Yesterday Rogue Elephant posted this over at the Orange Juice blog. The gist of the post is that a loophole in state campaign finance laws permits politicos like Repuglicans Jim Brulte and Dick Ackerman to cook up “putative” campaign committees for future office in order to transfer existing campaign balances, raise tons of money from lobbyists for these supposed campaigns, and then distribute the proceeds to exert influence in other elections across the State.
Rogue Elephant notes that Loophole Linda’s 72nd Assembly power grab has received $3900 from Brulte’s 2014(!) Board of Equalization Committee. What he doesn’t mention is that she also received the same amount (the limit) from her husband Dick’s similar committee, also for the BoE. Ackerman set up his “2010” BoE committee in as far back as 2006 according an article in the Oakland Tribune that describes the practice.
Why the BoE? Because these useless barnacles have been scraped off the legislature – termed out, but haven’t finished working the system, not by a long shot. They need a plausible office to “run” for, even if they have no intention of actually running. In the meantime Brulte actually works as a lobbyist for an outfit called California Strategies – a collection of former electeds and appointeds working their contacts.So when he gives Mrs. Ackerman money, he can kill two birds with one stone!
Rogue Elephant sums up his take on this pungent mess:
While Linda Ackerman’s campaign funding smells of Sacramento’s bipartisan Culture of Corruption, it also reeks of a Culture of Creepiness. Voters and taxpayers should find it creepy to see former politicians and lobbyists using political slush funds to pull the strings of candidates like Linda Ackerman.
Just as we reported earlier today about Orange, the Linda Ackerman campaign coughed up some more local endorsements, this time in Redevelopment-friendly Brea – where nobody’s property is safe from the City – if they want it.
Here are the two money “quotes”:
“For over 30 years, Linda has served the people of this community,” said Brea Mayor John Beauman. “I support Linda because she is for people, not politics.”
Ho, ho, ho! Mr. Beauman who is known as a bit of a dim bulb supports Linda because she is “for people.” Evidently he is unaware of her Pacific Policy Research Foundation vacation/lobbyist scam; or that she used her husband’s campaign fund as a family cash cow. But Linda is for people. Well, hell! Linda and Dick are “people,” right? So everything’s kosher.
Then there’s this sparkling little jewel:
“I know that Linda will bring a fair, business-minded approach to the state’s budget debacle. The taxpayers of Brea need her in Sacramento to fight for fiscal responsibility and limited government,” said former Mayor of Brea Bev Perry.
More hilarity! We’ve already discounted Ackerman’s so-called business experience so we can dismiss that; what other tools she has in her shed to tackle the state’s “budget debacle” goes unstated by Perry. We’re pretty sure by now that Ackerman will be fair – and give all those Sacramento lobbyists their day at the trough. As far as responsibility and limited government go, we can only say that putting those words in Bev Perry’s mouth attains a new level of political cynicism – even for the Ackermans. Bev Perry was part of the Brea Redevelopment eminent domain machine that ran roughshod all over property owners in what used to be their downtown. Who’s next Lynn “Bulldozer” Daucher?
What a team!
The Linda Ackerman campaign issued one of those out-of-a-can press releases the other day bragging about her endorsement by three City of Orange councilmembers – Cavecche, Murphy, and Dumitru.
We thought we would have some fun with this, reciting the baloney that was assigned to a couple of these worthies, meant to appear as genuine quotations.
“Linda Ackerman has always done what is right for the sake of the community, not political gain,” said Mayor Carolyn Cavecche. “She is a proven leader who will help solve California’s budget crisis and bring Orange County values to the State Assembly.”
Well that’s a tissue of lies. C’mon Carolyn, haven’t you heard about the Pacific Policy Research Foundation? And Carolyn, didn’t you know Linda was paid $76,000 by her husband’s own political campaign – as a “consultant”? How selfless!
So Linda’s a “proven leader?” Leading what, pray tell? The Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League? And she’s going to bring Orange County values to Sacramento? Like skirting the intent of the State Constitution? Like milking lobbyists? Like supporting the pervo Mike Duvall? Weak. Really weak.
Well Cavecche, at least, has proven herself a leader – a leader in Orange pension spiking right out of the OC GOP RINO playbook. Here’s her colleague Murphy:
Citing Ackerman’s fiscal conservative credentials as a businesswoman who has spent years balancing budgets, Councilmember Mark A. Murphy said: “Linda is a fiscal watchdog who will help solve the budget debacle.”
More prime grade bullshit. We’ve already documented that Mrs. Ackerman appears to have no business experience at all. Years “balancing budgets”?!! What budgets would those be, Murph? Her own? Her only “experience” appears to be that she’s a board member for a debt collector. Ya know, Mark, those warm people who take away your house because you can’t pay for your cancer treatment anymore. She’s a fiscal watchdog? How would we ever know? She has no record of watching anything – except maybe the Maui sunsets and the lobbyists across the table at Spataro. Murphy – another zero.
At least the bozo Jon Dumitru was lucky enough to avoid having the Ackerman campaign stuff lies into his mouth – although he probably would have enjoyed it. Another public employee union member on a City Council. Another cypher.
“I am honored to receive the support of so many members of my community,” said Ackerman. “I believe this home-grown support will be instrumental in waging a successful campaign in the weeks ahead.”
We include this wrap up by Loophole Linda so that our readers can relish the irony of Linda bragging about her “home-grown support” in an Assembly district in which she doesn’t even live. Her “community”? That’s priceless. Her community is Irvine!
