Former County Supervisor John Moorlach, outspent and outgunned, pulled off an upset victor over State Assemblyman Don Wagner in Tuesday’s special election for SD-37. In an ideal world, Democrat Louise Stewardson would have mustered enough write in votes to win but she still managed a respectable amount to Naz Namazi who was on the ballot. There’s wasn’t much of a protest vote against either of the major Republican candidates because this election was worse than the First District supervisor’s race in terms of turnout.
Some silver linings:
- Wagner will finish his last term in Sacramento and come up to resume his private life, unless he decides to run for Irvine city council or school board.
- Wagner’s loss puts Harry Sidhu’s fast tracked Assembly campaign on hold until the 2016 election; Irvine mayor Steve Choi, a oft-mentioned opponent, will have to decide to run for assembly or another spots as Mayor or City Council.
- Republicans spent silly amount of money on behalf of Wagner.
- Moorlach isn’t universally loved by his own party, let alone Democrats; he’ll be seated at the kid’s table and won’t get a lot of support from either party and he won’t have nearly the pull he had while a member of the BoS.
- The finger pointing at Wagner’s consultants has already begun.
- I don’t believe a Democrat has ever held this State Senate seat, so not having a candidate on the ballot is hardly a sin for the DPOC that bitter ex-DPOC vice chair Greg Diamond says it is.
- Louise Stewardson’s write-in campaign did garner attention to her as a candidate for some future office, whether its the Huntington Beach city council or the state assembly seat. She’s a good person with the right ideals and the DPOC should embrace her next race.
- Wagner now occupies “lame duck” status sooner than any assembly member elected in 2014; he’d do well to make sure the Irvine Planning Commission and Mayor Choi don’t screw up the Veteran’s Cemetery and Memorial.
Right about now incoming GOP Majority Leader Jean Fuller is saying, “why me?”
Moorlach is about to find out that office space and office budget are distributed according to seniority. Guess what that means for the most junior senator in the minority party?
He also won’t have a press corps that protects him like the one he had in OC.
Get the popcorn out. The microwave will be working overtime watching this show.
Well, per Mr. Diamond, Moorlach will be at the Kiddie Table for a food fight exposing all sorts of people on the right and left for wrongdoing and the Republicans will give him what they want because they need his vote. Wrong. Moorlach will vote with the Republicans because its really his only option. Its like a child threatening to hold their breath until they turn blue. Go ahead.
And this gem: “Only someone who not only has no idea about politics, but about most of life itself, could write his last bullet point. I’m going to luxuriate in this one for a while. First — yes, it’s not “a sin.” A sin is a moral failure, like not giving a damn about the needy. This is a bumble, a fumble, a boner, a slip, a clank, an air ball, an own goal, an unforced error. It speaks not to morality, but competence.”
No idea about life itself — uttered by a barely employed lawyer who has failed at every office he’s run for who’s been booted from a key party leadership post…and I really think he needs to stop using the phrase “own goal” unless he’s actually played a soccer game in the last — oh 10 years.
Have you ever run for office?
I ran and won a seat for AD-68 California Democratic Party delegate. I also ran and won four terms on my homeowner’s association board — which is the most basic form of local government there is. We built up reserves, conducted some major infrastructure repairs and upgrades, and increased fees only once — by $10 a month — in my 8 years on the board. Not shabby.
Pointing out the obvious, if there were a upstairs rental association, Greg would be FIRST to putting his name on the ballot!
Funny thing is, I don’t see a lot of “skin in the game” comin’ from that dude.
From today’s Register:
“I have no illusions of grandeur,” said Moorlach, 59. “But I have 20 years of experience and I do have relationships. I’ve had a relationship with the governor since he was attorney general, and he understands my concerns. I look forward to working with him and to doing what I can to improve the state.”
It doesn’t get much more delusional than this.
I want to trade avatars with RHackett.
Does John Moorlach get to collect his $12,000/month pension and taxpayer funded retiree health insurance coverage from the OC if he takes the Senate job? If he does, isn’t that double dipping, something he ripped retired county employees for who came back part time as extra help employees in their old departments?