Will wonders every cease? The Orange County Register’s editorial desk has endorsed their second Democrat for the 2014 election cycle and it’s Bao Nguyen for Mayor of Garden Grove. Now the good news is this is one more Democratic endorsement than all of the 2012 election cycle. The bad news is it’s still a piss poor representation of good candidates who should be getting endorsements but don’t. The Register has yet to write about Assembly candidate Bill Brough’s financial; troubles or why Congressional candidate Mimi Walters refuses to actually ask voters in a public forum to vote for her.
Here’s highlights of the endorsement:
Mr. Nguyen’s election would represent a changing of the guard in the north Orange County city of more than 170,000 residents, which has been led by the same mayor for much of the past 20 years.
We believe the up-and-coming Mr. Nguyen, 34, who was born in a refugee camp, arrived in the United States at 3 months old, grew up in Garden Grove and graduated from UC Irvine with a political science degree, will bring fresh thinking to Garden Grove’s city government.
“Garden Grove has so many assets,” Mr. Nguyen told us, “but it’s been acting like a Podunk town.” He wants to see his hometown take full advantage of its assets, he said, rather than “riding the coattails of Mickey Mouse” – his allusion to the neighboring city of Anaheim.
If elected, said Mr. Nguyen, he will focus on vitalizing Garden Grove’s neighborhoods, which, he said, “need attention as much as our tourism industry.” He also intends to focus on the city’s business sector, which, he believes, can attract start-up companies and technology firms, which would bring with them “high-paying jobs.”
We congratulate Nguyen on the endorsement and remind the Register that there are twice as many registered Democrats in OC than the paper has subscribers.
Any coincidence that the Register’s two Democratic endorsements are in North, not South, County and that the races are smaller ones? When the Reg endorses Dems for statewide or national offices, I’ll take them seriously. Until then, these are token attempts at liberalism. And, why doesn’t the Register pursue why Mimi Walter’s doesn’t live in the district she seeks to represent?