State Rep. Bill Brough (AD-73) has lost the support of his own party. The right wing blog RightOnDaily reported on the OC GOP’s announcement that they have asked Brough to not seek re-election and instead retire. One GOP operative told me he Brough will ignore the will of the OC GOP with a “it’s not like others in the party haven’t listened to Fred Whittaker (OC GOP Chair) before.”
From the blog, these gems:
Bill Brough is tracking the Chad Mayes Pattern. In his narcissistic rage, he is pulling out all the stops. He had supporters come who yelled at the Central Committee, an older women confronted Jenniffer Rodriguez physically in an attempt to intimidate her.
In Brough’s alcohol-drenched mind, the talking points are if they had anything they’d sue me. Like real people have the financial resources to sustain a lawsuit against someone who owns no real property known to be living off of his campaign account? (Bottom line – spend hundreds of thousands on a lawsuit with no hope to gain a penny from Brough who has little if any means). These were the absurd talking points of the rabid dogs Brough brought with him.
Like Mayes – Brough is beating his chest in the face of the weakness of Republican Leadership.
Like Mayes – Brough has enablers in the legislature, including Stephen Choi, who spoke on Brough’s behalf in executive session. Choi lied on behalf of Brough with a deceptive claim that the women’s complaints were not in the Assembly Ethics committee. This was a deceptive sleight of semantics to make them not seem real. As confirmed in public by our CAGOP Chair and repeatedly written on this blog, as many as 7 complaints exist with the Assembly working group on workplace issues. They are handling #METOO issues, not the ethics committee. Choi knew this when he lied.
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Despite Stephen Choi lying, a resolution calling on Bill Brough to retire easily reached 2/3 in the OCGOP. There were no more than 4 no votes according to sources in the room.
The resolution reads: Be It Resolved, that based on the totality of the circumstances surrounding the Assemblyman, the Republican Party of Orange County calls on Bill Brough not to file for Re-Election to the State Assembly and to retire at the end of his current term.
As I predicted, Bill Brough defiantly told everyone he is running no matter what. Because he is right don’t you know…
Brough has already drawn a primary challenger in the form of Republican Melanie Eustice, the Chief of Administration at the Orange County District Attorney’s office and Democratic activist Scott Rhinehart, who lost to Brough last time around, hopes to ride another Blue wave for the 2020 presidential election year. Jeff Kitchen is also running but his Facebook page is his only campaign presence and he seems very focused on climate change.
The OC Weekly chimed in with a great story too. From the story:
Despite the myriad charges against Trump and Kavanaugh, Brough can also see a Republican Party still largely loyal to both men (though there are three primary challengers to Trump, the GOP is taking steps to cancel various state presidential primary elections).
This must be confusing to Brough, who’s own battle with multiple allegations of sexual harassment has brought an entirely different reaction from the local Republican Party powerbrokers. He’s defiantly proclaimed his innocence, insisted that all the accusations are just a conspiracy to attack him over his opposition to the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agency and denounced those women who’ve accused him of wrongdoing (the state Fair Political Practices Commission is also investigating Brough on an unrelated campaign matter).
“I have worked in Republican politics for the last quarter-century on campaigns, as a staff person and the last decade as an elected official,” Brough wrote in a letter to the editor published in the Dana Point Times on Aug. 30. “One thing I learned over the years is when you kick the beehive, the bees come out… I will never be one to go along to get along. I was elected to fight for good government and for the taxpayers of my district—no matter the consequences. I will continue to lead this and fight for my constituents over the interests of the establishment class, no matter the lengths that they go and the lies that they tell in an attempt to deter and discredit me.”
So Brough doesn’t want to go; he won’t listen to his own party. Perhaps its time for voters to toss him out.