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The candidate statements of Anaheim’s mayoral and council candidates have been posted on the City Clerk’s website. This passage from Jose F. Moreno’s statement jumped out at me:
“I am Dr. Jose F. Moreno….President of Anaheim’s School Board”
If you’re wondering why you’ve never heard of “Anaheim’s School Board,” it’s because it doesn’t exist. There is no Anaheim School Board. In truth, Anaheim is served by seven school districts.
Moreno knows that. He could have said “President of the Anaheim City School District.” That would have the advantage of being true. So why tell voters that Anaheim has a “school board” and you are its president? If Anaheim City School District is Anahem’s school board, does that mean AUHSD – or Magnolia, or Centralia, or Savanna — are not?
Absent from Moreno’s ballot statement is any appeal to ethnicity, which is noticeable in that virtually the entire focus of Moreno’s academic and political career is on ethnicity and race. His public comments on Anaheim government and politics for the last few years have centered on racial and ethnic issues. He has stood before the Anaheim City Council and claimed the existence of racially polarized voting; asserted that Latino voters are disenfranchised; that his vote as a Latino is “diluted;” that the votes of Latino voters should be accorded greater weight than those of other voters; argued with council members about which local elected officials are “real” Latinos, whole making sure to point out that he is Anaheim’s only “Spanish-speaking, Spanish-dominant, Latino-surnamed” local elected. His academic writings are all about ethnic diversity among college students, diversity among college faculty, the benefits of diversioty, hwo to each more divserstiy, etc.
According to our sources, this morning Lucille Kring qualified as a candidate for mayor and Jose “Joe” Moreno as a candidate for city council.
Here’s the final list of candidates, along with their ballot titles:
Mayor
Denis Fitzgerald — Retired Corporation Executive
Lorri Galloway – Abused Children Executive
Lucille Kring – Councilwoman/Attorney/Businesswoman
Tom Tait – Mayor of Anaheim
Council
Donna Acevedo – Property Manager
Gail Eastman – Councilmember/Businesswoman/Author
Jose F. Moreno (1) – Professor, Trustee, Anaheim City School District
Jose Moreno (2) – County Eligibility Technician
Kris Murray – Anaheim Council Member
Jerry O’Keefe – Business Owner
Doug Pettibone – Anaheim Businessman/Attorney
James Vanderbilt – Educator/Army Captain
UPDATED: The City Clerk has posted the list online.
These are in alphabetical order. The final ballot order will be determined after the randomized alphabet drawing is conducted on August 14 by the Secretary of State.
The public review period for candidate statements and ballot titles started on Saturday and continues through August 18. During this period:
“…any person may file a writ of mandate or an injunction to require any or all of the material in a Candidate’s Statement to be amended or deleted. For candidate names and Ballot Designations, a writ may also be filed only upon clear and convincing proof that the material in question is false, misleading, or inconsistent with requirements.”
It doesn’t appear to me that any of the candidates chose ballot titles that could be challenged, with the possible exception of Vanderbilt. Near as I can tell, Vanderbilt works for the California Department of Veterans Affairs as an “education administrator” for the California State Approving Agency for Veterans Education. That doesn’t sound like a teaching position, and when voters see “educator” they think “teacher.” Furthermore, being a school board member doesn’t make one an “educator.” At best, it is a highly misleading ballot title.
According to this campaign HQ grand opening invite on the Tom Tait campaign website, he personally recruited James Vanderbilt and Doug Pettibone, and their campaigns will share a campaign headquarters. In other words, this is the official “Tait Slate.”
ANAHEIM MAYOR TOM TAIT
Anaheim City Council Candidate DOUG PETTIBONE
Anaheim City Council Candidate JAMES VANDERBILT
Cordially invite you to attend their
CAMPAIGN HEADQUARTERS
GRAND OPENING
Overlooked amidst the council candidate filing are the financial disclosure forms filed by the various candidates.
One of the most interesting aspects of the reports filed by both the Tom Tait and Lucille Kring mayoral campaigns is how close their fundraising has been the past 6 months. Kring has matched Tait almost dollar for dollar (actually slightly outraising him)- which ordinarily would be surprising since he is the sitting mayor. On the other hand, he is handicapped by the reality that he has alienated much of the donor base that supported him in previous elections.
