Now that Rep. Loretta Sanchez is set to debate Van Tran on KOCE (she isn’t going to debate him as much as she’ll mop the floor with him), it looks like the Van Tran “Debate Duck” is out of a job…or is he/she?
They need to apply for work with Beth Krom’s campaign and start stalking Rep. John Campbell and ask why Campbell is ducking debates with Krom.
I sent a question to Congressman Campbell at the open invitation of the Orange County Register. It was pretty simple. He hasn’t made the case why he should be sent back to Washington, so why won’t he debate Beth Krom?
Reporter Jeff Overly posed my question and sent me a note with Campbell’s answers.
Dan – I posed your question to the congressman. He argued that voters already know enough about the two candidates – “I think our positions are well known.â€
 We asked if, then, presidential debates, senate debates and the like are lacking purpose. His response: “Do you think those have changed much†with respect to voter awareness of the differences between candidates?
 We asked if House races would be particularly well-served by debates, since voters are less likely to know much about candidates. He simply said the debates often involve more “theatrics†than “substance.â€
 “I don’t expect to be doing one,†he concluded.
Seems like we’re not the only ones wondering why Campbell won’t debate. Check out this 20100824_KPCC_campbell_dbte file from a show on public radio.
Forget the duck, when it comes to Campbell were talking about a pussy cat.
IrvineVoter.com provides many reasons why voters should not vote for anyone who associates with Larry Agran.
David —
unlike other blogs who routinely delete comments that get in the way of the Ministry of Truth, I’ve approved your comment. However, I detest the practice of blogwhoring which is your attempt to use this blog to build traffic for your site. I hate to break it to you, but a number of readers here from Irvine approve of the work done by the council majority that have made Irvine America’s safest city, one that has a reserve to guard against a down economy without cutting services to residents, Money Magazine rates us a top place to live and ride out a bad economy, and a council majority that supports local schools far and above that other city councils do for their local schools. The fact of the matter is Irvine is headed in the right direction on a number of fronts and the actual cost of government compared with population growth has gotten smaller. By defeating the airport — something Republicans in Irvine were unable to do wehn they held power — the current council majority enriched everyone in the city with rising housing values that have held up well in spite of the downturn.
You can do us all a favor, assuming you’re interested in actual debate. Open your website for comments. As for Mr. Lalloway, I met him and his wife at the IPSF Gala and we share a love for great Italian food (it’s an East Coast thing); Mr. Lalloway is frankly unwilling to work with pro-education Irvine parents on establishing a parcel tax that would help with long term systemic problems we have with funding our schools; instead, he wants to provide a grant of $5 million in an election year which is pure pandering and not sustainable over the long haul.
You don’t like Larry. I get it. But it’s hard to argue that the city is worse off under the leadership of the progressive council majority. If anything, Irvine has gotten to be a better place to live since I moved here 13-1/2 years ago
Okay, maybe I’m being a snob, but I wouldn’t hire a lawyer (for a divorce or anything else) who “attended” an online correspondence law school.
Might I recommend if you’re going to hire a lawyer, hire a terrorist lawyer….it’s the only way to show anyone you’re suing that you’re not screwing around
Dan, where does one go to find one of those terrorist lawyers? Does that mean that our home boy, Todd Gallinger is still around working for CAIR?
Pat — Todd represents CAIR in issues of immigration. He does a lot of community service work with private schools in the area and also serves as the president of a PAC focused on Islamic issues. My reference to “terrorist” lawyer is an inside joke for those familiar with the lawsuit against the OJ blog and Art Pedroza; no matter how nicely Todd treats Art, Art and Sean go the anti-Muslim route to call him “Jihad Todd.” Now imagine if we made a similar “anti-Latino” rant against either of them? We’d be haters and racists. Sean recently and incorrectly used the word “Madrassa” in a comment to a post; Madrassa means “school.”
I;m sure you’d agree with me Pat, when you need a lawyer, wouldn’t you rather have a shark represent you? In my case, a “terrorist” lawyer does just fine.
Dan absolutely right on the lawyer. Learned the hard way with the pitiful excuse Greg Smith and I had. After seeing that guy in action, or was it inaction, I almost looked for a good malpractice attorney. A shark was just what we needed. I am still convinced a good lawyer, would have won that case and made the City to go back and do that project the right way. That however, is ancient history and water and money under the bridge.
Nothing personal about Todd and I am sure that he is a well meaning young man. I have never had an issue with him as a Muslim, just who his employer is. Understanding the history, actions, leaders and affiliations of CAIR, I see them as a latent threat to this country. From the limited membership of CAIR, it is possible that mainstream Muslims also have reservations about them.
As a side note, while you know that I am no big fan of Larry Agran, I was amused at the most recent slate mailer blasting the Lincoln Club and Jeff Lalloway. I am also no fan of Lalloway, a cheap suit posing as a conservative. His unethical personal attacks on Lynn Schott, using Republican blow hard, Adam Probolsky have all the Irvine Republicans infuriated. With Republican attacking Republican, you guys are going to sweep this election. The only slightly good news is, with the Agranista Machine kicking into high gear, Lalloway will be getting a large dose of his own medicine. By the time the election is over, he will be looking like the “Emperor who had no Clothes.” Yes, the Law of Karma is always there.
Pat —
CAIR is a large organization; you cannot paint the entire organization with the same brush because of bad behavior by some individuals (you would criticize us for doing to same of Republicans, Conservatives and Teap Partiers, would you not).
Tomothy McVeigh was Catholic; Fred Phelps is some sort of Christian (I have no idea how).
