Hello Kitty. Ouch. Ouch.
Those pesky Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform are at it again, updating their previous introduction of Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo to reflect the fact that the stooge candidate created by her team to draw votes away from her opponent Linda Whitaker is now charged with perjury and got hauled off the the Santa Ana Jail a few days ago. Busted.
Poor patsy Scott Markowitz, the stooge in question is facing two felonies while the identity of his manipulators remains a secret. For now.
However we do know the name of the one and only beneficiary of Markowitz and his MAGA ballot statement: Vivian Jaramillo who disingenuously referred to Markowitz as her “opponent.” No, we meant to be an ally in her election and of course she knows it.
Meantime, Republican Central had this to say about the Markowitz Scandal, laying out some facts, and teeing up additional questions.
“Markowitz was a registered Democrat, who switched parties before submitting fraudulent nomination documents hours before filing then proceeded to campaign as a ‘MAGA Republican’ to split the vote away from our only endorsed Republican and help the lone Democrat in the race,” the statement read.
The OC Republicans know all about this bad behavior. They did it in 1995 and the scandal drew in Curt Pringle, Scott Baugh, Dana Rohrabacher and some of their underlings.
Hope these get sent out so I can add to my growing collection.
Soon, grasshopper!
Dirty politics. The gift that keeps giving.
Can Jaramillo’s broadside survive this broadside?
I wonder when her “opponent” will point the finger at her.
My senses tell me that the manipulating Zahra had his sweaty little palms on this also or at least was privy to it. He better hope nothing surfaces, otherwise his long-time dream of being a major will be shattered. Boohoo.
Regardless, it won’t be not long until that liar does something incriminating.
I think he’s in on it, but the more I reflect on the story I keep getting a picture of Aaruni Thakur, the ethics-free carpetbagger who tried to steal this seat four years ago.
He and his kinfolk have given a boat-load of money to Jaramillo, so he’s obviously tryin to be a kingmaker in north OC. Or queenmaker. It makes me wonder if this isn’t a plan in a run for Assembly when Quirk lets go. But I’ve heard Zahra has his greasy sights on that job, too.
But let’s face it. How vulnerable is the Syrian immigrant Zahra, who committed Marriage Fraud – a federal crime – to get an illegal foothold in the USA.
Sooner or later somebody’s gonna interview Michele Salmon – the gay Zahra’s fake American (female) wife in an Arkansas half-way house.
I just want to say that I was wrong and FFFF was right. And that I’m an idiot and no one likes me. Mea culpa.
Pah-raise Jay-sus! I has seen the light!
Too late. You must leave Fullerton and move to Wyoming to repent and redeem yourself.
Nothing new under the sun. You’ve never been right on anything discussed on this board.
Ffff was absolutely not right. It’s not right to accuse someone of a crime without evidence. The DA is right, but it’s also not what FFFF was concerned about.
A candidate with a trumpy statement and democratic backers is legal. They could have done that without signature fraud or perjury.
Rave on.
How come this is not published on the Observer yet they had to publish a crying story about Jung putting his signs up!!
They deleted comments, too.
UnAmerican Kennedy clan. What happened to the 1st Amendment? Only applies to the other team? They are complicit in this election rigging and the fraud Markowitz-Jaramillo because they willfully turned a blind eye when they are supposed to be “Fullerton’s only independent newspaper”. They did get the “Fullerton” part right. Maybe even the “only”. But they aren’t “independent”. And they are hardly “news”.
It’s not a 1st Amendment issue, of course. They can let anyone or no one post comments.
However the hypocrisy of running cover for crimes, perhaps several more is beyond despicable. The Kennedy Sisters are aiding and abetting the malefactors in their own warped way. And they’re happy with it – sublimely stupid, mostly.
They are only “independent” in their own desiccated world-view.
“They did it in 1995”
Yes, they did. And the Capizzi prosecutions created such political fall-out that he lost the next DA election to…Tony Rackaukas.
I wish someone would clean that cat box. It’s really starting to stink!
I bet the next shoe is going to fall on Mohan and Aruni.
