Vivian Kitty Jaramillo Archives - Page 2 of 6 - Friends For Fullerton's Future

November 22, 2024November 22, 2024Ahmad Zahra

Observer Sisters’ Big Whine

Why write about news when you can try to make your own! (Photo by Julie Leopo/Voice of OC)

Right on cue, the Fullerton Observer has begun to bitch about the Fullerton’s 4th District election, as their favored candidate, Vivian Jaramillo, tool of the Marijuana Cartel, slips farther behind Jamie Valencia. The target of their irritation is Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform. The author? “Staff.”

Once again Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform sent out fliers to homes filled with disinformation and outright lies this election targeting District 4 City Council candidate Kitty Jaramillo. In past elections, the same group made outrageous and false claims against candidates Ahmad Zahra, Shana Charles, and Ruthi Hanchett – all won their races.

The US Supreme Court has ruled that the Free Speech Clause protects false speech when viewed as a broad category, but the government may restrict limited subcategories of false speech such as defamation and fraud. A very good discussion of deception in political advertising is available by visiting https://www.freedomforum.org/lie-political-ads/

Hoo boy, whataloada bullshit. The rest of the article is a recitation of money collected and money spent, derived from public documents. What is completely missing is a single example of an untruth told about Vivian Jaramillo. Dispensing legal advice is not the Kennedy Sisters’ strong suit, obviously. And the reference to fraud is positively comical, given their diligent effort to ignore the fake candidacy of Scott Markowitz created by Jaramillo’s supporters to help her win.

The Kennedy who seems responsible for this diatribe is most likely Sharon, the elder sister. She had been engaging the public in the effort to peddle the “Markowitz acted alone” narrative, and “anyhow none of it matters cuz we say so.” By her own admission she consulted with one of the key participants in the fraud, namely Diane Vena – who “willingly”signed the Markowitz nomination papers even though she had endorsed Jaramillo. Team Jaramillo. Jesus H., Vena’s name was on Jaramillo’s website!

“Sharon K.” actually replied to one person on her blog who questioned the Observer assertion:

BradyRhoades

November 21, 2024 at 6:54 am

Are there examples of what’s being called “disinformation and outright lies”? That would be helpful, thanks.

Sharon KNovember 21, 2024 at 8:32 amBrady – the “Team Jaramillo Busted “ mailer sent out by Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform shown at the beginning of this article is a good example of outright lies. Kitty and her team had nothing to do with the candidate who was charged with falsely signing his nomination papers.

Now how on Earth does Sharon Kennedy know that Kitty and her team had “nothing to do” with Markowitz? Because they told her? The fact that Jaramillo’s active supporters were involved in the creation of the Markowitz candidacy is more than sufficient evidence that her “team” knew about it and at the very least failed to report what they knew after a crime had been committed.

But now the Observer Sisters have sunk to a new low. Not only using “staff” as a byline, but also responding to comments by inserting an “edit” into the comment itself. Check it out.

Sharon K

November 21, 2024 at 8:32 am

Brady – the “Team Jaramillo Busted “ mailer sent out by Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform shown at the beginning of this article is a good example of outright lies. Kitty and her team had nothing to do with the candidate who was charged with falsely signing his nomination papers.

BenjaminNovember 21, 2024 at 9:27 amHow do you know that? Did you investigate the matter? Or did you ask Kitty and her team? Just because you believe something doesn’t make it fact or truth or journalism. It is just opinion right?
(Reply to Benjamin – Happily we know who putout the disinfo negative mailers claiming “Team Jaramillo Busted” because of the required disclosure on the mailer clearly naming Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform. The OCDA investigated the candidate who falsely claimed he had witnessed the signatures on his nomination papers and found no connection to Jaramillo campaign.)

This is another another way to make up stuff and be non-responsive without using her name. Notice how Sharon answers a question that nobody asked. Benjamin wants to know what about the fliers is untrue. She responds by saying who created the fliers (there’s nothing mysterious about the origin). What sort of fool would be satisfied by that sad misdirection?

But then it gets even worse. Kennedy the Elder is still pretending that Markowitz acted alone (really only a minor clerical error), but she asserts without a shred of evidence that the Orange County District Attorney found no connection to the Jaramillo campaign. The DA has said nothing of the kind and most certainly would not have confided in either of the Weird Sisters.