Here are the mayoral candidate campaigns (including Lorri Galloway), by the numbers:
Monetary Contributions January 1-June 30
Tait: $65,522
Kring: $65,547
Galloway: $52,976 ($17,976 after excluding personal loans)
Expenditures January 1-June 30
Tait: $33,764.75
Kring: $36,581.65
Galloway: $51,520.63
Cash-on-Hand
Tait: $105,433.50
Kring: $55,547.96
Galloway: $30,131.85
Debt:
Tait: $0
Kring: $150
Galloway: $71,676.48
Generally speaking, all things being equal, odds always favor the incumbent. At the same time, Tait and Kring are at rough parity in terms of fundraising, and from what I’m hearing, there will be vigorous IE efforts both pro- and anti-Tait.
Galloway is obviously banking on Tait and Kring nuking each other (either directly or indirectly via IEs), and walking up the middle.
A lot can happen between now and November, and it will almost certainly be a bloody campaign.
Here’s the semi-final list of mayoral and council candidates who have qualified for the November ballot (Lucille Kring and Jose “Joe” Moreno are still pending the final verification of their signatures):
Mayor
Tom Tait
Denis Fitzgerald
Lorri Galloway
Council
Gail Eastman
Kris Murray
James Vanderbilt
Doug Pettibone
Jerry O’Keefe
Jose F. Moreno
Donna Acevedo
Assuming Kring and Jose “Joe” Moreno do qualify (a reasonable assumption), there will be four (three Republicans and one Democrat) mayoral candidates and eight council candidates (six GOPers and two Dems) on the ballot.
This went out from the campaign of Jose F. Moreno (Anaheim’s only “Spanish-speaking, Spanish-dominant, Latino-surnamed” local elected official) this afternoon:
Dear Friend,
I am excited to announce that today I officially filed my paperwork to be a candidate for Anaheim City Council.
My wife, Lorena, and I have been married 15 years and are the proud parents of four beautiful girls. I am a longtime Anaheim resident, President of Anaheim’s School Board, where I’ve served for eight years, and an active member of many community organizations and causes.
I believe that Anaheim’s blessings are its people and its resources. Our neighborhoods and our families are what set this city apart. I’m running because I want to bring engaged, honest, and accountable leadership back to City Hall. Leadership that not only protects Anaheim’s fiscal stability but also supports small businesses, promotes public safety, ensures that our children have safe parks where they can play with their parents and grandparents, provides anti-gang afterschool programs, modernizes our infrastructure, and fosters jobs that families can live on.
Read the rest of this entry »
As was predicted on this blog and over at TheLiberalOC.com, Jose F. Moreno – Anaheim City School District trustees, litigant against the city and left-wing activist — has pulled papers to run for Anaheim City Council.
While Moreno had pulled papers on July 28 to seek re-election to the ACSD Board, that widely came to be seen as a political head fake as news about his planned entry into the council race (long-rumored) began to leak out at the beginning of the week.
Word on the street has been that Moreno will hold a press conference tomorrow morning in front of City Hall.
As a controversial figure well to the left politically of most Anaheim residents, Moreno already face an uphill battle against two incumbents. His odds are further diminished by the entry into the race of Jose “Joe” Moreno, a conservative Republican (assuming Joe Moreno remains in the race despite the high likelihood he has been on the receiving end of serious lobbying to drop out).
Supervisor Janet Nguyen
Forbes magazine has put the high-stakes contest in the 34th Senate District (which includes much of Anaheim) on the national political radar with an article spotlighting how the outcome of the battle between Republican Supervisor Janet Nguyen and former Assemblyman Jose Solorio (Democrat) will determine whether the Democrats in control of state government will be able to heap billions more in taxes upon the already over-taxed and over-regulated California economy.
One Race May Determine Whether Taxes Go Up By Billions In The U.S.’s Largest Economy
The top prizes up for grabs in the 2014 mid-term elections are control of the U.S. Senate and 30 of the nation’s governorships, but of more immediate consequence to taxpayers in the most populous state in the union – California – is one single state legislative race that is likely to determine whether or not taxes will rise by billions in the world’s eighth largest economy.
A two-thirds vote is required to raise taxes and fees in California; meaning that if Republicans cannot win over a third of the seats in the Assembly and Senate this fall, they will have no ability to stop Democratic proposals to raise taxes. The only reason that California Democrats are temporarily without a supermajority in both chambers right now is due to the indictment of three Democratic state senators this year. Many of the Golden State’s top political and electoral experts say Democrats’ unchecked ability to raise taxes in 2015 and 2016 depends on one state legislative race in Orange County: California’s 34th state senate district.
