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Never launch a new product in August or so the saying goes, but just when you thought the Anaheim Mayor’s race couldn’t stranger, it does. Daniel Lamb, an Orange Juice blogger and a lawyer, has launched a Quixotic campaign for Anaheim mayor with a new website/blog urging Anaheim voters to write him in for Mayor. You can see the site here.
The campaign strikes us as odd at best and a desperate cry for attention at worst. Lamb was a one time progressive and Lorri Galloway supporter who has since switched gears and gone to the far right. In blog posts and comments, he alludes to professional woes and money issues, and why he didn’t pull papers and jump in last week is a mystery (unless the filing fee was daunting). But even his hero Tom Tait has somehow fallen out of favor with Mr. Lamb which comes as a surprise. And by doing so, he’s lost the support of Cynthia Ward and CATER.
One of Mr. Lamb’s complaints is a lack of media attention, so we hope to oblige him here. But write-in candidates rarely if ever win as do candidates perceived by voters as being barely old enough to shave. Lamb’s web page appeal for votes features a tank-top T-shirt selfie that makes it appear a top priority for his administration would be keggers every Friday night.
From his page, Lamb writes:
By and large, democracy has been fixed and subdued by what has come to be the ‘tricks of the trade’ through which political consultants mislead voters and destroy potential candidates (and even potential, potential candidates).
I do not speak of a conspiracy; rather, I see the lesser angels of our nature flourishing unchecked. Through theatrics and intimidation, those in power fix the names on the ballot presented to voters. By manipulating the ballot, they essentially deny voters any choice. Knowing or suspecting this, the politicians learn to take public opinion with a grain of salt. Seeing their concerns largely ignored by officials despite campaign promises, the citizenry withdrawals and democratic participation plummets.
I have seen this play out in Anaheim for years, and it is only getting worse at City Hall. Previous Councilwoman Lorri Galloway pretended to oppose previous Mayor Pringle (the almighty scapegoat), and it appears Mayor Tom Tait, my one-time hero, is doing the very same. With the theatrics, the personalities of Tait and Galloway prevent the emergence of any genuine opposition because these well-known public figures naturally have command over fundraising and media. Whatever the show, station or channel, however, the public policy remains unchanged, inconsistent with the will of voters, and skewed towards elite interests in labor and big business. If this is not illegal, it should be as it is patently opposed to the spirt of our laws and traditions.
The second component to my argument, intimidation, is elusive. After-all, uncertainty and doubt are fundamental to intimidation. It is easy for one to put another person in a state of fear without revealing one’s identity. As such, the target is not just intimidated, but is also prevented from defending himself or reaching-out for help. Not knowing who to trust leads to isolation. And scared confused hermits just don’t make attractive candidates. This can be done by the government, the incumbent, or his/her political consultant/s. It is not the cop on the beat, obviously. But it does not matter, it is intentional infliction of emotional distress with the intent of keeping a person out of public life and off the ballot; it is political violence, and it should be punished accordingly.
I can not participate in such a system because it is immoral and unsustainable. If current trends continue, it is only a matter of time before our political class shares the fate of the Romanov’s in Russia and the Ancien Régime in France. For this reason, and because I despise violent revolution, I also can not remain a bystander. I have seen elections up close in California, Nevada and England and Anaheim is not normal; it has been made into a civic wasteland. Therefore, I choose to resist what I know is the evil of subtle despotism. If we act now, we can revive our democracy and avoid a great calamity.
And to think we thought Denis Fitzgerald was the Cra-Cra candidate for Mayor. I wouldn’t say “Anaheim is not normal” but as it applies to certain write in candidates and others on the ballot for city council and mayor, “not normal” applies.
As if the peanut gallery over there could get any crazier!
Who could imagine a day where that blog was run by an even-keeled editor/manager.
Daniel, who Ward like s to disparage by calling him: SON, fell under the spell of candidate for life Greg Diamond. What’s next after the water board loss? Dog Catcher, PTA?
This guy is a weirdo, like most everybody else on the internet. I just hope he gets to go to debates and mess things up good. When the rule of law is to let gang members and activists make choices for the community at large, everyone will say “How did this happen”. Thank Greg and Cynthia and CATER (oh wait, they are CATER,)
Sometimes it takes a Lamb to slay a Dragon.
Uhhhh — that’s a lie, Dan, and if you have any integrity you’ll fix it. This wouldn’t be happening if Chris Prevatt were alive. (Just kidding, Chris. But seriously, the stain is getting onto you too.)
Daniel Lamb never “fell under [my] spell,” although I thought that he was a bright young man, understood many issues pretty well, and I’d have been happy to see him succeed and develop a useful voice. But that was not to be. He became an increasingly reckless provocateur — and I take no pleasure in saying so. (I hope that he will eventually regain his equilibrium.)
