

Gang Chen, the public face of the anti-Veterans cemetery and memorial at the Great Park, is taking his advocacy to a new level and has decided to run for Mayor of Irvine. Chen held a fundraiser in the Quail Hill neighborhood of Irvine and it was attended by Irvine City Council member Christina Shea.
Should Irvine Mayor Steven Choi make it to the top two for Assembly ins AD-68, he’ll have to step down from the City Council and there’s speculation Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Lalloway would run for mayor from a safe seat on the city council.
We contacted Ms. Shea who confirmed her attendance at the event and said was she was invited to the event and came to thank those in attendance for supporting the Republican ticket in 2014. She told TheLiberalOC she offered no endorsement of Chen’s campaign and made no financial contribution. Shea emphasized that she told Chen she stood by her vote to allocate land at the Great Park for a Veteran’s Cemetery, which seems to contradict early messages she’s put out to try and find some sort of compromise between the needs of Veteran’s and those who bought million dollar homes via letters to residents that the council’s support was only tentative.
Chen’s platform appears to be one of repealing the Veteran’s Cemetery at the Great Park.
While Ms. Shea has voted for the Veterans Cemetery and Memorial at the Great Park, she has been an unabashed cheerleader for developer FivePoint, the developer selling homes to Chinese Nationals, a key market for new homes near the Great Park.
Don’t know anything about Mr. Gang Chen, but my personal opinion is before running for Mayor, a candidate needs to do a term on the City Council to get the hang of how the system works. I think Mr. Chen is jumping the gun and if his campaign is going to be based against the Veteran’s Cemetery then he is wasting his time and donors money. Chen won’t even get the support of the County Republican Party much less endorsement of the local conservatives.
As I recall, Beth Krom’s seat is up in 2016 and with Larry Agran and the Great Park albatross around her neck, she will be vulnerable. I hear we will get has been retread Mary Ann Gaido, back for another futile attempt running for Mayor to bring back her glory days. Without Larry Agran’s under the table financing gimmicks, Mary Ann will be out of her league.
Christina Shea has just announced her running for Council again and despite your continued trashing, she remains the most popular person on the Council. She has never showed favorable treatment to Five Points other than acknowledging they are the land owner at the Great Park helped craft the deal for timely Park development, as opposed to ten years of nothing under the Agranistas. Additionally, as Christina told you in your phone conversation, she remains firm and unmovable in her support for the Veteran’s Cemetery. Christina continues to speak up even against her own group for what is in the best interest of the citizens of Irvine. this is amply demonstrated by her opposition to the give away lease on the practice facility by the Ducks hockey team. Haven’t heard much from Agranista, Beth Krom on that one. Is she siding with Jeff Lalloway in the giveaway, or joining with Christina on the need for a better contract where the Great Park picks up a revenue stream for maintenance and operations.
Bottom line Dan is, the chances of you liberals regaining control of the Council are slim and none. Get over it.
Pat, I haven’t seen any evidence Shea has announced so please send that along. Her story on support for the Vets cemnetery keeps changing. She was initially against it, without consulting FivePoint, remember? Then she wanted to find a win-win. Frankly, I had to keep asking her if she wanted the Cemetery and Memorial at the Great Park as she kept leaving location out.
Could be, the city is not really Republican its more purplish and politics could changed. In fact lots of Chinese may not helped the Republicans in the long term since 2nd and 3rd Chinese are more Democratic. Whites are the most reliable group for Republicans in OC are they are declining because whites are more likely to leave the county since its expensive. In fact if OC wants Republicans to win the party needs to modernized tone down on Religion like in God we trust and deal more with economics and why OC is better than China. Also, Irvine is the tech city of OC so it should go back into that instead of lots of housing.