“Even with California’s already inhospitable tax climate, the public employee unions desperately need higher taxes to keep their unsustainable pensions and bloated salaries afloat, and they can be expected to pump millions into this one state senate race to ensure that they can continue to advance their agenda at the expense of California taxpayers,” said Jon Fleischman, publisher of California’s Flash Report.
Fortunately for California Republicans, they have a strong candidate in Janet Nguyen, a current Orange County Supervisor, to go up against former Democratic Assemblyman Jose Solorio in this crucial race. Nguyen, who emigrated to the U.S. from Vietnam at age 5, describes herself as “a believer in limited government,” and says that if elected, she would spend taxpayer dollars the way she spends her own. That would certainly represent a stark contrast between both the status quo in Sacramento and her opponent’s legislative record.
There’s a little more than 48 hours left before the August 8 deadline for mayoral and council candidates to qualify for the ballot. Here’s a quick summary of who has qualified and who hasn’t.
Candidates Who have Qualified
Mayor
- Lorri Galloway
- Denis Fitzgerald
Council
- Kris Murray
- Jerry O’Keefe
- Donna Acevedo
Candidates Who Have Not Qualified
Mayor
- Lucillie Kring
- Tom Tait
Council
- Gail Eastman
- Jose “Joe” Moreno
- James Vanderbilt
- Doug Pettibone
- Robert “Bob” Tiscareno
The Anaheim City Clerk updates the candidate roster every evening, so we’ll see what this day brings.
As readers may now, the Anaheim Union High School District has placed a $249 million school bond on the November ballot; from the OCR:
Voters in five cities will decide in November whether to approve a $249 million bond measure aimed at updating 19 aging schools within the Anaheim Union High School District.
The district’s Board of Trustees voted 4-1 Thursday morning to put the measure to voters living within the fourth-largest school district in Orange County, which serves 32,000-plus students from portions of Anaheim, Cypress, Buena Park, La Palma and Stanton.
Consultants Chris Nguyen and Chris Emami of Custom Campaigns are doing the anti-bond campaign, and the Lincoln Club of Orange County is also involved in the effort to defeat the bond. The AUHSD botched its last school bond, wasting millions of dollars. Today, the district is headed by a new superintendent has has never administered a school site, let alone a large, multi-city school district. Neither inspires confidence as to the proper, successful management of a quarter-of-a-billion dollar school bond.
Jose “Joe” Moreno
It looks as if the City Hall watchers had it right: James Vanderbilt has finally pulled his nomination papers to run for Anaheim City Council. If he returns them by 5:00 p.m. Friday with enough valid signatures, the inaugural member of the Tait Slate will be qualified for the ballot.
The most interesting candidate news of the day is Jose Moreno pulling papers for Anaheim City Council. Not Jose F. Moreno, newly-minted Democrat and left-wing college professor who sued Anaheim seeking to impose by-district elections without a vote of the citizenry. I speak of Jose “Joe” Moreno, who was Democrat Tom Daly’s Republican opponent in the 69th Assembly District in 2012 (interestingly, Vanderbilt, a Republican, endorsed Daly over Jose “Joe” Moreno).
I don’t really know Joe Moreno personally, other than that he is a conservative Republican, active volunteer, a nice guy and family man with six children. He filed a declaration of candidacy on July 16 to run for Anaheim Union High School District in Trustee Area 2, but has apparently changed his mind.
His candidacy clearly hurts Jose F. Moreno’s putative council bid. It’s never helpful when another candidate for the same office has the same name. I’ll bet dollars-to-donuts Joe Moreno will be getting phone calls trying to talk him out of running for council race — perhaps from (among others) C GOP Central Committee activist Tim Whitacre, who is now reported to have been hired by the Tait campaign but who was instrumental in Joe Moreno running for Assembly in 2012.
Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Dan Chmielweski posts over at the TheLiberalOC.com that sources confirm for him what insiders have been telling me: Anaheim City School District Board of Education member Jose F. Moreno will run for Anaheim City Council instead of seeking re-election to the ACSD Board:
Four independent sources tell TheLiberalOC that Dr. Jose Moreno will run for Anaheim City Council instead of re-election to his school board seat. We’re told a press conference will be scheduled for Friday morning, campaign photos will be shot Thursday, and one source says that Moreno will be a part of Mayor Tom Tait’s “Good Government” slate even though Tait will never endorse or support a Democrat.