If there were such a course for ambitious district hopping politicians, one of the basic lessons taught would surely be to learn the boundaries of your would-be district. It’s only polite, after all.
Okay. Linda Ackerman is a political socialite carpetbagger from Irvine, and can’t be expected to know the exact boundaries of the 72nd State Assembly District – the one she doesn’t live in. But, still, this has got to take the cake:
An Ackerman sign in Santa Ana’s City Place? News flash, Linda – Santa Ana is not in the 72nd District! Next time you run for office in a district in which you do not live, at least take the time to learn the cities in the district.
And thanks to Art Pedroza over at the Orange Juice blog who posted on this and helpfully provided the image.
Just in case you needed any more evidence that the two Register political reporters/bloggers Martin Wisckol and Frank Mickadeit are anything other than tools in the Ackerman tool shed, observe this hard hitting piece by Wisckol in his GOP celebrity column, Total Buzz.
A “granny flat”! How quaint! Linda Ackerman is doing what the Ackerman’s seem to do best – mislead the public; here into thinking they’re actually renting an abode in Fullerton. She claims that she and Dick are renting three rooms, plus “kitchen privileges.” What a load of crap. Granny units have kitchens, Linda.
Instead Mrs. Ackerman is renting an address on Lindendale in order to legitimize a carpetbagging political campaign. Nobody, not even her camp followers believe she is living in the place.
The second funniest part of this sad lie is that she claims that renting an apartment is just soooo hard! How would she know? Did she actually try?
And the funniest part is how the sycophant Wisckol just passes along this tripe, all gussied up for credibility now that a “real” reporter has posted it. Note also that Wisckol says there is a “whisper campaign” that his dear Linda is carpetbagging. WTF?
Listen up Marty:
LINDA ACKERMAN IS AN IRVINE CARPETBAGGER!
Is that loud enough for you, Mr. Wisckol? And just in case you missed it:
The Fullerton Harpoon did a post yesterday about an article that the Register’s Frank Mickadeit did about the Ackerman/Norby feud. Frank didn’t bother to tell his readers that he pals around with the Ackermans socially – just like he did with Mike Carona. But we know. Mickadeit proceeded to pass along a truck load of horseshit peddled by Dick Ackerman, including 25 year-old recollections about Norby as a sexual harasser that he suddenly just remembers. Of course his corroborating witness is dead as a doornail.
Well, yesterday afternoon the Harpoon re-read the Mickadeit piece and a light bulb snapped on. As the helpful Frank tells it:
Ackerman says the two had a friendly beer at Elmer’s after Norby won. “I said, ‘Hey, things are going to be good. We’ve got five conservatives.’ But the votes kept coming out 4-1,” with Norby dissenting.
In a post update the Harpoon unloads:
PROOF THAT ACKERMAN IS A LIAR – OR HAS A REAL, REAL BAD MEMORY. MOLLY McCLANAHAN WAS ON THE CITY COUNCIL THEN. THERE WERE NEVER 5 CONSERVATIVES. C’MON DICK. YOU REMEMBER MOLLY DON’T YOU? YOU KEPT HER FROM BEING MAYOR FOR 6 YEARS. YOU OUGHT TO. MAYBE LINDA LEQUIRE CAN HELP. HER MEMORY IS AT LEAST AS GOOD AS YOURS.
So what are we left with? A man whose honesty or memory is rotten. His whole interview with Mickadeit is discredited, and is just typical of everything else in the Linda Ackerman 72nd Assembly campaign: her fake residency, her phony self-description as a business woman, and her contention that people in the 72nd asked her to run. It’s all a tissue of falsehoods – as bogus as her staged photos.
Friends, we just received this entertaining e-mail from a devoted reader:
So there I am in my kitchen, washing dishes on a quiet Sunday night when my phone rings. Who is is? The last person on Earth I would ever expect. Fullerton’s former Chief of Police, Pat McKinley. The guy who wasted untold hours “designing” a dumb police “vest” that, upon retirement he could sell back to the people of Fullerton. The zombie who let all his pals in downtown Fullerton create havoc and stick US with the bill. Oh yeah, that wonderful public servant.
Well, actually, it’s a robocall, and this slacker starts peddling Linda Ackerman for Assembly! Well I guess they all have it wired the same way.
If I needed any more encouragement to oppose the carpetbagging woman from Irvine, this was it: a guy who milked his job in Fullerton for over 15 years as the City went to the dogs as he worked on his lame-ass vest that the City bought with their Obama stimulus dollars!
Thanks for the e-mail, Friend. This is really sad news for Fullerton. What it means is that McKinley has cut a deal to peddle his backside with Ackerman and Royce to run for our City Council himself next year – with the support of the Usual Suspects. Well, that cat’s out of the bag!
Just what we need. Another ex-public employee negotiating with the public employees! Some Republican!
UPDATE: APPARENTLY THE ACKERMAN MOB DOESN”T WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT THEY LIVE IN A “SECRET GATED COMMUNITY” IN IRVINE. THE YOU TUBE CLIP HAS BEEN REMOVED.
Check out where the Ackermans really live! And they seem to think we want the Mrs. representing us!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTc_kJBmUkYA “secret gated community.” In Irvine!
And we thank OC GOP hack and former Mike Carona flack Jon Fleischman for all his hardwork producing this 2007 holiday greeting!