Here’s another example of the response embedded in comment technique:

Marian

November 20, 2024 at 1:51 pm

I do not appreciate that the clickbait title and the story supports only 1 side. There was another group supporting Vivian Jamarillo that spent much more money. Why are you not citing that?

Answer to Marian – because the group that supported Jaramillo did not use dirty deceptive campaign tactics which is what this article is about. There are a few more in this Dirty Politics series coming up.

Sharon will not talk about the massive infusion of pro-marijuana money supporting Jaramillo. Oops. That would be bad. So the issue is brushed aside because they didn’t deploy what she considers “dirty deceptive tactics” although she hasn’t shared any of those with her readers. She does promise more of these undocumented claims in a breathtaking “Dirty Politics” series that will no doubt knock the wind out of contemporary journalism as we know it.

A comment by “Jeff” suffers the same fate as poor Marian’s:

Jeff

November 20, 2024 at 6:36 pm

Wasn’t the other candidate in District 4 running so the Latino votes can be taken away so Kitty could win? That’s dirty campaigning!

Also, I would like to know what false claims were made against Zahra?

=====
Response to Jeff: please remember that one comment from you is enough. If you continue with the various pen names you will be blocked. You are mistaken about the District 4 issues. Search for “Markowitz” or “Zahra” to come up to speed on either of those stories that we printed quite some time ago.
All the character assassination hit pieces put out by Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform are totally false and meant to lower the bar for their favorite candidate to win – which, by the way, is not Whitaker.

Jeff’s remark about “Latino votes” is off, but he wasn’t going to get a honest answer anyhow. His point about the Markowitz candidacy being “dirty campaigning” is right on the mark, so naturally it must be ignored. He asks for examples of false claims made against Zahra, too, a perfectly reasonable request. He is admonished to do his own Observer searches which would of course, only discover more Kennedy unsubstantiated claims, but no concrete examples.

Sharon isn’t done. No. There has been “character assassination” (oh Lordy!) by “totally false” hit pieces meant to “lower the bar” so the favored candidate would win. Her description sounds a lot more apt for the Markowitz caper, doesn’t it? Finally, the mind reader Kennedy interjects that the favored candidate was not Linda Whitaker, a bit of information meant to be meaningful, somehow, but that is irrelevant to any topic at hand.

Finally, one of Kennedy’s commenters who seems to think journalism is going on there, explurts:

P.D.

November 20, 2024 at 2:32 pm

Great article, but why don’t you unmask the membership of this libelous outfit?

I think Kitty SHOULD sue for libel!

Well, P.D. I agree. I think Jaramillo should sue for libel, too. I’m not sure what the cause would be, or what damages have been incurred, but it sure would be fun to get Jaramillo, Markowitz, Dem operative Ajay Mohan, Diane Vena, and even Sharon Kennedy deposed under oath.

November 19, 2024November 19, 2024Ahmad Zahra

Valencia Increases Lead in Fullerton D4 Count

by Grover Cleveland39 Comments

In what is shaping up to be Fullerton’s most expensive Council race ever, newcomer Jamie Valencia has increased her lead from yesterday’s 19 to 41. Here’s the November 19 tally.

At this point 41 votes is a significant lead and the trend for the past three counts is in Valencia’s favor. I don’t know how many ballots are left to count from the so-called provisional ballot pile. And then there’s the possibility that Valencia and Jaramillo are doing ballot “curing” in which ballots (that include a vote for a candidate) that have been disqualified by the Registrar of Voters are validated by the voter himself. Some of these may already be counted and the remaining such ballots, if any, may add to the totals.

And hey! Look there! The confessed perjurer Scott Markowitz, whose phony candidacy was created by the dope lobby and Democrat supporters of Vivian Jaramillo, is only 3 votes away from 1000, proving that the slimy idea to take votes away from Linda Whitaker was a well-calculated one, given the Democrat/Dopers expectation that she would run a real campaign.

November 18, 2024November 18, 2024Behind Closed Doors

What Has Been the Role of the Fullerton Observer in Hiding Election Fraud?

by Joe Sipowicz45 Comments

There’s a couple things we know about the Kennedy Sisters, Sharon and Skaskia, the people who bring to Fullerton their confused mix of opinion, “news,” innuendo and spite known as The Fullerton Observer.

It has long been a purveyor of hard left perspective, in 1994 joining the establishment in a hearty defense of anything cooked up in the bowels of City Hall. There has been no crackpot idea, no new tax, no illegal venture that they were not willing to defend, ignore, obfuscate as they thought the situation demanded.