We attempted to contact Moreno directly through a third party (at the time, we had two sources for the story); the third party told us Moreno would speak to me if we told him who our sources were. TheLiberalOC declined the offer, but noted that Moreno’s inquiry wasn’t a denial. Two other sources contacted us shortly thereafter with details on the Thursday photo shoot and the Friday announcement.
So, it appears his pulling ACSD re-election papers was just a head-fake.
Jose Moreno, ACSD Board of Education trustee and left-wing activist
Anaheim City School District Trustee James Vanderbilt
UPDATE (4:20 p.m.): I’m hearing now that Moreno is definitely running and will announce at a press conference on Friday.
Anaheim City Hall watchers I’ve spoken to believe Jose Moreno pulling papers for re-election to the Anaheim City School Board is a political head fake, and that he will actually file to run for Anaheim City Council by the end of the week (the deadline is 5:00 p.m. on August) – most likely with a press conference in front of City Hall.
The speculation had about who would be on the Tait Slate of candidates recruited by the mayor in an attempt to take out his Republican council colleagues: James Vanderbilt, Doug Pettibone or Jose Moreno. The feedback I’m getting is a de facto “all of the above” – the strategy being to stuff the ballot with Republican candidates and to the benefit of Democratic council candidates.
At this point, there are five (possibly six) Republicans on the ballot and only one Democrat: council gadfly Donna Acevedo. That changed with Moreno’s high-profile announcement last week that he had re-registered from No Party Preference to Democrat – a distinction without a difference given his ideology, but with political impact.
Take a gander at the campaign finance report filed by the campaign to carve Anaheim into single-member council districts. Two things jump out beside the $101,100 in contributions: 93% of that total is the “dark money” hated by the progressives running this campaign and not a penny of it comes from Anaheim – most is from Northern California.
The biggest single contributor to the Committee for District Elections is OCCORD – to the tune of $49,000. OCCORD is a left-wing non-profit political advocacy group headquartered in a Garden Grove office building owned by the militant union UNITE-HERE. [OCCORD’s professed mission is to reverse the polarity of Orange County politics and shift it as far to the Left as possible.]
That’s a neat trick. OCCORD Executive Director Eric Altman announces his resignation to go run the Committee for District Elections. $49,000 is diverted from OCCORD on June 26 to the committee Altman is heading up (it’s unclear exactly when Altman left OCCORD, but his replacement as executive director wasn’t announced until mid-July.
Since OCCORD is a 501(c)4, it only has to file annual financials with the IRS and refuses to disclose its donors. In other words, by the time any figures out where that $49,000 came from, the November election will be long over. Is it from traditional OCCORD donors like the California Endowment and the James Irvine Foundation? Wells Fargo? If so, did they understand their money would be going to fund a ballot initiative? We know at least some of that money comes from UNITE-HERE, which cuts OCCORD a $5,000 check every month.
Mind you, OCCORD founder and leader Eric Altman (now the director of the Committee for District Elections — is an advocate of transparency… at least for others. I encourage the Voice of OC and the OC Register to ask OCCORD where the $49,000 came from, and see if they get an answer. I once tried, and was rebuffed.
The second biggest donor is PowerPac.org Voter Fund, a San Francisco-based political action committee that on May 30 donated $45,000 for a campaign to re-structure how Anaheim is governed. Hmmm…why would a PAC from liberal San Francisco care how Anaheim elects its city council?
The Voice of OC published a story yesterday on an “Anaheim Youth Civic Summit” being held today and tomorrow, and sponsored by the Orange County Congregation Community Organization:
The two-day training at Anaheim High School “seeks to educate youth with an introduction to civics and how the government works…and provide opportunities for youth to become civically engaged in Anaheim through experiential learning,” according to organizers with the Orange County Congregation Community Organization.
Scheduled speakers include Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait, Anaheim Union High School District Superintendent Mike Matsuda, Los Amigos of Orange County President Jose Moreno, Orange County Congregation Community Organization or OCCCO Executive Director Miguel Hernandez and Ryan Ruelas, founder of the student leadership group BROS.
In other words, Anaheim high school students get to spend two days being “educated” in politics by the liberal political activist superintendent of the AUHSD, the left-wing head of Los Amigos and a school board candidate and teachers union activist who is also a member of the State Council of the CTA – one of the most powerful special interest groups in the state – and the incumbent Republican mayor who is running for re-election and working with a left-wing coalition to pass a by-district council elections measure on the November ballot.