After Lamb made a series of disturbing comments, I suspended him. He then loudly announced that he was ending his association with our site. (This was OK with us, although we took no steps to deny him access to his prior work, nor will we.) Only at that point did he start his own site, announce his puzzling (and in my view sad) semi-candidacy, and so on. He’s currently banned, primarily because he was freaking people out.
As for “Richars Seph” (presumably you or Cunningham, Dan, though of course you’ll deny it): after Water Board, if I don’t win, I’ll run for whatever else allows me to highlight critical issues like (1) fracking, (2) opposing Poseidon, (3) the folly of ever expecting a lobbyist and PR guy to serve the public interest, and (4) OC’s (sadly bipartisan) corruption. Worst, I’ll do it without a pseudonym, which I’m sure makes some cowards hereabout want to commit acts of self-harm.
For your part, Mr. or Ms. or Messers Seph, you can take a look at what I’m going to do to Brett Barbre, win or lose. He’s nowhere near the villain of a Bob Huff or a Tony Rackauckas — both of whom, without me, would have strolled to unchallenged victory — but he’s done some bad things. I’m not afraid to talk about them. If that encourages other people to run against people who do bad things, and make doing bad things less comfortable and profitable for those in OC politics, that will be very much worth the effort. You may be one of the people who will be made uncomfortable by the chickens coming home to roost — and that too is quite gratifying. Adios, lame and pitiful coward.
Greg,
While I’m sure Dan can defend himself, I can personally assure you that if he has something to say (write), he only does so under his name. I’m not sure what there is that you want corrected. You appear to have countered the remarks of the first comment effectively.
FYI, I am alive.
I don’t change comments that don’t violate our terms of service. I don’t post comments here under any name other than my own.
As far as Barbre goes, he’s won two previous races by large margins in an area that GOP registration outweighs Democratic registration. Oh, if only the DPOC had a North Vice chair who actually drove voter registration, then candidates might fare better. But alas, the last DPOC North Vice Chair failed miserably to move the needle. I think you have a problem with anyone who does PR for a living Greg. Did you use your rent money for a filing fee again?
Barbre “won by large margins,” did he? I believe that the word you’re looking for is “unopposed.”
The gap between Democratic registration and Republican in my region improved while I was Vice-Chair, not that you’d give enough of a damn to check before spouting off. But if you think that personally fostering simple, evanescent changes in registration is among the most important things that a party Vice-Chair does, then you are even stupider than I thought — which is a truly impressive feat.
Do you know who, six months from now (or less), have a HUGE problem with some local people who do PR for a living? Larry Agran. And that’s a pity, because he surely deserved far better than the self-serving and truth-bending likes of you and your idols Forde and Mollrich, whose central place at the table turns out to have been an utterly tragic disaster. (Not for YOU personally, though, so I suppose it doesn’t really so much matter.)
That’s your cue to spin some more. Only Spin Can Win, right?
Go back and check Barbre’s first election which I believe he had three other opponents. But the real problem with you Greg is that you launch a candidacy and fail to campaign. You had one public fundraiser for DA and your website was devoid of issues to make voters vote for you. If you are going through the time, cost and trouble of pulling papers, then do voters the courtesy of actually giving them a reason to cast a vote for you. You failed to do this against Huff. You failed to do this against T-Rack. And I’m the stupid one? Why not spend your time explaining how you’d govern while we are in the midst of this drought?
You wrote “[Barbre has] won two previous races by large margins….”
He ran unopposed in 2010. Do you think that “won by a large margin” is the best way to present that?
Like Huff, like Rackauckas, he would have won by the same “large margin” of 100% this time had I not run — except that his race would not even appeared on the ballot.
You have scant idea how much I campaigned. Your notion that my being willing to put in my time to present issues and challenges (some of which I can do for free on OJB) and give voters a choice is letting voters down because I don’t want to spend money I don’t have for professional website management is somehow letting voters down is mystifying, a term I choose to deploy here in lieu of “amazingly stupid.”
I’m proud that my presence on the ballot — even without a ballot statement that carried the price tag of a new car — against Tony Rackauckas was the main factor in reducing his vote total from over 300,000 in 2010 to just over 200,000 in 2014. I’m proud to have been the reason that almost 77,500 citizens of Orange County could vote against him — although, by now, my guess is that more like 80,000 will claim to have done so.
Not even YOU believe that your position makes sense, or you’d be going after Gary Kephart and Gila Jones for running while campaigning considerably less than I did either time. (And, you hasn’t.) But to you, truth is flexible and arguments seem to exist mainly to feed either avarice or spite.
Keep on establishing the record of how absurd your political analysis is — I look forward to asking people try to defend your views. (Most will decline.)
It’s an expression evoking how the mighty have fallen, Chris — though of course I’m glad you’re alive.
Daniel was for a time allowed to blog for Orange Juice — although never had a role in management. It’s as much a lie as referring to Hillary Clinton as “Young Republican” or Jesse Helms as a Democrat. And I notice that it has not been fixed — because, I suppose, some people just really like to lie.