The Kennedys have also believed in the completely unethical practice of joining in making the news. Why simply report on something honestly when one could involve oneself in actually drumming up support for some harebrained idea if it checked the right box? And the right box was about virtue signaling, to wit: it didn’t matter if something made sense, or was even legal, so long as it sent the message you believed in. Efficacy matters not; it’s the gesture that counts, see?

And so things like the Trail to Nowhere and the Wank on Wilshire were the Observer subjects not just of editorial approbation, but active organization and dissemination of misinformation.

These two characteristics lead, in course, to sanctimony and self-righteousness; and the belief that one’s political piety must be accompanied by active participation. These traits are to be expected in political parties and their minions, but are forbidden in the precincts of ethical journalism.

Okay, Joe, I hear you saying. But the Observer is not a professional journal or an ethical one, and we always knew it. Well, you’re right, of course. However this issue could be bigger than an illegal water tax here, a cop cover up there, or a look-the-other-way when a few million are wasted once in a while. This is about an honest election.

Yes, I was a phony from Day 1. And it was obvious…

FFFF knew almost immediately that the candidacy of Scott Markowitz was a scam. The facts were so clear and so pernicious that only one intelligent conclusion could be drawn. The man was a plant to interfere in an election by diverting Republican votes away from Linda Whitaker to Markowitz. The beneficiary of the scam was Vivian Jaramillo, the favored candidate of the Democrat Party and the Observer crowd. And the Kennedy Sisters never made any attempt to even explore the possibility that the obvious conclusion was correct.

Instead, the Kennedys, Soeur et Soeur, ignored the story in the Observer, and in internet conversations actually pretended that Markowitz was a legitimate candidate – until the news broke that he had been arrested for perjury. After Markowitz pleaded guilty to perjury they talked about how he “dropped out” of the race, even though his name was still on the ballot. Even then their emphasis turned to “unrelated” conspiracy theories” submitted to the DA by Tony Bushala.

In the meantime Sharon Kennedy had been active on social media trying extremely hard divert attention to the irrelevant. She posited the ridiculous idea that maybe Markowitz was afraid to leave his house for candidate forums because he feared for his safety – after a mean threat on a blog that somebody should go to his house and talk to him. She volunteered unsolicited information that her pal and fellow “Observer,” Diane Vena, was a “kind” person and that she simply signed the nomination papers of a MAGA-sounding Republican candidate “at the request of a friend.”

Sharon Kennedy’s conversation with Vena is where ethical debasement and self-righteous political ideology climbed onto the same small raft with honesty. What was said between them, precisely, we’ll never know. But we do know that the conversation had nothing about it that looked like honest journalism, and may well, in fact, have included both coaching, and a plan to respond to criticism from FFFF. If this is what happened then the Kennedys went from negligent reporting to participating in an effort to hide the activities of the conspirators in this slimy episode.

An honest person, let alone an “incubator of journalism,” would have gotten the name of the “friend” who convinced the evidently doltish Vena to sign Markowitz’s papers, even though she had already endorsed Vivian Jaramillo and actually appeared on the latter’s website. An honest journalist would also have gotten the name of the person who circulated the nomination papers. Maybe Sharon Kennedy did get the name, or names. But if she did, neither she nor her sister ever shared it with Observer readers.

It’s abundantly clear that the Fullerton Observer had no intention reporting on the Markowitz story. The aim was to distance the candidacy of their favored Vivian Jaramillo from what had really happened

I also note that in the same vein, the Kennedy Sisters have been completely mute about the massive influx of marijuana lobbyist cash into a pro-Jaramillo Independent Expenditure PAC, with the loot laundered through the national office of the grocery workers union. There’s another story we’ll never read about in the pages or website of the Fullerton Observer, although they have never shied away from reporting this sort of thing with the attendant innuendo when it came to people they didn’t like.

But very soon, I predict, we’ll hear all about the money contributed by Tony Bushala.

November 15, 2024November 15, 2024Boohooism

Friday Night Election Update. Valencia Back in Front

by Grover Cleveland21 Comments

After votes were counted today the Fullerton City Council District 4 leader is Jamie Valencia. Again. She gained 15 votes in today’s count and has a skinny six vote lead. Here’s the updated data.