Ring a ding goes the spinometer as it surges to the top of the Ministry of Fiction, not Truth with you comments about the acheivements of the Agranistas. Hate to tell you Dan, but Irvine was rated America’s safest City long before the Agranistas took control of the City Council. Although, they like to pat themselves on the back, they actually had nothing to do with building the partnership between the citizens and the police. In fact in recent times, your Agranista buds have slapped the Officers in the face and added injury to insults by imposing contracts on them which disregarded excellent performance. At the same time, the Council continues to blow millions of dollars on worthless pet projects. I believe the Reserve you refer to will be depleted in 2011 due to having been used to plug the deficit spending of the past three or four years. What are they going to do then Dan. Oh, that’s right they have the Infastructure Fund that they can deplete as well? Now on top of deficit spending budgets the Council wants to ladle 1.5 million dollars more of gravy to the school district every year for three years? When Irvine is in the same bankrupt status as the Federal and State governnments, the voters of Irvine will realize the mistake of supporting the Agranistas. Now, we definitely agree on the RINO Candidate Jeff Lalloway. Lalloway is now so desperate to get elected that instead to attacking his opponent Larry Agran, he instead attacks the most Republican conservative candidate on the ballot, Lynn Schott. Using the assistance of sleaze bag Consultant Adam Probolsky, they are attempting to do the same thing Probolsky did to Candidate Margie Wakeham in 2008. As a life long Republican, such unethical action by people from my own party outrages me. It merely assures that the Agranistas will retain control of the City Council for the forseeable future. Good for you and bad for me. As they say, “Just another day in paradise.”
We’ve been safest city for the past five or six years in a row Pat. The Progressive Council majority took control in 2000. As far as contracts to Irvine cops go, no layoffs, no paycuts and no bonuses. Given the public views of public employee bonuses these days, Irvine cops have a good deal. Yu may have missed this, but the Registyer crunched numbers and Irvine is #7 in the state when it comes to generating revenue. When the general economy improves, the reserves will be replenished. Irvine is the envy of OC and that is the truth. Perhaps you’d prefer how Santa Ana is doing things; I believe that city spends generously on police and is about $24 million in the whole.
Dan, you will get no argument from me, over suspension of bonuses. In Irvine what you consider a bonus is essentially a “cost of living increase.” Usually ranging from 3 to 4% based on the CPI, it is a blanket increase for all City employees and not just one employee group. With a low CPI and tough economy, employees understand that such raises can not be justified. We went through the same thing several times over the past thirty years and the employees worked with the City and we got through the tough times. Never in the history of the City did we have the stuff rammed down our throats that the current City Management/City Council has done. Bottom line is the City Managers we had wouldn’t have considered such things and the Police Association would have gone to war over it.
Now, there is a big difference between a bonus and a merit increases. In the established compensation process for the City there is a salary scale for each classification; i.e., City Manager, Police Chief, Police Officer, Tree Trimmer, etc. This salary scale has a bottom (starting) and a top. The salary range for the positions are based on a number of market factors including comparisons with other cities. Each year the employee is able to advance within the salary range based on their performance. These are called “merit increases” or “pay for performance.” Detailed annual appraisals are completed on every employee with specific performance objectives to be achieved. Depending on how well the employee does in achieving his/her objectives, determines the level of his/her appraisal rating; i.e., needs improvement, meets objectives, exceeds objectives and outstanding. Most employees fall into the meet and exceeds objectives category, which carry a 3 to 6% increase within the salary range. What the Council has arbitrarily done is tell the Police Officers, when we hired you we; told you what your salary range was from bottom to top, established performance standards for you to follow, that performance has resulted in Irvine staying America’s safest city, but now we are reneging on our contract and you are stuck at your starting salary for four years. As soon as Anaheim, Newport Beach and Santa Ana start hiring again, where do you think all those excellent Irvine Officers will be heading? Technically, the Police Association has a very good legal case for a contract violation, but their Board is a bunch of gutless wonders in bed with management. Their next promotion is more important to them than doing their job representing the Officers.
If you check your history on Irvine, we have been in and out of the top safest City for at least the last 20 years and no lower than #5. City Councils had very little to do with it, except to stay out of our way and let the Cops do their job. There are a number of contributing factors including a of high profile proactive Crime Prevention Program, Environmental Design (review of all new development adding preventive measures before it is built)and active Community Oriented Policing philosophy. Most important is the Police – Citizen partnership which has been built with the stakeholders over 35 years. Despite the politicians patting themselves on the back, this is why Irvine continues to be low in crime.
Dan, you and Obama keep saying, “when the economy improves,” but in case you haven’t noticed, it is not getting better. In reality it is still headed south. Your Council buddies will have burned through the last of the Reserve Fund by this time next year and how will they then balance their deficit spending? I would usually say, hopefully they won’t be there after the election. However, the Agranista Political Machine is rolling along in high gear and is likely to continue to fool the Irvine voters. Just another day in paradise?
Pat — just how long does it take to bring our economy back from the brink of worldwide meltdown from the leadership of the Republicans? The bigger the moess, the longer it takes especially to do the job right.
Pat — while you’re citing all those stats, care to mention what the average police officer in Irvine makes? I believe it’s $118K a year, is it not? And they are worth every penny.
That all said about the safest city, there’s the matter of 3.5 jobs in Irvine for every household, great schools, smart devlopment.
We have a fundamental difference of opinion Pat; I see Irvine as great as it is. You see it as flawed as it is. Try viewing things as a glass half full once in a while Pat.