Greg, let me clarify further. You can reasonably call Dan many things (names), but you cannot call him a coward. Like his opinions or not, he will always post them under his name and defend those positions to his last breath.
I did not call Dan a coward, so my first reaction to your comment was that it was a non-sequitur. But, of course, I did call the pseudonymous commenter a coward. You say it’s not Dan, and I believe you — even though, with great respect, Chris, you really can’t rule out that you could be fooled. Instead, it’s some political ally of Dan’s whose cowardice he chooses to abet. Is that cowardice by proxy? Elsewhere, Dan seems to think so.
And the lie in the title of the piece remains. You two run a (mostly) closed shop here, so sadly that reflects on you more than what some random poster at OJB (and some of them can be quite random.) This is a shame, because you don’t deserve to be tainted by Dan’s self-serving lying.
I don’t recall any of us seeing the “Daniel Lamb no longer writes for us” piece on OJ. Until you commented he was gone here, that’s not exactly public knowledge. So we’ll insert the word “former” in the headline. But Daniel Lamb is part of the same clown car of underachievers who write for your site. Chris and I actually have a lot more on our plate than any of you do and I’m proud of the work we do here.
No, we didn’t seek to humiliate him with a story about him — and I can’t say that I regret that choice. But anyone who read the comments in his last few stories knew very clearly what happened — even after our deleting half of them.
You have much less on your plate than I do, Dan — it’s just so unpalatable to those other than you that it just seems like a lot.
But you’re absolutely right to be proud of the work that Chris does here.
Wait, wait, wait. You have more on your plate than I do? That has to be the funniest thing you have ever written and it’s completely false. Laughable, but false.
Sorry for the error Greg. My morning coffee must not have kicked in yet.
If Greg thinks he has a chance of winning this race, he is delusional. The average voter is going to see an water district incumbent and a lawyer. Who do you think they’ll think knows more about running a water district? Plus, Greg ignores the one issue the average voter will connect with this office: the drought.
And it was instructive to watch how quickly Greg and his comrades turned on Daniel, whom they were praising just days earlier.
I may not get the most votes, Matt — but I’m definitely going to win.
Many average voters are going to see a corrupt lobbyist and a lawyer with no tolerance for people (like you, babykins) who think that ripping off money from the public makes them “Masters of the Universe.”
There are other ways that I’ll win, but you’ll have to go to OJB to read them. (By the way — check out Tony Rackauckas’s margin of victory in 2014 vs. 2012. I’m proud of that — and now I and other reform-minded Democrats AND Republicans have a great opening line to meet voters:
“Did you vote for that useless expletive in 2014? ME NEITHER!”
I know a hell of a lot more about government transparency and not siphoning (so to speak) profits to cronies. And I know more about not personally ripping off the government as well.
I thought that the piece Daniel did that got well-celebrated was out of line and over the top — and I said so in comments. Daniel precipitated and earned his reaction — but fundamentally, I wish him well. He mostly needs to get some successes under his belt before he can get to a better place in life. With some good luck, he won’t turn out to be like you.
Greg, I will bet you $100 donation to the charity of your choice if you win and you give $100 to the charity of my choice if you lose. But why wait. Make out a check to the Eli Home now and save some time.
Hmm it looks like your site ate my first comment it was extremely ceecdaadfdcbddag
14 comments on something all about me! Someone showed me this thinking it might get me to come to my senses. Unfortunately for some I thought it was kinda awesome… maybe I am as crazy as they say…
I don’t know what will come of my effort, but yes, I do appreciate any attention it brings to the general contest. Noticeably, there is a curious and perhaps ominous lack of commentary on Anaheim.
I do not anticipate getting enough votes to change the ultimate result. If I come to think otherwise, I won’t file as an official write-in candidate, which puts me out of the running. Not that it matters given my opponents, but I am conscious of that perception, silly may it be. Everyone should have seen this coming….
Will the Liberal OC be taking up a collection for Diamonds
Truman awards ticket?
If so I can Paypal a small donation. Not because he deserves it but, because it will be lesson in human behavior to see how thankless and shameless a person can be.
No, LibOC will not, Anonymous Coward with Poor Judgment.
I don’t know whether I’ll be attending the Truman Awards Dinner this year. Of course, that puts me in pretty good company — that of the Keynote Speaker.
(Now let’s see if you’re one of the people who know about that or one of the ones that doesn’t.)
Just confirmed the keynote speaker will absolutely be attending.
Pray tell than Mr. Diamond. Did you seek an exemption from party dues based on what you called “economic hardship”. I was told and have read REPEATEDLY you had requested an exemption .
I neither know if this is true or possible but, I DO KNOW: You are offensive, narrcisistic, selfish and frankly a cancer in the party. You scare off activist minded people, you practice insider politics. That said, at the end of the day you are DIVISIVE. You are worst than George Bush in that respect.
Take your cabal and get on the sidelines. We are PROGRESSIVE not OPPRESSIVE.
The only coward here is the one who won’t ( not can’t) pay his own way.
GET A JOB.