This is good news for those opposing Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo, darling of the OC Democrat Party officialdom, and the bride-candidate of the Long beach Marijuana cartel who pumped $60,000 into an Independent Expenditure Committee dedicated to getting her elected; and to get themselves an MJ ordinance in Fullerton.

Miss Kitty. The “good guys” were stoned and happy…

Jaramillo had chipped away at Valencia’s Election Night lead over the week succeeding the election until she had a 13 vote lead on Wednesday night. But yesterday, Valencia gained a little ground back – 4 votes, and today 15 votes.

People way smarter than I am might be able to explain the ebb and flow of these things. I suspect last minute ballot bundling on the part of the OCDems/Marijuana League may have accounted for the 150 swing last week. If so is that over? Let’s hope so.

Fake candidate Scott Markowitz may get a 1000 votes. After Pleading guilty to to perjury and falsifying election documents. This is not a ringing endorsement for the intelligence of the 4th District voter. His mission was to help dupe or be the dupe of Democrat nominators, to create a fake election committee with an R next to his name; to get his name on the ballot; and, to submit a Trumpy ballot statement. After that Markowitz disappeared. He attended no election events and raised not a penny.

Markowitz’s role was simple: take votes away from the conservative in the election, Linda Whitaker for the benefit of Vivian Jaramillo.

It’s just a few cents a gallon. Suck it up poor people!

Meanwhile, in our State Senate District, Fullerton’s Gas Tax Josh Newman keeps gaining ground on the dopey Steven Choi from Irvine, but still trails by well over 7,000 votes. He’s come from behind before, but this one is starting to look like game over. If it is, Josh can go back to moderating Neighbors United For Fullerton meetings where I’m told he got his start in OC politics.

November 14, 2024November 14, 2024Ahmad Zahra

Jaramillo Goes Ahead

by Grover Cleveland33 Comments

Otiose Fullerton 4th District candidate Vivian Jaramillo pulled ahead of her rival, newcomer Jamie Valenzuela yesterday – by 13 votes. Jaramillo has steadily gained since election night in what seems to be a non-statistical anomaly. It’s pretty clear that the late Jaramillo GOTV mail-in effort is paying off now.

We now know who paid for that effort – the Marijuana Dispensary Cartel – who dumped in an astounding $60,000 into a pro-Jaramillo PAC, the green laundered through the grocery store union.

We can also surmise with a lot of confidence that it was the Dope Cartel that had a hand in the creation of the fake candidate, confessed perjurer, Scott Markowitz.

If Jaramillo wins, Fullerton will have a pro-dope majority, and Jaramillo, the candidate who made it her platform to bitch about incumbents “not listening to the people,” will, ironically, jam the dispensaries into Fullerton, despite overwhelming opposition from her common folk – real working families.

I will get what I want, one way or another…

Just as importantly Ahmad Zahra, the immigration fraud, “doctor” and “film maker” would finally get to play gay Arab Muslim Mayor. One wonders how the often hysterical Zahra would handle a steady stream of abuse like the kind he orchestrated against his colleagues over the past four years.

As far as municipal finance goes, a new majority could exercise its wisdom without being able to blame Mssrs, Whitaker, Dunlap, and Jung. There still would not be a 4/5ths majority to put a general tax on the ballot, but Zahra, Charles and Jaramillo could certainly put a specific tax on a 2026 ballot. And all that new brainpower ought to be able to come up with something to address Fullerton’s economic cliff.

November 12, 2024November 12, 2024Ahmad Zahra

Marijuana Cartel Invaded Fullerton Election. Big Time

by The Fullerton Harpoon22 Comments

If you check the Independent Expenditure forms on the City Clerk’s website you’ll notice the comically named “Working Families For Kitty Jaramillo, Yadda, Yadda.” This committee was “sponsored” by the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 324, in beautiful Buena Park. At first glance you might think this was an odd sponsorship given the name of the union and the nature of Jaramillo’s would-be job. A second glance at the committee’s inaugural Form 497 filing is even more astonishing – $60,000, paid through the national HQ in Washington DC.

Hmm. That’s a lot of cabbage from the grocery store and food service workers for this council seat.

The day before the election the OCEA, the union of government paper pushers, chipped in $25,000 more.

At least this OCEA contribution to the PAC makes some sort of sense, since Jaramillo proclaimed to the OC Register that she wanted to represent City Employees in their battle against oppressive management (the taxpayers). The amount is unprecedented for the OCEA, however.

