just state a blank or generalized statement without any facts. It cost the county $190K and some changes to put up that office and now you’re telling us what you heard without facts to back up.
“I can’t pin the furniture story on her either.” Who ordered it? Was it a routine for a new Supervisor to order furnitures. Lou didn’t. Unless she ordered who was in the right mind to mess with it? Your logic is that other Sups did it so she went along not imaginative enough. It cost the county another $140K. It would be better to save these costs and hire additional county employees to help out her constituents.
And you forgot to mention she violated state and county campaign rules by creating a illegal defense fund. It doesn’t matter she is Dem or Reep. It’s absolutely abhorred. Again, she didn’t pin the responsibility on herself but her hired gun.
In addition, she didn’t take any actions on Street or Carona, so what good is about her leadership.
The only thing I can draw from your continuous animosity toward Carlos Bustamante is you want to run against him but want us to fund your war chest. That shows a lot about your characters.
Mike Garcia for Supervisor!
im really pissed off at joe over this. he could have told us a long damn time ago he wasnt going to run. now all that money spent on the polls is wasted. That money could have gone to other candidates and their races.