OC Blog

CULTURE OF COVER UP: Bill Hunt

Remember the days when politicians were squeaky clean. They had no flaws or failed policies or bad-apple friends?

Truth be told, those days never existed. And now we have OC Sheriff’s Department Lt. Bill Hunt to remind us of this fact.

Hunt who until today was a fringe challenger for Sheriff claims he wants to “…restore integrity and trust to the Sheriff's Department…raise standards of professional conduct and increase accountability to the public.” My guess is that this cover up pushes him into obscurity as one of those sad examples of hypocrisy in politics.

Funny, how lofty goals can sometimes be forgotten or swept under the rug when drunk friends get pulled over and name drop the Lieutenants name.

According to KCAL 9’s Dave Lopez, a Hunt friend (Robert Stevenson) and yes DONOR to the Hunt Campaign was stopped for suspicion of driving while intoxicated at 1am in San Clemente two weeks ago. This drunk friend of Hunt quickly said “I wanna call Bill Hunt” when the deputy on scene asked for Stevenson’s license, he said “I don’t have a driver’s license. I’m too drunk to even know where one is.”

That’s when the sheriff’s deputy quickly turned off the recording devise that usually captures conversations of traffic stops. Hmmm. This alone would arouse some suspicion. But wait there’s more. Instead of being hauled off to jail like you or I would have been, this friend of Bill Hunt was shown the FRONT seat of the deputy’s cruiser and given a free ride home. But wait there is more…

Once inside the cruiser, this friend and Hunt campaign supporter found all the pretty lights and switches quite alluring. So in his drunken state he started flipping switches and pushing buttons. According to the police report “He activated the air horn and patrol siren” This could be classic Will Ferrell comedy material if it wasn’t true.

Hunt claims he got a call from one of the deputies on the scene that he told the deputies to “do the right thing” wink wink.

Its not like Bill Hunt just moved into his glass house either. He is the same Bill Hunt that ordered deputies to give a ride home to now-convicted rapist Greg Haidl the night he was stopped with Marijuana as a minor. So you see Bill Hunt is an equal opportunity ethics violator. The only common threads I can see is that you have to be rich and high on something to get a get out of jail free card and a quite ride home after thumbing our nose at the law in San Clemente.

Taking about the Haidl case: Lopez points out that the Attorney General chastised Hunt for “…exercising poor judgment in his decision to direct [the deputy] to remove details contained in his report…”   

The bottom line is no one is perfect. But Hunt and his followers keep pretending he is.

I suggest you drop out of the race now Bill before you cause yourself and your fringe supporters any more embarrassment.

WATCH THE KCAL 9 NEWS STORY HERE

More Press On Benedict Arnold's CoS Pick

After an email I sent to Matt Drudge at 2:56 p.m. asking for a link to one of the many stories on Susan Kennedy, it's good to see he came through (though not in a big way). Check out the left column at the bottom (a metaphor?) to see the link to the Yahoo! News story.

BUT

It's disheartening to see our friends over at The Corner only made one post about this. Here it is:

"ARHNULD DEPRESSES ME [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
SanFranChronicle:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- attempting to regain his political footing after a devastating special election defeat this month -- has begun a shakeup of his administration by replacing his chief of staff with a former state Democratic Party official and top adviser to former Gov. Gray Davis, Democratic and Republican sources said Tuesday.

The hiring of Susan Kennedy, widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans in Sacramento as a workhorse operative for Davis, is expected to be announced officially as early as today. The move could kick off major protests from conservative Republicans.

Appointed by Davis to the California Public Utilities Commission in 2003, Kennedy had made her name as a political operative as the head of the California branch of the National Abortion Rights Action League. A longtime gay rights activist, Kennedy married her partner, Vicki Marti, in a 1999 ceremony in Hawaii attended by many California political insiders.

Posted at 10:28 AM"

The rest of the day was either spent moaning about American policies on torture or praising the President's speech on Iraq. Redundancy wasn't in short supply. It seems to me we're truly cut off out here. I feel like the poll results just came in after the Spanish parliamentary elections.

UPDATE: Here's not one, not two, but three thoughtful posts on the Governor-Kennedy connection over at the Claremont Institute's Local Liberty Blog.

MORROW PULLS HARMAN ENDORSEMENT

You read right.  In less than 3 hours time, the OC Blog posted the Harman campaign release, spread the word about the Morrow-Harman endorsement, and now we get to report Morrow has PULLED his endorsement.