According to the OCCCO website:
The Anaheim Civic Youth Curriculum builds off the past success and covers five general areas:
1. Active Citizenship
2. Civics 101
3. Transformative Leadership
4. Knowing the Issue
5. Taking ActionWith generous support from the ACT (Accelerating Change Together) Grant the curriculum is being developed to increase civic engagement and participation among Anaheim’s most at-risk youth. Grounded in the Anaheim Civic Youth Baseline Survey, the curriculum seeks to educate youth with an introduction to civics and how the government works, it also seeks to influence current attitudes towards voting and participation and provide opportunities for youth to become civically engaged in Anaheim through experiential learning. [Emphasis added]
Maybe I’m jaundiced from years of watching how politics is conducted in our public schools, but events like this set of alarm bells for me. OCCCO is a good-hearted, faith-based organization, but it’s politics are definitely left-of-center, as are those of almost all the speakers. This event sounds more like a two-day campaign volunteer recruiting seminar – especially for the by-district elections campaign. Moreno, Tait, Ruelas and OCCCO all actively support the passage of the by-district council elections initiative. Ryan Ruelas’ BROS youth group, for example, has been a presence of pro-council district rallies.
Even the “Anaheim Civic Youth Baseline Survey” that informs this summit tips the events politico-ideological hand:
Funny how the issue of by-district elections keeps cropping up?
Encouraging our youth to be civically engaged is a good thing; a representative self-government depends upon an informed and engaged electorate understands the nature of representative government and the principles upon which the American Republic was founded. There is little of that in the “Anaheim Civic Youth Baseline Survey.”
However, engaging our youth in politics ought to be the job of political parties and other civic institutions, and ought to be kept clear of our K-12 public schools. The AUHSD certainly should be host of and participant in an ideologically-slanted event with all the markers of being thinly-veiled rally to recruit volunteers for the by-district elections campaign.
Following: photos from the March 22, 2014 rally in support of the by-district elections campaign, organized by OCCCO and OCCORD:
Anaheim BROS, a youth group organized and moderated by Ryan Ruelas, AUHSDteacher, union activist and school board candidate.
Jose Moreno exhorting the faithful at OCCCO pro-districts campaign rally.
Mishal Montgomery, aide to mayor Tom Tait, speaks at OCCCO pro-district rally.
ajd
The period for Anaheim council and mayoral candidates to pull nomination papers opened on July 14, and closes at 5:00 p.m. on August 8.
Thus far, presumed Tait Slate member James Vanderbilt is the only candidate for either mayor or city council who has not pulled papers. I reached out to Vanderbilt via e-mail to ask if he still plans to pull papers for council this November.
On Friday, I posted about growing speculation that Vanderbilt would not pull the trigger and that his fellow ACSD Board of Education member (and ACLU lead plaintiff against the city) Jose Moreno would throw his hat in the ring instead, as either an open or sub rosa member of the Tait Slate.
The chances of that happening took a nose dive yesterday when Moreno pulled papers to run for re-election to the ACSD Board:
Is that the end of the story? Not quite. Filing doesn’t close for 11 days (counting today). I’m still inclined to think Vanderbilt goes for council while Moreno sticks to running for re-election to the ACSD Board (having cleverly side-stepped in ACSD the by-district elections he’s demanding for the City of Anaheim) and running for council in 2016 if the voters adopt by-district council elections.
Also, yesterday Moreno switched his registration from NPP to Democrat (yes, I realize most readers assumed he already was one). Moreno cited the Democratic Party’s strong support for by-district council elections in Anaheim. I think that’s makes it even less likely he will run for council this year. I don’t believe he would run for council against the Pettibone/Vanderbilt ticket, and his new status as a Democrat would prevent him from being an open member of the Tait Sate because that would almost certainly doom what is otherwise a likely OC GOP endorsement of the mayor’s re-election.
Still, Vanderbilt’s name won’t be on the ballot unless he returns valid nomination papers (which he hasn’t even pulled yet), and 11 days is plenty of time for a switcharoo to happen.
This came over the transom from the Lorri Galloway for Mayor campaign earlier today:
Lorri Galloway for Mayor Campaign Walk & Open House
August 2 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Join us for a morning rally and precinct walk! We need your help and support to get the word out about Lorri’s vision for Anaheim. Lorri Galloway’s path to victory starts here!
Details:
We’ll be walking in two shifts:
10:00 am to 12:00 pm and 12pm to 2 pm
To sign up/volunteer, please either fill out the form below or if you prefer call 714-858-0599 today.
