Where’s Tony?

A bit of a set up to this story.  The mostly anonymous bloggers at the Friends for Fullerton’s Future (or as we like to say, the Fringe of Fullerton’s Fanatics) are terrific when it comes to deciding someone has committed a crime, or an ethical violation of any sort, or outing what they perceive is out-and-out hypocrisy and sticking with the claim even if it’s been debunked.

Anaheim city council member and BoS 4th district candidate Harry Sidhu is, according to the Fringers, a”perjurer” for having filed a voter registration form for an apartment Sidhu never lived in when he decided to run (as a carpetbagger) for the supervisor’s seat.  They put a PI on the case (Bill Hunt) and even asked the DA’s office to investigate their claims.  The DA’s office cleared Sidhu because Sidhu had re-registered at a home on Lucky Way in Anaheim and filed his candidacy papers from that address all in accordance with the law. 

 Sidhu followed the law here, no matter how loudly and often the bloggers at FFFF continue to insist otherwise.

Fullerton city council candidate Roland Chi is the current flavor of the month with bloggers who follow and photograph a white van connected to Chi’s business.  The photos show someone who may in fact be a Chi supporter illegally removing campaign signs of Chi’s opponents.  And to that I say nice work fellas. 

Some of the language in the posts and comments is priceless for this law and order crowd.

In this post about Voice of OC’s Norberto Santana: ”

“How sad he must be, now that he is nothing but a tool for his union paymaster, the OCEA union, at those family reunions when he has to report that he is nothing but a second-hand tool for the likes of Hide and Seek Harry Sidhu, whose carpetbagging and perjury have gone mysteriously unmentioned by the intrepid “journalists” at the Voice of OCEA.”

Or this post, about Harry Sidhu…” Sidhu committed perjury twicewhen he claimed to have live at the Calabria apartments.”

Or this post, where Tony Bushala of FFFF filed a criminal complaint against Harry Sidhu with the DA’s office.  Tony writes:

“Yesterday a complaint was filed with the District Attorney, Tony Rackaukas, against Harry Sidhu for falsifying public documents when he created a fake residence where he never lived in order to run for 4th District County Supervisor.  How do I know a complaint was filed? Because I’m the one who filed it….It’s crystal clear. Harry Sidhu concocted a phony address in order to run for office in the 4th District and he never lived there. That was an outright lie. And he lied again when he changed his registration a second time citing 2230 West Lincoln as his previous address. This is blatant voter fraud and a knowing falsification of public documents.

I have no doubt that some in the political community will want to brush aside this sad, inconvenient truth as inconsequential. Sidhu will no doubt play the victim card like all politicians do when they get caught in a trap created by their own overarching ambition and arrogance.

Was a crime committed? Well, that’s for the DA to decide, or perhaps to lateral the issue to the State Attorney General. You can be sure we’ll keep you informed.”

Now, let’s segue-way to my August interview with Supervisor Shawn Nelson.  The interview pertained to Nelson’s decision to enroll in the most generous pension benefit offered to county employees despite having campaigned for pension reform.  Bushala’s blog is a non-stop shill factory for Nelson (as other political blogs are for candidates we support) and I knew that Nelson and Bushala lived next door to each other in Fullerton.  So I asked the supervisor if “his next door neighbor Tony Bushala was upset with him over the pension enrollment news.”  Nelson didn’t answer the question, but in his answer to the question, I learned that Tony hadn’t lived next door to Mr. Nelson since “Spring of 2009.”  And that was a guesstimate on the part of Nelson.

Talk about learning things while making a light joke…..

It wasn’t something I thought to write about then, and I didn’t think much about it at the time. I continue to read about “Hide and Seek” Sidhu and the insistence Sidhu committed perjury, and while I didn’t support either Sidhu or Nelson in the June election, I was still trying to reconcile what Nelson told me on the record with stuff I’d read on FFFF. 

During a trip to the Registrar of Voters office last month, I had a hunch and did a search on the voter registration information and voting record of Tony Bushala.  I have the documents but am not posting since he still has family members at that address, so I do have copies.  Tony registered to vote from his “old” address in 2004 and his voter registration is still active from that address. 

ROV regulations say you must be registered to vote from the address in which you are domiciled.  And, using the timeline provided by Shawn Nelson, it appears that Tony voted in at least three or possibly four election cycles while residing at an address not on his voter registration forms.  We confirmed Friday with a friend of Tony’s that Tony still resides in Fullerton but they would not comment on Tony’s current residence.

The staff at ROV patiently explained to me the votes would still count, but for Tony to vote in next Tuesday’s elections, he can’t do so by mail has he did in the past several elections.  He would have to come to a polling place and file a provisional ballot. 

The team at ROV explained when you register to vote, you state the information on the form is accurate under penalty of perjury.  And each time you vote, you affirm the information on your voter registration documents is still accurate.  When you move, you must re-register.  By voting under the prior voter registration while having a primary domicile elsewhere, you may be committing perjury by voting.  I checked Tony’s active voter registration three different times from mid-September through last Friday, and his information hasn’t changed. 

So while Tony’s voter registration was legally completed, once his domicile changed, he would have to re-register.   This isn’t a criminal offense so much as a civil one, and we certainly have no plans to contact the DA’s office and file criminal complaints for voter fraud.  Hey, sometimes, you mess up when it comes to filing your paperwork. 

But you have to think that someone so attuned to voter fraud and violations of law that they’d hire a PI to investigate “Hide-and-Seek” Sidhu would take the steps to make sure they aren’t known as “Hide-and-Seek” Bushala.  While we’re not wild about either of the candidates for 4th district supe, you have to love the pot calling the kettle black here.

I have sent Tony one email and called his cell twice on Friday and left messages seeking to confirm information I already have.  He, as they say in the newspaper stories, “could not be reached for comment.”  If Tony tried to reach me, he left no messages.