If you haven’t seen the new movie “The Social Reckoning,”see it. A whistleblower exposes Facebook practices that led to hundreds of millions in lawsuit settlements against the powerful social media company for abusive practices. One of these is that thre is a failure of Facebook to factcheck ads and posts.
And fact-checking ought to be a basic element of campaign mail that hits your mailbox too.
This weekend, The 1962 PAC of the Lincoln Club of OC sent a hit piece against council candidate and former Mayor Sukhee Kang, tying him to former council member Tammy Kim, who was charged with 10 felonies after the 2020 elections.
The mail piece suggests:
- Tammy Kim’s #1 priority is getting Kang elected to city council – even after her arrest
- That Kim wrote a personal check to Kang
- Kim’s payment to “Kang whom she’s chosen to replace herself on the city council.”
I doubt Kim’s top priority is anything but successfully completing her mental health diversion that woud allow all criminal charges to be dismissed against her.
Kim did not write a check; a contribution was made electronically, and once, discovered by be the Kang campaign, the funds were returned to Kim.
Lastly, Kang is running in District#1, not Kim’s District #3 where she owns a condo, or District #5 where she was charged with election fraud.
Kang is the featured target on both sides of the mailer; The PAC could have gone after incumbent Council member Melinda Liu if they wanted to use the Tammy Kim angle. Liu was a commissioner for Kim and also hired Kim’s chief of staff, Evette Kim, to be her chief of staff after Tammy Kimi lost the 2024 Mayoral election to Larry Agran.
And as far as tar and feathering, those who support Tammy’s Kim’s 2020 Council campaign include the DPOC, a host of unions, fellow elected Democrats. And I also gave her money as well.
These attack mailers will also continue should Irvine voters pass a ranked choice voting measure D next month which promises nicer campaigns. This mailer is evidence that attacks on candidates will just move to PACs and IEs. Because the mailer targeted Kang andnot Liu, that means he’s the candidate they want to stop to clear a path for John Park — a former commissioner known for attending few commission meetings, Saying little to nothing, and calling for cuts to city budgets that his own marketing firm benefitted from when Vice Mayor James Mai hired park to promote Mai.
Could the Lincoln Club be more racist???? Gross!
Going after Kang would make you think he must be polling well or something, but I suspect it’s more about GOP’s obsession with Tammy Kim more than anything. I guess she should thank them go keeping her relevant. I reckon most reasonable people don’t view her as a criminal, and to me, what she was accused of doesn’t come close to all the fraud, corruption and abuse we’ve seen from republicans. What’s truly bizarre though was Kang’s defensive message, which actually raises more questions about his own judgement than it answers. He comes across as a democrat who lacks the backbone to push back, more concerned about protecting his political career than anything else. But whatever, this is the world we live in now.
Tammy chimed in on DGI’s post on RCV,expressing concern about voters who don’t speak English well. I’m surprised that Irvine’s well educated voters didn’t pop up.