The other day the OC branch of the California Republican Assembly voted to endorse Harry Sidhu in his carpetbagging quest to be our next County supervisor. Good heavens, now that’s a switcheroo! Just look what the CRA had to say about our buddy Sidhu less than two years ago – when the office-hungry politician ran for another job he wasn’t qualified for:
http://www.redcounty.com/orange-county/2008/05/sd33-mailbox-cra-drops-on-ie-c
P.S. Thanks to the Mauve County for access to their invaluable historical archives.
He’s smiling because he’s thinking about how damn stupid you are. Too stupid too remember that his very first campaign act was to commit a fraud, a lie, a falsification of public documents: a phony voting registration address at the seedy Calabria Apartments in west Anaheim behind the Linbrook Pool hall.
How do we know it was a fake address? Well, Harry told us it was. He did that when his campaign handlers made him re-register at a more plausible although still dubious address – just four short weeks later! When he did that he acknowledged that his first address was just an outright lie; a lie perpetrated on you and me and everybody else in the 4th Supervisorial District. If you believe in the second address you have to admit the first one was a fake.
Now, why would Sidhu think he could get away with such an obvious thing and why would he do it in the first place? It’s really pretty simple. He has nothing but disrespect for the people he wants to represent; and of course the vast ego that drives the political ambition of a rich office hound. This is his third political campaign in two years, and his fifth in less than eight years.
The case is simple. Sidhu tried to carpetbag his way into the campaign with the fake address. And only when he got caught in that lie did he cook up yet another address – his third in a month. And so his own actions have proved what he and his handlers had hoped wouldn’t become evident: that Sidhu suffers from a very serious case of truth decay and bad case of disrespect for his would-be constituents.
The other day I did a post about visiting the latest Harry Sidhu address and noted that I went up to the door and knocked on it. The door was opened and I asked for Harry. The woman who answered the door said Harry wasn’t there. I asked her if she knew that Harry was carpetbagging. She said that I should speak with Harry. I told her that I sent Harry an email, but I have not heard back from him. Then I said goodbye and left.
No threats, no intimidation, no trespass. Just a constituent trying to find out if his would-be representative actually lives in the district – not an unusual desire given the fact that this is the guy’s third voting address in four weeks.
Some folks in the local blogworld think I’ve done something wrong in trying to pin down the elusive Harry Sidhu by going to this address. It seems the sanctimonious bloggers at both the Blue and the Mauve County blogs who mask their own self-interest with empty talk about “reasoned debate” have their panties in a wad. The horror! Imagine – dropping in on a carpetbagger who has already cooked up one fake address just to see if he actually lives in a second. Why you’d think I had committed a home invasion!
Wrong, kids. Since local “journalists” don’t seem to be too interested in checking up on the legitimacy of carpetbaggers and scofflaws, I’m going to do it – a citizen checking up on the doings of politicians whose ambitions seem to know no bounds and who want so desperately to be my representative.
And if Harry “moves” again I’ll go visit that address, too. And you can come along.
Harry Sidhu has been on the go lately, but the story of his peripatetic wanderings is damn-near keeping up with Harry himself.
Here’s a fun post from a blog called donpalabraz that puts a new spin on Hide-N-Seek Harry’s sortie into the flatlands, and his drive to establish street cred therein. And it’s from a uniquely Latino perspective: el Sidhu loco! We like it.
An FFFF shout out to donpalabraz ‘n them.
Harry Sidhu’s short lived “residency” at the Calabria Apartment, #116 is over, as we reported, here. We can’t say he moved because that would imply that he actually lived in an apartment behind the Linbrook lanes bowling alley in the first place, and nobody was buying into that load of road apples. But he has a new voter registration address.
So why the “move”? Obviously an implausible address had to be replaced with a plausible one. This was effected at almost the same moment Sidhu assembled his campaign “team.” A coincidence? Yeah, right.