But what about the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 324? Why the involvement, and why the massive donation and the expenditure for campaign workers? Well, let’s go to their website and see.

It turns out that Local 324 represents employees in the cannabis business. Well I’m shocked! Shocked, I tell ya.

Suddenly all sorts of things fall into place. The connection between the Long Beach marijuana cartel and Cannabis Kitty Jaramillo, whose previous support of the most liberal dispensary plan was rewarded by the cartel.

I find it really difficult to believe that the workers themselves ponied up this cash, but I don’t find it difficult at all to believe that their employers and their employers’ lobbyists did. As OC saw in the case of Ahmad Zahra’s pal, the now convicted Melahat Rafiei, 60 grand is chump change. So who really kicked in that dark money, laundered through the home office, into the campaign to elect Jaramillo, and what did she promise them?

And did all those paid precinct walkers tell their targets a word about marijuana dispensaries 101 feet from their homes? Bet not.

November 9, 2024November 11, 2024Boohooism

The Morning After Pill, 4th District Version Part 2

by Grover Cleveland15 Comments

Those celebrating the impending defeat of Fullerton 4th District candidate, Vivian Jaramillo, may have been celebrating too soon.

Jaramillo, staunch defender of Fullerton’s underpaid and under-pensioned employees made a big gap closure yesterday, narrowing Jamie Valencia’s lead by more than half, down to a mere 55. She trails 2653 to 2708.

What accounts for the big blob of Jaramillo votes coming through the hose? I don’t know but those ballots were nowhere near the overall percentages, which suggests a ballot collection supposedly harvested by Fullerton School District food service union workers deployed OC Dem Central, and submitted as a batch.

Whether this huge disparity will continue to erase Valencia’s election night lead remains to be seen. It doesn’t look good for Valencia, still it’s better to be ahead than behind, right?

Meantime, the total for candidate Linda Whitaker is 1442 and remains about the same – 1200 votes behind Valencia, more or less.

Patsy Markowitz. Left holding the empty bag, but he got his 15 minutes of fame…

And Scott Markowitz, the dummy surrogate for the Jaramillo campaign who pleaded guilty to perjury and “dropped out” is on his way to 900 votes, proving that his illegal presence on the ballot does indeed have an effect.

In the close Fullerton Elementary School Board race in D5, Sharon Quirk’s empire-building fortunes have taken a turn for the better as her hand-picked candidate Vanesa Estrella, has taken a 57 vote lead over incumbent and union-supported Leonel Talavares; a result, if it holds, that would mean zero practical difference to actual governance that will remain 90 minutes of gold star distribution and a rubber stamp on real district business.

The OC Registrar of Voters won’t report again until Monday at 5 pm.

November 7, 2024November 7, 2024A Step in the Right Direction

The Morning After Pill, 4th District Version Continued

by Grover Cleveland26 Comments

As of Wednesday afternoon, Fullerton 4th District candidate newcomer Jamie Valencia has maintained, even slightly increased her lead of about 130+ votes over the Democrat Central Anointed and Chosen One, Vivian Jaramillo. Jaramillo had a lot of help from the Democrat establishment. Like these worthy people:

Elected Officials

Lou Correa Congressman CA 46
Josh Newman CA State Senator
Tom Umberg CA State Senator
Sharon Quirk-Silva CA Assemblymember
Doug Chaffee OC Supervisor
Natalie Rubalcava Anaheim City Council Member
Ahmad Zahra, Dr. Fullerton City Council Member
Shana Charles, Dr. Fullerton City Council Member
Aaruni Thakur Fullerton School District Trustee
Ruthi Hanchett Fullerton School Board Member
Joanne Fawley Fullerton Union High School District Trustee
Susan Sonne Buena Park Mayor

Jaramillo had support from the government paper pushers’ unions and many of the hardhat trades. But significantly the cops and “firefighters” backed Valencia.

Team Jaramillo had two problems all that support couldn’t overcome. Problem one was “Kitty” herself, a 70+ year old low-level municipal code enforcement “officer” who pulls in a $85k per year pension. Her constant complaining and victimhood narrative didn’t help.

Patsy Scott Markowitz. Left holding the empty bag, but at least he got his 15 minutes of fame…

Then there was the Scott Markowitz drama – an obvious and in the end, unnecessary election interference case capped off by criminal guilty pleas and perhaps an ongoing investigation by the District Attorney into the question of who suborned Markowitz’s perjury.