See you there!
The Galloway for Mayor 2014 Campaign Team
As readers may know, Mr. Agustin Villegas, husband, father of four sons and an Anaheim resident, was killed on July 14 in a senseless freeway shooting on the 91 Freeway. 32-year old Mr. Villegas was a mobile car mechanic and at the time of he was shot, he was on his way home for dinner; his 15- and 13-year old sons were in the truck with him, along with his cousin. Mr. Villegas was a devoted father who didn’t smoke or drink to set a good example for his family; a Christian man who coached youth soccer and worked hard for his family. That such a fate befell a good, worthy man makes the killing all the more senseless.
I reached out to his niece, Daisy Soto, who said the memorial Mass for Mr. Villegas is tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. at St. Justin Martyr Church, 2050 W. Ball Road in Anaheim. The burial will take place afterward at Memory Garden Memorial Park, 455 W. Central Avenue, in Anaheim.
As I noted in a previous post, a funeral fund has been set up on Giveforward.com to help the Villegas family pay for Agustin’s funeral expenses. So far, $5,467 in donations have been received – 46% of the way toward the $12,000 goal.
Agustin Villegas was the sole support of his wife and four sons, who are ages 15, 13, 4 and 6 months old. Paying for the funeral is just the beginning. In addition to grieving their loss of a husband and father, Mrs. Villegas must also step into the role of provider, even as she consoles, comforts and loves her children. Bills must still be paid, groceries purchased, etc. Even as the media has moved on to other stories, I can only imagine how overwhelming this must continue to be for the Villegas’ and their friends and family.
Daisy Soto expressed her gratitude for all those who have been holding fundraisers for her uncle’s family, and said more are planned. If anyone reading this can find it in their heart to make a donation to help the Villegas family as they grieve their loss and find their footing, a donation to the funeral fund is a good start. I will keep you posted about other ways to help.
One aspect of this tragedy that has really struck home with me is that it could have happened to any one of us. Any one of us could have been driving home after a long day of work, looking forward to dinner with the family and every expectation of many more such days to come. Because of some coward, a very good man – and his family — senselessly had those days taken away.
If you can contribute to help the Villegas family, please do so. if you have other ideas about how you can help, feel free to e-mail and I will pass it along to his niece.
Anaheim City School District trustee Jose Moreno was the lead plaintiff in ACLU litigation seeking to force the adoption of by-district council elections in Anaheim (and it should be noted Moreno demanded it be done without a vote of the people and while simultaneously side-stepping adopting by-district election in ACSD).
He has been a vocal critic of the council majority and one of Mayor Tom Tait’s political wing-men; for example, recently crashing a West Anaheim Neighborhood Development Council forum on by-district elections featuring Tait and Councilwoman Lucille Kring to harangue (along with Cynthia Ward) Ms. Kring.
Given his political ambitions, the persistent speculation that he will run for Anaheim City Council this November (particularly as part of a “Tait Slate” of candidates) is natural. Yesterday, I heard from a reliable to source that Moreno is telling others that he is definitely going to run for city council instead of re-election to the school board.
Moreno first made it onto the school due to the fact that the number of candidates match the number of seats that were up, and so no election was held. Since then, he has won re-election with the support of the teacher’s union. However, he has lost that support over the issue of GOALS Academy’s charter school application. mayor Tom Tait is a major supporter of GOALS, and Moreno ultimately voted in favor of the application (a vote for which I applaud; even a broken clock is right twice a day). The teachers union instead endorsed incumbent ACSD Board member Jeff Cole and Ryan Ruelas, a teachers union activist who sits on the CTA State Council.
Several Anaheim political observers have advanced the belief that Moreno’s ACSD colleague, James Vanderbilt, won’t run at the end of the day, and that Moreno will take his spot on the Tait Slate. I didn’t buy into this view. It seemed to me Vanderbilt was already too far down this road: he had formed a committee, was making the rounds with Tait at the OC GOP Flag Day dinner, signed the ballot argument against Measure D (changing the mayoral term to two years), and helped fund the anti-D campaign. He even participated in an attempt by the Tait campaign to take over the Anaheim Republican Assembly and depose long-time ARA President Steve Sarkis.
But…
Robert “Bob” Tiscareno has pulled nomination papers and filed his intention to run for Anaheim City Council this November.
Who is Mr. Tiscareno and why is he running? I think I know the answer to the former but don’t know the answer to the latter. I have some feelers out and will report back when I have confirmation.
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