Here’s Sidhu’s re-registration form at the OC Registrar of Voters office, where Harry has become a recognizable regular customer:
This other day I decided to find out where Harry “moved” to this time. It’s on the very scruffy southern edge of Anaheim in a new little four house subdivision; the signs on the adjacent street say Garden Grove.
Anyhow, I rang the doorbell and was greeted by Mrs. Harry Sidhu. I asked if Harry was home and she told me no; I told her I had sent Harry an email questioning his residency in the 4th Supervisorial District and that he hasn’t sent me a response. I asked if she realized what Harry was doing was called “carpettbagging” and she told me that she did not believe they were carpetbagging because they moved into the district. I wonder if Harry told her that people who move into a district just to run for office are called carpetbaggers? I told her who I was and she told me that I was talking to the wrong person. We said goodbye and off I went.
Upon leaving I had to ask myself whether Mrs. Harry is just a day-time stage prop at another fake residence, or whether the family was really going to try living there. When you see the house and the neighborhood its still a real big stretch. Although there’s no pool hall next door, the neighborhood is a far cry from the Elegant Old Yorba Estate in the 3rd District, that’s for sure.
I received this email Saturday from our Friend Chris Thompson, and I would have posted it yesterday, but I was called upon to attend a bloggers party to be the master of the barbecue and ended up staying for dinner and drinkies, enjoy:
This morning at the Tea Party Rally in Fullerton, Harry Sidhu’s Deputy Campaign Manager actually told me that he knows that Sidhu will probably lose and after a half-hearted defense, essentially acknowledged that the Carpetbagger assertion wasn’t unreasonable.
I saw this overdressed guy dramatically shaking his head in reaction to Villa Park Councilwoman Deborah Pauly’s characterization of Sidhu as a Carpetbagger. I asked Admin who he was and he told me that he worked for the Sidhu campaign. I decided to approach him and ask him why he was supporting a guy that didn’t live in the 4th. After kindly asking him to dispense with the crap about the specially rented domicile, he said…and I’m paraphrasing, but I’m very close…”Can I be honest?” “By all means.” I say.
He said, “I really need a job. I called every candidate and the Sidhu campaign was the only one that would hire me.”
After telling me that he was a PoliSci grad from CSULB, I told him that in this Tea Party era, he might want to consider hooking his train to somebody that was conservative AND honest. He said, “I know we’ll probably lose, but maybe afterwards I’ll earn the reputation of being an effective campaign manager.” I asked him why he thought Nelson never called him back and he said, “It might have something to do with the fact that I did calling for the Linda Ackerman campaign.” I told him that may have something to do with it. He said, “I was the Orange County Republican Party Volunteer of the Year.” I was impressed. I said, “You know, I want to know why Nelson didn’t call you back. Give me your name and number.” He wrote it down for me on the back of a Sidhu flyer.
I called Nelson and he informed me that this individual never called his campaign to ask for a job. Now here’s the part of the story where it becomes very clear that Shawn is smarter than me. I said, “Call him. He’d probably jump ship. He acknowledged they were probably going to lose and that Sidhu was running a charade with this rented home.” Nelson says, “Why would I want to hire a guy that just said all of this stuff to you?” Ummmm…..good point Shawn.
I’ve been fighting (mostly losing with a couple of great wins) political battles in Fullerton for 10 or 12 years. It’s only cost me money and time to do this. I have little sympathy for a guy wanting to get paid to work for a candidate who is violating a principle of mine, much less opposing a guy I know to be an enemy of big government. Probably time to move on, Mr. Deputy Campaign Manager.
“Tough-minded advocate for streamlined efficient government.”
That’s how 4th District Supervisor candidate Harry Sidhu describes himself in that dopey Fullerton News Tribune ad he bought last week. We also read that Sidhu claims to have “fought to eliminate excessive and wasteful government spending.”
No examples, of course, to support the statements; evidently we are expected to accept Harry’s word for it.
But let’s make a quick visit to Sidhu’s campaign webiste. Under the “Transportation” issue heading we discover stuff all dressed up to look like an accomplishment that in reality gives the lie to Harry’s claim to be anything but an irresponsible public spendthrift.
