In one of the nastiest pieces of mail I’ve seen in Irvine, there’s a pro-Choi slate/anti-Agran slate mailer that suggests because Agran, Krom and Kang didn’t support a measure to toughen laws about convicted sex predators in Irvine’s parks, and there was a photo and quote from OC DA Tony Rackaukas condemning the vote. The problem is Tony Rack’s quote is either false or taken completely out of context. It was so bad, Tony Rack did a Robo call to assure Irvine residents that our parks are not overrun with child rapists and child pornographers. In fact, TonyRackRoboCall, Tony Rack says this isn’t true anyway in Orange County but especially not Irvine.
So I asked Dr. No about this deceptive mailer and how he could claim Irvine parks were overrun with rapists and child pornographers when Dr. Choi has a political association with someone who thinks NAMBLA is parody? I reminded Dr. Choi of his failed state assembly run in 2010 where his campaign sent a mailer with a letter from Santa Ana blogger Art Pedroza promoting the Choi Assembly campaign. Readers will remember this blog won two federal lawsuits against Mr. Pedroza for linking websites related to this blog, our bloggers and my PR business to gay porn sites and the North American May Boy Love Association (NAMBLA), an organization that advocates for legalized sex between adult men and underage boys. Pedroza’s defense was the gay porn and NAMBLA links were parody, and protected free speech. A federal judge disagreed and Pedroza owes more than $55,000 in unpaid legal judgments after trying to evade the suits with his second bankruptcy filing.
Dr. Choi had no witty comeback. “Please leave,” he said.
Choi chose to associate himself with this man of questionable character, a man who used gay porn and NAMBLA to attempt to blackmail his political enemies. What does this say about Choi’s judgment?
And now that Tony Rack’s robocall throws water on these claims, I’ll go back to my statements to Dr. Choi last night. I asked him how he could issue those mailers when he knowingly used Pedroza to promote his candidacy for assembly. Did he, Choi, think NAMBLA is funny? Why would you associate yourself with someone who promoted gay porn on websites he owned?
“Please go away!,” muttered Dr. No.
And at that point, I was happy to. My wife had just texted asking where I was with the shredded parm and the pesto was ready.
It’s remarkable what you can come away with in a less than 5 minute encounter. A lie, evidence of intellectual copyright theft, a denial of an uncomfortable association. What is apparent is Dr. Choi lacks the leadership ability to be dogcatcher let alone Mayor. Voters in Irvine should send Dr. Choi to a speedy retirement after voting tomorrow.
the WAV file isn’t working but we’re working on it.
Hi Dan,
Unfortunately, the alternative to Larry Agran isn’t Steven Choi. Like Larry Agran, Steven Choi is part of the problem. Larry Agran and the Democratic Party didn’t put the City of Irvine in this mess by themselves. The current economic turmoil is indicative of a much larger problem—a City Government acting in their own best interests and not in the best interests of the people of Irvine.
“Why should city budgets grow when household budgets are shrinking? Why should the city be wasting millions on no bid contracts that line the pockets of friends of council members? It’s time to clean up the mess and term limit the lifetime politicians running for Mayor”
The choice couldn’t be clearer for the residents of Irvine when they step into the polls this coming Tuesday. They can vote for change or they can vote for business as usual.
Steven Choi wants a promotion. Unfortunately his record during eight-years on the Irvine City Council simply does not warrant one. If he couldn’t do what was right during eight years as a councilman do we really expect him to do the right thing now? He may be a Republican but he’s no conservative.
A true conservative would fight massive deficit spending, not contribute to it. A true conservative would not stand back while his colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, wasted millions mismanaging the city of Irvine and The Great Park.
What Irvine truly needs is real candid debate on serious economic issues. Unfortunately the taxpayers are forced to wade through the muck of endless attack ads, name calling and outright hostility. It’s become clear that Mr. Choi and Mr. Agran are much more interested in sullying the reputation of each other, than having serious conversation on the important issues at hand.
Nicely written Katherine,just wondering if Larry Agran edited it for you. Considering your shameful personal efforts to pose as a Republican and help Larry Agran in keeping his power coup, I suppose we will see him appoint you to a Commission after the election. That is of course, if he wins. My money is on Steven Choi, because your unmasking in public will have alerted unsuspecting voters that a vote for Katherine Daigle is the same as voting for Larry Agran.
You’re a dick Pat. She’s met Larry twice.
I wouldn’t be retiring Steven Choi before the vote is counted. Considering your boy Larry beat Lynn Schott by 2,500 votes in 2010 and then that was only after Adam Probolsky put out the hit piece on her the last two weeks of the campaign. If not for that, King Larry might have been retired. The hit pieces on Steven Choi are likely to have a boomerang effect on Agran, because the voters don’t like that kind of attack. At the same time, the Choi, Shea, Schott campaign being run by Jeff Lalloway has done not one negative commentary on the Agranistas. All of the material sent out focused on the qualifications of the individuals and issues in Irvine. The negative mailer you are referring to came from an Independent Committee controlled by a person I don’t know the identity of. It is kind of nice however, from my seat on the sidelines to see someone giving Agran a taste of his own medicine. Bottom line Dan is that unfortunately Larry Agran will be around for two more years one way or the other. At the same time, it will be nice to see him in the minority for a change. Happy Trails……
Will wonders never cease, despite all your negative bullshit, Dr. Steven Choi has beaten Larry Agran in the race for Mayor. Better still, with the addition of Christina Shea to the council, Larry and Beth are now in the minority. Now perhaps we can get a full forensic audit of the Great Park and find out where all that 230 million dollars actually went? If illegal activity has taken place, the facts can be forwarded to the U.S. Attorney for prosecution. I would have said the District Attorney, but then we know, he gives Larry Agran free reign because of his long standing relationship with Forde & Moolrich. Anyway, while America lost big time on Tuesday, things got a little brighter in Irvine.
Pat — watch for more “negative bullshit” to come. It’s a promise.