Don’t start blowing each other just yet…Tard Spitzer may have overstepped his bounds, which wouldn’t be the first time. From today’s OC Register:
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer might have overstepped his authority this week when he declared a candidate for Fullerton City Council ineligible to run for office, according to election officials and legal experts.
On Tuesday, Oct. 15, Spitzer’s office issued a statement announcing the arrest of Scott Markowitz, a candidate for Fullerton City Council, charging him with two felony counts of falsifying nomination paperwork. Markowitz faces up to three years and eight months in state prison if convicted on both counts.
But as he announced the arrest, Spitzer also said Markowitz was ineligible to run for city council.
“The decision to file criminal charges against the candidate prior to an election is not a decision I made lightly,” Spitzer said.
“But given the risk to the electoral process as well as the potential of the City of Fullerton having to pay for a special election should Markowitz be elected, there was no choice but to file criminal charges prior to the election and alert voters of his ineligibility to run for City Council.”
Spitzer made that declaration despite the fact that Markowitz had not been convicted of any crime.
So far, no local election authority has yet to agree with Spitzer that, absent a conviction, Markowitz is ineligible to run for office or to serve on the council if he wins.
Markowitz has met “all the technical requirements” to appear on the ballot, said Fullerton City Clerk Lucinda Williams.
With less than three weeks to go before Election Day, ballots with Markowitz’s name have already been mailed to voters. He is one of four candidates, along with Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo, Jamie Valencia and Linda Whitaker, running to represent the city’s Fourth District.
Other election law experts question Spitzer’s opinion.
“I’ve never heard of such a thing of a DA just simply declaring someone ineligible,” said election law expert Rick Hasen, Director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at the UCLA School of Law.
“I am aware of no authority in the state elections code giving a prosecutor the power to declare a candidate ineligible for office,” Hasen added. “This candidate may well not be eligible to serve in office, but I expect that determination would have to be made by a judge if the candidate were to win the election.”
In multiple conversations with the Register, the DA’s office has doubled down on its statement that Markowitz is ineligible to appear on the ballot.
“It’s very clear based on our investigation that Markowitz did not meet the threshold to qualify for the ballot,” OCDA spokesperson Kimberly Edds said on Thursday.
At issue is the validity of electoral paperwork filed with the city by Markowitz. In California, candidates for city council must obtain 20 signatures on nomination paperwork to qualify for the ballot, according to the state Elections Code. Anyone over the age of 18 can circulate nomination paperwork, but the person signing the filing paperwork attesting that they were the circulator must be the same person who witnessed the signatures.
The district attorney’s office alleges that Markowitz did not personally witness the signatures. But by signing the nomination paperwork that he was the circulator, and by attesting that he personally witnessed the signatures, the DA says Markowitz committed two counts of perjury.
“Numerous voters who signed Markowitz’s nomination paperwork told district attorney investigators that Markowitz was not the circulator of the paperwork, and he did not witness them signing the nomination papers, rendering the signatures invalid,” the DA’s office said Tuesday in a prepared statement.
But none of those signatures have yet been rendered invalid by a court. And, according to Fullerton City Clerk Williams, the OC Registrar of Voters did, in fact, verify the signatures to ensure they correspond with registered voters in Fullerton’s Fourth District.
“The signatures on the form were valid signatures of registered voters in the district,” Williams said. “The issue is whether the nomination paper was legally submitted.”
“The City would not make a judgment regarding the OCDA’s charges,” Williams added.
And though she said she hasn’t conducted deep research into the question, Williams believes Markowitz remains a qualified candidate until the issue is adjudicated by a court.
“If he were to win the election, our city attorney and I would discuss his status at that point,” she said. “Then we will follow whatever state election law says we’re supposed to do.”
Orange County Registrar Bob Page also said it was not his decision to determine Markowitz’s eligibility to run or hold office.
Spitzer, on Tuesday, also suggested his office’s move to charge Markowitz was part of a broader push to ensure the integrity of the election.
“American democracy relies on the absolute integrity of the electoral process,” he said.