Turns out Sidhu is a big cheerleader for the California High Speed Rail scam, a boondoggle on which hundreds of millions have already been squandered in “studies,” and with a gargantuan $50 billion price tag that ridership will never pay for. And of course he beats the drum for the jaw-droppingly expensive ARTIC plan in Anaheim, presumably hoping that if you build the southern terminus of the HSR a choo choo will have to show up sooner or later. A trip to the ARTIC website “benefits” page makes things crystal clear: $180,000,000 (yes, Friends you read that right) for a make-work government jobs program – mostly paid for with Measure M funds that everybody in the County has to pay through sales tax. Hardly the behavior of a fiscal conservative, is it?
Our Friends in Anaheim tell us that Sidhu is all gung-ho for this titanic fiasco to grease his relationship with outgoing Mayor Curt Pringle, who is neck deep in the HSR rip-off and who is looking for a soft place to land.
Pringle, not coincidentally, is supporting Sidhu’s carpetbagging run for Supervisor (he supported Ackerwoman, too) and has been raising money for him. Symbiosis. And we get stuck holding the empty sack. Typical.
Sidhu is “tough-minded” about one thing: perpetually running for political office. On matters involving our tax dollars he’s about as tough as a mildewed marshmallow.
Not to be outdone by fellow 4th District Supervisor campaign carpetbagger and multiple address occupier Lorri Galloway, Harry Sidhu has pulled up stakes again and abandoned his address at the beautiful Calabria Apartments, #106. The Registrar of Voters verbally confirmed the switcheroo this morning.
Was it the proximity to the bowling alley or the pool hall? Was it the complete lack of landscaping? Or was it just the sheer impossibility as the residence for a rich man like Sidhu, whose carpetbagging was getting a lot of attention anyway. It sure was a great image and just the sort of thing to burst a political bubble.
Some of Harry’s campaign blog monkeys have been hinting recently that Harry was now living in a house he owns in the 4th District – a lot more plausible than the Calabria, to be sure, but in no way mitigating the fact that HARRY SIDHU IS A CARPETBAGGER! Whether or not Harry will even pretend to live in his new home for the next four months is an excellent question, the answer to which we will no doubt be pursuing diligently.
Ah, well. Thus endeth Harry’s flirtation with the common man. Wonder if he ever even got to meet his neighbors.
I came across this sort of goofy Harry Sidhu political ad in the News Tribune the other day, repeating the mantra of his paid blog monkeys that Sidhu has “represented” 40% of the 4th County Supervisorial District by being on the Anaheim City Council.
Harry and his “team” must be really concerned that the carpetbagger label is sticking. It is, and it will, because that’s what he is. But that’s only part of the problem. The other issue is whether Sidhu even lives in the District at all.
Please also note that the ad uses the simple title of “Mayor Pro Tem.” Why no mention of Anaheim? Harry can’t be dumb enough to think people in our city are ignorant enough to believe he’s Mayor Pro Tem of Fullerton, can he? Or is it just more sloppy work by his “team.” We already know that he holds Fullerton residents in such low regard that he dodged the Supervisor candidate forum held by NUFF a couple weeks ago. Sad.
The text of the Sidhu ad is even more pathetic. Experience? Harry doesn’t identify a single thing he’s done to make Anaheim government more “streamlined” or “efficient.” He says he fought to eliminate “excessive and wasteful government spending” but doesn’t give a single example of his fiscal conservatism. Wonder why?
Apparently Sidhu and his handlers also hope that voters are ignorant of the fact that the County government has almost no involvement in any sort of job creation schemes; and owning fast food franchises seems to be Harry’s only job creating calling card. More sadness.
Too bad for Harry that constantly running in political campaigns isn’t a job skill that voters hold in high regard.
Nothing to talk about and seemingly unaware of real County issues – that’s the campaign. And that’s a bad combination.