Irvine Republicans Throw Probolsky Under the Bus

In a letter to the Irvine World News/OC Post today, defeated council candidate Patrick Rodgers said that Irvine Council member Steve Choi was “kind” in his comments about departed Commissioner Adam Probolsky.

Rodgers wrote: “a substantial number of Irvine Republicans..saw (Probolsky) as one who did not represent the philosophy of the council member who appointed him.”  Rodgers also suggested that there was an appearance of a “conflict of interest” between his role as a Commissioner and his Consulting business.

Rodgers said the smear mailer against Margie Wakeham orchestrated by the OC GOP, with Probolsky’s guiding hand, was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”  Rodgers maintained Wakeham was never a threat to Choi (debatable at best.)

More after the jump:

“Stephen Choi consulted a number of people including Christina Shea, myself and many members from the Irvine Republican Community. The consensus was unianimous that Adam Probolsky had to go.  Steven Choi made a courageous decision knowing that Probolsky is one of the fair-haired Republican Party insiders in Orange County.  There are times however, when doing the right thing takes priority over political correctness,” wrote Rodgers.

Rodgers will be leaving Irvine soon, heading back to the MIddle East.  We certainly hope that Pat mkes a boatload of money over there so he can payback the loans to his own campaign and legal fees for his lawyers and the city’s lawyers over a failed lawsuit filed by both him and former council member Greg Smith — legal fees guestimated in the five-figure area.

Irvine’s progressive slate is sometimes knocked for not being closely aligned with the DPOC, but Rogers letter and the anti-Probolsky cabal shows how out of step the Irvine Republicans are with the OC GOP power structure.  If Choi and Christina Shea are the best Irvine Republicans can do, the progressives will be in charge for a long time.

Frankly, this is all sour grapes from a Republican structure that has lost that last 5 mayoral elections and have not had the council majority since 2002.  Irvine’s progressive slate has built a big budget surplus to weather stormy economic times, has a public safety record that makes Irvine the country’s safest city for 4 years in a row.  Money Magazine says Irvine is the fourth best place to live in the US and BusinessWeek has Irvine is one of the best cities to ride out a recesssion.

And the Irvine Tattler, a website critical of all things progressive in Irvine, has had no new updates since October 29.