“Voters must have total confidence that every election is being carried out in a fair and unbiased manner. Interference in the electoral process in any manner and at any stage jeopardizes the will of the people being carried out while eroding the trust of voters that their vote counts. As the elected District Attorney of Orange County, I refuse to allow our electoral process to be subverted and exploited by anyone.
But Hasen said that the DA’s proclamation about Markowitz’s eligibility is itself a possible step against electoral integrity.
“It’s not up to the district attorney to decide who is an eligible candidate,” he said. “That’s a question for election officials and the courts.”
Matt Lesenyie, an assistant professor at Cal State University Long Beach who researches political communication and voter information, said Markowitz might have a case of election tampering if the DA’s allegations are determined to be false.
“It is remarkable to file charges and declare a candidate ineligible to serve,” Lesenyie said.
“My read of the case is that it is a clear-cut, black-and-white, affidavit forgery,” he said. “So Markowitz signed his confession in a way. That still makes me think the DA is putting the cart before the horse with the declaration before the election. It is an extreme level of confidence on their part. If they are wrong, I don’t see why Markowitz wouldn’t have a case of election tampering.”
Markowitz did not respond to a request to comment for this story.
No hearing dates have yet been scheduled for his case, according to online county court records.
You make a valid point. Valid but not convincing.
In any case nobody gives a rat’s ass about Markowitz’s perjury. We’re going for bigger fish around here. We want to know who suborned Markowitz’s perjury – a felony.
Maybe next time Spitzer will just avoid the verbal gas.
Ahahaha! I would LOVE to see Marky bring a charge of “election tampering” (what ever that is). Hoogerbooger, can you help out?
How can he be a candidate if he didn’t complete the requirements lawfully?
He didn’t get the signatures himself. He is not eligible to be on the ballot, right?
Doesn’t make sense.
No, it’s true. His illegality as a candidate is not established until he makes his deal.
But the circumstances of his candidacy make it impossible for him to claim he’s been damaged, somehow.
As Harpoon said, nobody cares about this minnow. The question is who orchestrated the plan? A collusion to commit a crime, any crime, is felony conspiracy.
What plan? Nothing about him being a candidate *required* any conspiracy or crime.
It’s 20 fucking signatures. Not witnessing them personally is laziness. Lying about it is a crime and stupidity but no one seems to think they’re not real signatures.
Keep throwing the ball in the dirt, jackoff. Nobody is swinging at that shit.
And yet everything about him and his circumstances suggests a collusion.
Typical diversion. You keep challenging something that no one is asserting, i.e. that the signatories aren’t “real” people.
The facts are simple: the unknown Markowitz pops up, creates a campaign committee; someone else known by the signatories collects the signatures: Markowitz commits perjury and turns in a ballot statement that NEVER would have earned any of those signatures; and then Markowitz vanishes off the face of the electoral landscape. And there’s no collusion? He did it all on his own, but was just “lazy?” Doesn’t sound lazy to me. Sounds like quite a bit of effort went into this.
Good synopsis. I think I’ll use this in a post. Thanks.
And so the the signers were either duped or they were in on it.
Did the circulator(s) pretend to be Markowitz?
Did the signers know the circulator wasn’t Markowitz?
The really aren’t a lot of options.
“collusion”
Well since no one becomes a candidate all by themselves, that’s 100% a given. Most people don’t know the process. And you need signatures.
And anyone can get 20 signatures.
Hardly relevant. Markowitz and whoever set him believed HE couldn’t get 20 signatures.
20 voters signed to put a guy named Markowitz on the ballot, and he and everyone else knows getting 20 signatures is a triviality. A few family members and then a walk down the block would get me 20 in an afternoon.
If someone was *pretending* to be him to trick those signing that would be a criminal conspiracy. A stupid and unnecessary one, but I can see the argument. Short of that, signing that he collected the signatures was simply his own poor decision.
I certainly don’t feel bad for Markowitz at this point, he’s a big enough boy to know better than to sign a government document attesting to something that isn’t so, especially when politics are involved, since 50% of the people around have reason to make your life as difficult as you permit them to.
When you climb the ladder, everyone sees your ass.
If you don’t feel bad for Markowitz then you really have an empathy problem, or you’re still trying to shine your little pen light on the patsy rather than the criminal crew that was behind using this dull tool.