Did the ensuing negative attention linking Jaramillo’s backers, and maybe Jaramillo herself to the criminal behavior of Markowitz and his co-conspirator(s) affect the outcome for her? Of course it did. Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform tattooed “Team Jaramillo” for the connection, even as Fullerton BooHoo did their level best to look the other way.

And then there’s the question of Markowitz’s affect on the election outcome. Markowitz has over 800 votes and will get more; still, it’s hard to say what sort of specific impact he had on the race – particularly vis-à-vis Linda Whitaker, the other non-Latino named person in the election. However, even with all of Markowitz’s votes, Whitaker would still be in 3rd place, 272 votes behind Jamie Valencia.

The OC County Registrar of Voters will be posting continuing ballot counts every day at 5pm. This will continue until all the mail-in and election day drop off ballots are counted, and each day the remaining number will diminish. At this point, there is no reason to suspect that the remaining 4th District ballots won’t break pretty much the same way as the election day and Wednesday counts.

November 6, 2024November 6, 2024Ahmad Zahra

The Morning After Pill

by Grover Cleveland24 Comments

The results of the November 2024 Fullerton elections are almost settled.

School bonds L and N passed comfortably. And why not? The districts used your money to educate you, and the beholden contractors, trades, architects et al. spent $300,000 to put us all farther into debt. Yea! Property taxes and rents and the cost of commerce are going up. But, hey, it’s all for the kids, right?

In the City Council 2nd District election, Mayor Nick Dunlap pummeled the old warhorse, Jan Flory, whose try at a 4th time around the track came out of the gate without a rider. The result so far is a massive 28 point victory.

In the 1st District, incumbent Fred Jung walloped a guy named Matt Truxaw, who can now retreat back into the murky obscurity from which he was trolled by Ahmad Zahra. This one wasn’t close, either – a 44 point gap

The 4th District is close – real close. Newcomer Jamie Valencia leads OC Dem Central darling Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo, a woman whose candidacy was so shaky the Dem Party created a phony non-Latino candidate to help her out. Right now the difference is about 130 votes in Valencia’s favor. Can late mail-in ballots save Kitty’s litter? We’ll probably know by the end of the day. Linda Whitaker, who didn’t seem to campaign at all finished a distant third. But we see you there, Scott Markowitz, the perjurer set up to help Jaramillo. He has 766 votes right now, enough to suggest that his phony candidacy could be considered to be an effective element in the election. Cause for legal action? That would be fun.

The anointing oil was greasy and left fingerprints, and didn’t take…

A Valencia victory would certainly be the bitterest pill for Ahmad Zahra and Shana Charles and all the other Dem small fry like Sharon Quirk and Josh Newman. More importantly, it would solidify a common sense approach to the stupidity and turbidity of City Hall inventions like the Trail to Nowhere, the Wank on Wilshire, the boutique hotel disaster, etc. Even more significantly it will affect the issue of liberal marijuana dispensaries in Fullerton – Zahra’s pet cause.

The Fullerton Observer Sisters can be counted on to bemoan a Jaramillo loss and blame evil developer influences for having the temerity to tell the truth about poor Kitty.

Speaking of Newman, he is currently losing his State Senate job to the dopey librarian from Irvine, Steven Choi, for which we would be eternally grateful if it holds. He would leave a ridiculous, gerrymandered district he couldn’t win as his lasting legacy. He’s 14,000 votes behind, which is a lot, but of course late ballot counts could change that over the days ahead – like they did for him in 2016.

The power couple looks a lot less powerful these days…

Quirk won as expected, but with a Jaramillo loss and the possible defeat of her hand-picked elementary school board candidate, Vanesa Estrella, she may have some political throw-weight problems, especially in a run for County Supervisor in two years. But that school board election is close. Incumbent Leonel Talavares is only ahead by 46 votes this morning.

Another bright note is the victory of some guy named James Cho in another elementary school board race. He crushed forever incumbent Hilda Sugarman, and good riddance there, too. There may not be much of a practical difference but cleaning out the cobwebs is always a good idea.

November 4, 2024November 4, 2024Ahmad Zahra

Fullerton Election Eve Thoughts

by Grover Cleveland36 Comments

Thoughts? My first thought is that Fullerton will never change, will never elect responsible and accountable City Councils who will appoint anything but ridiculous members to Commissions and never demand accountability from their staff. And that city staff will always get what it wants, and will keep pushing their agenda until a weary council concedes, or a compliant council agrees.

