Last night there were two events at Angels Stadium in Anaheim. The first was the Latino Leadership Reception hosted by the Latino Legislative Caucus. Several legislators were in attendance, including Assemblymember Tony Mendoza, Assemblymember Hector de La Torre (who is a candidate for Insurance Commissioner), Assemblymember Alberto Torrico (who is a candidate for Attorney General, more on that later) and of course our very own Assemblymember from the 69th District, Jose Solorio. Many other local elected officials were also present at this event. Among them were Santa Ana City Councilmember David Benavides, Irvine Councilmember and Congressional Candidate Beth Krom, SAUSD Boardmember John Palacio, Westminster School Board Member Sergio Contreras, and 4th Supervisorial Candidates Rose Espinoza and Tom Daly. Santa Ana Mayoral Candidate Alfredo Amezcua was also there. What event isn’t Alfredo at these days? It’s more than what I can say about his competition.Â
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Overall, it was a good event. It was a good chance to network with people and catch up with some others I had not spoken to in a while. The Cuban sandwiches were great. I got a chance to catch up with my fellow Liberal OC Blogger Steve Perez, a very proud Anaheim resident, about his recent posts on 4th Supervisorial Candidate Lori Galloway and her residency issues.
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I also had the pleasure of being introduced to Attorney General candidate and current Assemblymember Alberto Torrico, by my good friend
Phil Bacerra, a well known bi-partisan schmoozer, lol. Phil invited me to stop by Assemblymember Torrico’s fundraiser after the mixer, which was in the Diamond Club at Angels Stadium. I did stop by to find some of the same dignitaries listed above in attendance as well as a few more folks. There was Anaheim Union High School District Trustee and my good friend Jordan Brandman, Rancho Santiago Community College District Boardmember Mark McLoughlin and Democratic Party of Orange County Vice-Chair Florice Hoffman. I could see that Assemblymember Torrico has a wide range of support in Orange County for his campaign to become California’s next Attorney General
Listening to his ideas, I find that he has a similar view to tacking law enforcement as I do. He is pro-death penalty and tough sentencing, but also believes in the need in balancing that with crime prevention methods. This must explain why he is endorsed by a huge amount of law enforcement/public safety organizations. He stressed the problem of the billions more spent on prisons than on schools and the need to reverse that. He understands an educated generation is one who is not out committing crimes. WOW WHAT A CONCEPT! He authored AB 865 which would levy a 12.5% extraction fee on oil drilling in California, something that is already done in the hard core liberal states of Texas and Alaska.
I was impressed and I look forward to supporting Torrico and voting for him this June. Overall the events were good and I hope to see more like this in Orange County in the near future.