Anaheim Insider here. The real one.

Tom Tait had a campaign fundraiser last week. It was mildly attended from what this insider’s sources have said: about 40 people, give or take. Many were family members or staff, along with those you’d expect: Amin David, Jose Moreno, Cynthia Ward; the mayor’s personal clique of supporters more than neighborhood representation. No surprising given how the mayor has progressively alienated his supporters.

Tait touched on the topic of his opponents. He took partial credit for Councilwoman Lucille Kring’s election in 2012 and called her a flip-flopper, and mentioned Lorri Galloway as his friend and colleague who decided to run against him.

Tait kept up his pitching for the Democrats’ pet party-building project in central OC: by-district council election in Anaheim. he pointed out that by-district elections would be on the November ballot and thanked Jose Moreno, the liberal ethnic politician whose lawsuit against Anaheim cost the taxpayers almost $3 million. Tait said by-districts elections would give everyone a voice; someone might let him know that the same number of people can vote in both at-large and by-district elections.

Citing his friend Amin David, the mayor said the money going to the Convention Center and Angels could be used to build several Tiger Woods Learning Centers. [Is the mayor planning to float a bond to pay for dotting Anaheim with Tiger Woods Learning Centers? How does he plan to pay for that bond when conventions pass up Anaheim in favor of city with bigger facilities? Is public education the business of city government? How does the mayor know the amount of money going to the Angels when the city doesn’t have an agreement with the Angels?]

The mayor proposed a major new entitlement program for the city to fund: free college tuition for any student graduating from high school in Anaheim. He got this idea while attending a conference in Washington DC with, once again, Jose Moreno. Moreno’s leftism seems to be rubbing off on the mayor.

Given his influence on the mayor, don’t be surprised if Moreno ends up the other half of his council candidate slate.

Our Mayor criticized his council colleagues as representatives of “special interests” and accused them of giveaways on the GardenWalk project, the Convention Center expansion and the Angels negotiations.

After tearing down his council colleagues, the mayor turned to his favorites subject, kindness, talking about a homeopathic doctor who said you can either heal the body or enable the body to heal itself. The mayor said that instead of healing symptoms of what is wrong with Anaheim, the city will heal itself if we spread the message of kindness throughout the city. [Since Tait launched his kindness campaign, there have been riots, the most poisonous council relations in a generation, and council meetings with more foul language than a Richard Pryor album. Can we take another four years of kindness?]

The mayor wrapped it up by again attacking his council colleagues as special interest politicians, so he needs campaign donations so he can fight for “the people.”

It’s become clear that the mayor’s core re-election message is going to be running against “special interests.” Never mind that the mayor courted the support of these same “special interests” four years ago, and had no problem being elected with their help.

Threatening Noises from Cynthia Ward

Duty Now For the Future

Duty Now For the Future

Cynthia Ward is like the Frank Nitti of the Tait gang. She’s a Colony busybody with a need to be at the center of the drama. Now she has a non–profit advocacy group called CATER so she can pretend to represent some segment of the community. No one knows who is funding her and Greg Diamond, who does the litigating for CATER. Ward and Diamond aren’t saying, even though they are the first people to ask the same question of everyone else. Both are bullies at heart.

Yesterday she wrote one her gabby, meandering posts that ended up with what was either a veiled threat that reads like a teenager with a really big secret that she’s dying to tell but can’t:

At least, if there’s a bright side to her spend-it-while-you’ve-got-it budget proposals, today’s email message states clearly:

“This communication is not paid for at government expense.”

It is paid for by Kris Murray for Anaheim City Council 2014 #1339003.”

The LAST self-congratulatory message she sent out was NOT so responsible, sent out as it was by the Chamber of Commerce in what appears to be a potential violation of the Mass Mailing prohibition as presented by the FPPC.

Oops. Gee, I hope nobody is so “unkind” as to report to the FPPC what I am sure is merely an oversight… Well, if Kris Murray should wonder if she’s in trouble, at least prior to receiving the envelope from Sacramento that might be coming, she could ask City Attorney Michael Houston, who has previous experience in this matter.

Good luck, Kris, and enjoy your fundraiser! You might check with “Steven Albert Chavez Lodge,” but I THINK you can use campaign funds for legal fees.

Sounds like Ward or one of the unnamed CATER members she talks already has or plan to file a complaint with the FPPC. 

Ward isn’t savvy enough to figure our to do something like this on her own without outside political direction. No mystery where that comes from in Anaheim. Not that is says much about her handlers, who don’t understand the prohibition against mass mailers doesn’t to campaigns or private organizations.

Alternatively, she/they may well understand it would be a frivolous complaint and the real aim is draining Kris Murray’s campaign treasury, like Ward did with her 2012 lawsuit against Steve Lodge.  And in both cases, she’ll never tell who is paying the bill. Transparency is for other people.

Ward thinks she’s clever with the link to the 2005 letter from Houston (when he worked for Rutan & Tucker), but the Government Code Section 1090 mention in it is much more germane,m as it turns out, to Tait serving on the OCTA Board of Directors while simultaneously being a contractor to the OCTA.