My second thought is a cliché. Hope springs eternal. We have never seen a strong City Council develop policy and direct staff to implement it. But it remains possible, if vey unlikely.

In District 1 the election is a foregone conclusion, incumbent Fred Jung will tattoo the weird, clownish Matt Truxaw, whom somebody pulled from obscurity, elevated to slightly above obscurity, and who will return to it Wednesday morning.

I know who I want to work for, and it isn’t you!

In District 2 we have the affable and earnest Mayor Nick Dunlap opposed by the octogenarian Jan Flory, the three-time political re-tread who has left her claw marks all over Fullerton’s worst disaster in the past 30 years. If you want mean, sanctimonious, vindictive, and inveterately pro-bureaucracy liberal, she’s your choice. She claims to be the “most experienced” candidate, which suggest an utter lack of self-awareness. Why she wants a fourth lap around the track is anybody’s guess. It seems highly unlikely that there are enough of Flory’s ilk to beat the eager-not-to-offend Dunlap, and I’m pretty sure that won’t happen.

Patsy Markowitz. Left holding the empty bag.

That leaves the 4th District, the place where Democrat operatives created a fake MAGA candidate, Scott Markowitz, to draw votes GOP votes away from incumbent Bruce Whitaker’s wife, Linda, who is running to replace him. Markowitz has copped to a perjury rap, leniently reduced to some community service. Did he rat on anybody? Let’s hope so.

Were there rats aboard the sinking S.S. Markowitz?

The would-be beneficiary of the Markowitz crimes is Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo, among whose Democrat supporters must have been participants in the Markowitz election fraud. She is yet another superannuated liberal; she wants high density housing, no overnight parking restrictions, and oh, yeah, a new Golden Age for Fullerton’s underpaid and under-pensioned employees.

A former public employee and million dollar pension recipient herself, Jaramillo actually told the OC Register that she intends to represent the public employees. Jaramillo sought the endorsements of the local Democrat small-fry politicians, including the egregious Zionist Lou Correa. It’s an old-timey strategy but does anybody really care about that kind of thing in 2024? Jaramillo raised a lot of cash from unions. Has she used it wisely? We’ll know tomorrow night, possibly.

Linda Whitaker has been mostly low-profile from what I can tell. Like Jaramillo, she is another 70-something who seems, well, not too fired up. Not much has been heard of Linda except for except a couple forums and a lot of campaign signs.

4D voters saw some door hangers that included an odd photo of old bikers with Whitaker signs. I don’t know if Ms. Whitaker did any direct mail or is mostly counting on her husband’s name ID with voters.

Word on the street is that the Whitakers took off for a week during the campaign to go to Fullerton’s Italian Sister City, which isn’t a good look for any candidate who wants to win, and wants people to think she can. Could this be right? It has the ring of truth.

Finally, there is newcomer Jamie Valencia who has conducted a disciplined, well-organized, well-funded campaign, the campaign of somebody who looks an awful lot like a winner, and who may prove to be the biggest surprise in north Orange County politics in a long, long time. Will Valencia be the big beneficiary of the anti-Jaramillo campaign waged by Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform, and not Linda Whitaker? This would be a fun twist.

She got the OC Register editorial team’s endorsement and that, ironically, might hurt Whitaker more than Scott Markowitz ever would have.

Valencia is an attractive, comparatively young woman with kids, a registered ER nurse, and has got the endorsement of the police and fire unions, a helluva coup whatever one’s feelings about those unions might be.

Finally we have the school bond measures L & N, another deep reach into our pockets by grossly overpaid and overstaffed educrats. The fact that we are still paying off previous bonds doesn’t seem to have resonated with these folk, to whom we are nothing but a payday loan opportunity, wherein we pay the principle and interest. In these campaigns, the school districts use our resources to educate us while they shake down out-of-town architects, consultants, construction contractors and subcontractors to pay for the election. They often use district employees, facilities and even students as part of their campaign – it happened last time.

A guerilla opposition campaign has been waged by Fullerton Taxpayers for Reform with simple but effective signs and robotexts: bond costs are paid for by everybody one way or another.

Will the bonds gather the necessary 55% majority to succeed? The districts’ last bond effort failed in the March 2020 primary. That was right before the pandemic and it’s hard to see a path to success this time, either.