In Which Bladerunner Outdoes Himself

Surely every denizen of the OC blogosphere is familiar with serial commenter Bladerunner’s wise and witty posts. Friday night he outdid himself with a comment on OC Blog about Joe Dunn’s “politicus interruptus.”

That remark deserves wider circulation to those who don’t read OC Blog’s comments or who otherwise missed Friday’s work of written art, so I’m reprinting the entire piece below.

Say it ain’t so Joe! Reports of Janet belting out that old Donkey song “Happy Days Are Here Again” are not greatly exaggerated.

This was quite the shocker. All systems were go. Good poll, activist base was into pavlovian mode, campaign carnies getting hyped up with dreams of 5th floor office space keeping them restless at night, OCEA ready to lock and load, trial lawyers and doctors–a motley crew–ready to flex their check writing muscles.

And then Dunn pulls a politicus interruptus. Nick is left holding his you know what. Political activists are left to wander like zombies in Dawn of the Dead. Trial lawyers scramble to file motions to compel Dunn to run. Wealthy liberals get deep into their bottles of Jamesons. Middle class liberals get deep into their bottle of Bushmills. Working class liberals get deep into their 12 pack of Bud. The Chardonnay Campaign of Joe Dunn is done.

In a post-Dunn political world, the 1st S.D. may not be the promised land but it certainly isn’t Sinai. Given Janet’s legal and political troubles, a well funded Democrat could still be very competitive and win the seat. Claudio does not like Mayor Pulido or Council member Alvarez and neither do a number of liberal activists. But after the Dark Lord gets through with Janet–assuming she can even beat Trung again and assuming Trung doesn’t win the lawsuit–neither slam dunk assumptions-Pulido (especially him) or Alvarez could make the run off and win in November if sufficiently funded. Miguel can raise a ton of money. Alvarez would need to make sure Nick gets out of the ICU he must be in tonight and get pumped up again and then make this a Latino financial and political priority seat.

I don’t think Pulido will do this even though I’m fairly confident he would win the seat. He, like Curt, has found a policy and financial comfort zone while being alcalde. Why give up the bucks to be a zombie in the creative-policy free zone on the 5th floor?

Alvarez is not the only donkey the Dems can put forward. And if the Dems are smart, they won’t limit their search to the councils or school boards but look to someone successful in the private sector. Time for a Democrat from the private sector to bring some new ideas to 10 Civic Center Plaza.

The key may be what the Democratic latino Troika of Sanchez/Correa/Solorio will do here. It was not a secret that the three of them-especially Correa-disliked Dunn but didn’t have a Democrat who could run ahead of Dunn in June. Now here is their chance. Allowing Janet to have a hall pass guarantees that she gets nested in the 34th SD and 47th CD, one day to pop up and be Lou or Jose’s nightmare on Brookhurst Street. They may weigh that fear against putting a Democrat in a spot to challenge one of the two (don’t you think Claudia would love another shot at Jose?). And some cynics think Jose is going to be the next Democratic Supervisor so a Janet win isn’t all bad for Jose.

But if the troika can agree on a candidate and actually put some muscle into their endorsements the Dem could win the seat. If the Dems are going to take the seat back this is the year to do it. It’s going to be the best Democratic year since 1996, maybe even since 1976.

And Dunn decided to leave his bat in the rack. Regardless of anything else, Janet dodged a big Mauser bullet today. 

3 Comments

  1. Thanks Gila. You must have posted this after a couple glasses of wine but I’ll accept the compliment impaired when given or no.

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