Some last minute shopping sent me to Trader Joe’s in Irvine’s Woodbury shopping center Sunday evening and I noticed a couple of Steven Choi signs close to the door. And as the clerk was scanning my purchases, I turned and saw Dr. No himself greeting departing customers and offering door hangers and a smile as folks tried to hustle their groceries into their cars — effective if you’re asking for a dollar for the homeless, but not so much if you’re running for office. Trader Joe’s has a policy against unwanted solicitation, but in this case, it’s done with the OK of the Irvine Company.
“Dr. Choi, why are you at Trader Joe’s?” I said. “Don’t you know Liberals shop here?” And I asked him about his mailers claims that he’s “The REAL education Mayor” when he’s against both Prop 30 and Prop 38 and only supported Measure BB in late July after it was apparent it was getting on the ballot. Choi told me to watch the video of the July council meeting, but he forgets there is video of earlier council meetings where he belittled Measure BB.
Rather than answer the questions, he just confirmed my identity and said I was stopping to Agran’s level. I mentioned he’d have to climb up to reach Agran’s level.
“I know you write misleading things,” he said.
At that point, I asked him to name a single fact I’ve gotten wrong. He didn’t and was trying to shoo me away so he could greet more exiting customers.
When he couldn’t, I told him what I thought of him (no bad language) and that I hoped he’d lose Tuesday.
There are two other elements of our chat Sunday night I’ll get to later. But what is apparent is Choi is unable to directly answer simple questions about his own record and his own claims in deceptive mailers his campaign has issued. The “Real” education mayoral candidate, as a member of the city council, has an unremarkable record for supporting education. If this is the best Irvine Republicans could do, all I can say is Choi is “weak sauce.”
My favorite moment was when I first greeting him, he handed me his literature which I placed on top of my grocery bag. After he realized who I was, he grabbed the brochure back from my cart.
Which is fine, as long as he left the grated Parm alone.
You should dig up the article Will Swaim wrote about his parking lot encounter with your beloved Larry—Larry acted like the pissant that he is.
Will Swaim, the guy who still owes a boatload of money to DISTRICT Staffers and is a born-again Costa Mesa Conservative. Nah, hard to believe people who stiff their employees.
You’re a jerk, Dan
Thanks for reading Gene. Wait until Part II goes up
I read Part 2 and it is just as boring and devoid of facts as part 1. Please spare us additional Parts in your serial drama about lies and misrepresentations of Steven Choi. The only ones you are impressing with your tales of fiction are the Agranistas, at least those who read your blog.
Hate to pop your bubble Dan but a lot of people who support education are against Jerry Brown and the gaggle of Democrats who control the state raising taxes. Both Propositon 30 and 38, will be going down in flames and then the Democrats will have to do what they should have done in the first place, reduce spending. Considering education is a hot button topic, I would be surprised to see the cuts that have been threatened actually made. They used the same scare tactics trying to block Propositon 13 many years ago and when it passed, the sky didn’t fall and teachers and Cops were not laid off. Bottom line is until the politicans quit spending more money in Sacramento than they get in revenue, the budget issue will never be resolved. Same applies to Irvine with it’s history of “deficit spending.” Now, with Measure BB we will be committed to another 3 million per year. With a little luck and the grace of God, there will be a new Council majority in play and they can get to work making cuts to the General Fund budget to make up for that gift to the schools.
Oh but Pat, Prop 13 was a gradual degradation of the standards that made California the Golden state. Reform Prop 13 when it comes to commercial property and you’ll bring in 8-11 billion more a year.
And please do enjoy your taxpayer funded pension as you continue to work a second job.