Anna Drive Candidates Forum Draws 50

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Last Friday night was an interesting one in Anaheim political circles to say the least.  The Angels were home, losing game 2 to the Royals.  Lorri Galloway had a campaign open house that drew hundreds of supporters.  And there was a candidate’s forum on Anna Drive that attracted council candidates Dr. Jose Moreno, Donna Acevedo, Tait-slater James Vanderbilt, Tom Tait and William Denis Fitzgerald.  The Galloway event was well attended.  The Angels game was sold out.  According to Acevedo, the Anna Drive campaign forum attracted at most, 50 people.

But let’s not let the low attendance at the Anna Drive event get in the way of proclaiming this as evidence that Tom Tait really cares about Anaheim.  Per our friend Cynthia Ward on the OJ blog:

Last Friday night, Tait had tickets for the second Angels playoff game — tickets that any of us would have traded for  our right arms for.  If he didn’t care to sit with his colleagues in the City’s suite, I am fairly confident that Tait and Associates has some season tickets that are far from slumming it. Yet Tom and Julie Tait were not at the game Friday night.

(Cue the paid apologists for the majority to blame Tait for the Angels’ loss, because he tanked morale for refusing to cheer them on, further proof he wants the team to leave so he can bulldoze the stadium and put up affordable housing. And while they are at it, they can blame him for the beating in the parking lot, because Tait failed to provide enough security for beer-filled fans on an adrenaline high, right?)

So where were they?  The Taits were on Anna Drive Friday night — which sounds like the safer of the locations — at a candidate’s forum hastily assembled by people who are unlikely to be rich or powerful or influential, and thus are written off by most other “leaders” because they are not helpful to the ambitions of those leaders.

Tait was not even one of the candidates invited. This was a forum for Council candidates. He came because he wanted to observe, he wanted to hear what questions and concerns the residents would like to have addressed, and he came to support James Vanderbilt, who was doing all in his power to support the Mayor. Since Tait was there, and Fitzgerald crashed the party, the residents invited them to sit in and participate.

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Meanwhile, Greg Diamond, a DPOC central committee member, is playing delightful word games to all-but-endorse Tait without actually saying the words.  Instead, he belittles the DPOC endorsed candidate for Mayor, apologizes for the conservative Republican member of the Tait slate who dropped out on the eve of Domestic Violence Awareness month (as does Ward), and has yet to address CATER’s crushing loss in court which has cost Anaheim taxpayers north of $100,000 (some of which the city can legally seek as reimbursement).

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Did you know Tom Tait is loved?  Loved I tell you.  People come to hug him all the time.  And I’m sure Lucille Kring gets hugged at her fundraisers too.  Lorri Galloway certainly does.  The fact that many residents continue to call her for help on a regular basis even though she’s no longer on the council should speak volumes about how’s she’s viewed.  You have to admire the fiction being put out that Kring and Galloway are engaged in some sort of catfight based on a complete conspiracy theory of made up facts and supposition.  Ward has a career as a novelist.

The fact of the matter is Kring and Tait are battling for what’s left of the Republican vote in Anaheim.  Fitzgerald’s presence in the race will drain a couple of thousand votes from both of them.  Tait needs to peel off a huge portion of Galloway’s base — the same base that overwhelming elected her to the top of the ticket twice.  And while Tait and Kring have been fighting it out in city council meetings, Galloway has been meeting voters directly and walking neighborhoods.  And she probably did so in those cute shoes Ward obsesses over.

 

10 Comments

  1. Season tix “far from slumming it?” Way to drive home the point that Tait anointed the audience with his presence. Not too heavy handed and patronizing, is it?

    • Yep, “far from slumming it.” As in, very good tickets any of us would be thrilled to use. As in, not the nosebleed seats the rest of us scramble for on discount nights so we can afford a game AND peanuts. With tickets like that waiting for him (which I would bet he gave to a bunch of kids-without a press release to take credit for it) the Mayor’s presence anywhere BUT in those seats would be a sacrifice for an Angels fan who has been following the team since childhood. To care more about a community event where his presence was not expected, than to use the tickets he was certain to have from at least two pathways speaks volumes on the character of this leader. Perfect? Nope. Two weeks ago I could have strangled him myself over something stupid. But how can one argue against his humanity and genuine passion for the people he serves?

      What part of this do you find heavy-handed or patronizing? That the Mayor had chosen to spend time with constituents instead of using luxury tickets? Or that he failed to bring along his own PR crew and photographer to document his magnanimous work, rubbing elbows with people unable to write him a check, whose endorsements are unlikely to appear in the newspaper? While others will spend time in this neighborhood only to quite LITERALLY exploit the residents as photo props Tait just shows up because he likes many of them, and cares. Sorry you take offense to that, or my reaction to it.

      THANK YOU Chris Prevatt, always the gentleman. It was a well attended event given the poor turnout elsewhere in Anaheim for years, at similar events. The crowd was energized, engaged, and interested. But hey, why would Dan miss an opportunity to make himself feel superior by mocking others who are trying to make a difference with the sweat of their brow and time they could be putting into a much needed paycheck, but instead put in to making things even incrementally better in a neighborhood so bad that the slightest improvement is enormous? Dan, at what point does the party that claims to represent the poor and downtrodden tell you to stop claiming them?

      • from the woman who stalks Lorri Galloway events to see what the crowd was, I’m not surprised an event that attracted 50 (“at the most” according to Donna) is hailed as a success. The crowd was likely much smaller and many didn’t stay for the whole thing; Galloway had considerably more people at her event and the Angels meanwhile we’re collecting money for yet another Anaheim charity. But people hug Tom because they love him. Which is of course why the Tait bots need to destroy the character of anyone who opposes him.

      • But Cynthia, he did show up with his own photographer. Greg Diamond takes more pictures of Tait than anyone. And he did bring his own PR crew, you and Vern to document every loving movement. And as far as the poor and bad neighborhoods go, I will remind you that years of conservative doctrine and public policy have eroded the middle class leaving the poor poorer and the rich richer. The crowd was engaged? The video clip I got showed 10 kids having a blast playing games in the back of the yard. They were engaged.

  2. Dan, it is unreasonable for you to criticize the attendance at a community candidate forum for a small and distinct residential community as some sort of failure. Given voter turnout in general, it appears to me that 50 attendees is a great outcome for such a local candidate forum. It seems to be in line with other such events held throughout the county.

    • Chris: Gracias for your comment. Dan is the epitome of comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted, and this post is almost as nasty as his apologia after his pal Matty Cunningham mocked grieving families last year. Do OC a favor and trade Dan to Matty’s pathetic blog for his appropriate value: a bag of air.

      • I don’t know Gustavo, but being critical of a mayor who didn’t seem to know where Anna Drive was until 2 years ago and answering fawning praise by his fandom for being at this event when he could have been at the Angels game strikes me as afflicting the comfortable. The very comfortable in Tait’s case. I’m also pointing out Galloway’s open house that same night drew about 120. And as far as comforting the afflicted, there are two Eli Home kids sleeping on new mattresses I bought for them last month at a fundraiser (8 new beds purchased total). What is your charitable contribution to Anaheim these days?

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