“If you don’t feel bad for Markowitz then you really have an empathy problem”
No, I just think when you sign on the dotted line… with lots of scary threatening words around it… that’s on you. I mean if it was a teenager or someone addled, or someone under duress, you might be able to elicit some sympathy.
But if you’re a grown up likely going in on political shenanigans certain to draw attention and then blow off the legalities… no, you cannot really blame anyone else.
Personal responsibility is a thing, whether you can accept it or not, even for liberals.
I think the point is that he was certified, he’s on the ballot. To undo that you need to go to court not just make a formal accusation (charges) that the signatures are invalid. Nothing the DA says is effective until it’s proven in court.
Otherwise where is the “due process?”
If by the lucky stroke of God, and Kitty wins, trust me a lawsuit will be filed immediately. And, Fullerton’s 4th District election will not get certified till all of Team Jaramillo’s participants, Ajay Mohan, Aaruni, Zahra, Briseno, the Kennedy sisters, Diane Vena, the Cashes, etc, will get subpoenaed. All emails, phone calls, text messages, etc, will get exposed. I have the feeling Team Jamamillo will sink Kitty Jaramillo’s battleship. Election manipulating is a crime.
Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud, or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of rival candidates, or both.[1] It differs from but often goes hand-in-hand with voter suppression. What exactly constitutes electoral fraud varies from country to country, though the goal is often election subversion. Ajay Mohan, welcome to Orange County!
Say it with me, Bar:
I
Am
Not
A
Lawyer
JRH, I know you’re not a lawyer. You sure come off a real live dumb ass refusing to admit your own ignorance – which is a common trait of most if not all Observerites who drank the Kennedy sisters coo laid.
No, the point was neither of us are. I know and acknowledge what I don’t know.
So all of you holding forth about what an election related crime is don’t seem to know shit from shinola. Hence phrases like “election manipulating is a crime.”
And yet you ramble on and on, robbing the room of oxygen.
I agree that the DA should not have made any such comment other than announcing the charges.
For one thing it was unnecessary given the DA’s own justification of saving Fullerton money. Markowitz was never going to win.
It’s also odd for the da to announce such charges so close to the election.
If the case didn’t look so cut and dried it looks like actual shenanigans on top of shenanigans. An October surprise.
This was orchestrated by Aaruni Thakur, he asked Ajay Mohan to help Scott and help him file. There are messages that corroborate this and this was not an inside job from the Democratic Party of OC leadership but more Ajay Mohan helping his buddy Aaruni who wants Kitty to be a benchwarmer for him to run for the seat.
When they came and asked me to resign those papers because the first one I signed got lost, I did so willingly.
I committed no crime.
Hey, Diane, if that really is you?
If so, who is “they?” Inquiring minds want to know.
I’m glad you admit “willingly” signing papers (the number of times you did isn’t quite relevant. But maybe it is).
And we want to know why you signed ANY papers other than those of Jaramillo whom you had ALREADY endorsed.
C’mon, honey. Spill it.
Who came? A friend? Do you willingly sign shit that people put in front of you?
Oddly enough I don’t believe you weren’t in on the scam it. You’re a friend of Jaramillo. Why would you support an opponent after you had endorsed Jaramillo?
Whether you committed a “crime” is neither here nor there. The real issue is that you know the circulator who collected your signature, and that person is obviously in on the Markowitz perjury.
Just think of it, Diane: you participated in a fraud that resulted in ruining this poor patsy’s life.
This story has taken an interesting twist. But I agree with the FFFF team that there is a much larger conspiracy afoot in this process and that definitely needs to be further investigated by Tard Spitzer. The conspiracy itself is a felony so no wonder Hello Kitty started putting some daylight in between her and her errand boy. It’s the larger conspiracy that needs to be prosecuted to send a message that the people won’t tolerate the corrupting of our local elections. Markoputz’s own culpability in all of this is small potatoes compared to the crimes committed by the larger conspiracy.
Now if we could only figure out a way to prevent the local fire and cop heroes from corrupting our local elections as well……