It may just be the quickest endorsement equivocation in history.

In case you weren't sure if we at the OC Blog are having an impact, here is your proof:

I RECIEVED THIS EMAIL FROM JON FLEISCHMAN JUST MOMENTS AGO:

Roscoe, thanks for the heads up.

At about 6:30 p.m. I heard about your post on the OC Blog, and called Joe Justin.  Besides being a FlashReport Weblog Contributor, Joe is Bill Morrow's campaign consultant.  Joe had Bill call me immediately.  Bill and I spoke for a few minutes, and it was clear that Bill, who had endorsed some time ago, had no idea of the 'lay of the land' on this primary.  To his credit, once he heard how this race was playing out, he immediately apologized for creating the situation, and said he would pull his endorsement of Harman right away.

Less than an hour later, Bill called me back to say that he had left two voicemails for Harman on his cell phone.  The first asking for a call back, and the second leaving a voicemail letting him know that his endorsement was rescinded.

I will tell you this, in all of the many years I have known Bill Morrow, he has always been a man of principle, honor and conservative ideals.

Pretty efficient work, eh?

Thanks for the heads up on the OC Blog, Roscoe!

Flash

Get the latest news in California politics:  www.flashreport.org
-END EMAIL-

Thanks Jon for your note and thank you for reading the OC Blog and helping the blogpen shape politics in The OC.

Morrow Makes Mistake

Senator Morrow, why?  We thought you were a conservative.  We thought we could trust you.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NOVEMBER 29, 2005 

CONTACT: JENNIFER JACOBS

619-234-0231

 

CONSERVATIVE ORANGE COUNTY/SAN DIEGO STATE SENATOR BILL MORROW ENDORSES TOM HARMAN FOR STATE SENATE

(Huntington Beach, CA) Today, State Senator  Bill Morrow announced his endorsement of Assemblyman Tom Harman for the 35^th State Senate District. Morrow joins a growing number of Assembly and State Senate Republicans from throughout California supporting Harman.

 

"Tom Harman is reform-minded and has the necessary experience to move California forward," said Senator Morrow. "Tom's character and integrity will help strengthen our Republican voice in Sacramento."

One of California's most energetic senators, California State Senator Bill Morrow represents the 38th Senate District, which includes a portion of South Orange County and much of North San Diego County. The Senator's efforts in the California Legislature blend his strong fiscal conservatism, commitment to traditional family values, respect for justice, support for business and working people, tough-on-crime attitude, and compassion for senior citizens, children, and the needy.

Recent polling demonstrates Harman’s strength in the open Senate seat. His name recognition is already unusually high, as are his positives among likely Republican voters. Furthermore, Harman also has broad based support from Independents and moderate Democrats, and will benefit from the Special Election’s “open” system, which allows cross-over voters from other parties.  

# # #

More On The Vector Control Pension Spike Vote

Here is a more detailed break down of the Vector Control District Board vote on the proposed pension spike. It initially passed on first reading in October by an 18-11 vote, and was subesquently defeated on the second reading by a vote of 16-14 (I had erroneously reported that vote as 16-13).

The reason for the flip was two directors -- Westminster Councilman Frank Fry and Santa Ana's representative, Fred Bella -- changing their votes from "Yes" to "No", and some of the "Yes" votes not showing up for the second reading.

OC Blogpourri -- November 30, 2005

The Greater Orange eBlog has an exhaustive investigative series on the inner workings of the Orange Unified School District, entitled "Focus On Consultants":

A Principal working for a firm she recommends that then gets multiple contracts; pirated works copied without the owners’ permission; top administrators comparing the program to “marriage encounter training”; 40% of the consultant contracts cut back with no reciprocal program cuts: Welcome to the Focus on Results program in the Orange Unified School District. The Focus on Results educational consultant program in OUSD has cost taxpayers over two million dollars in educational tax funds over the last four years that include years with budget cuts of popular programs. Orange Net News is producing this yearlong exclusive news analysis series that examines the OUSD program; the financial implications; and the worth of the program to the taxpayers that paid for the controversial consultant program.

The vast majority of OC local agencies are fortunate -- OC taxpayers are unfortunate -- they are not the subject of this sort of ongoing scrutiny.

Orange Politicos takes Orange Councilman Steve Ambriz to task for supporting the massive pension spike for Vector Control District employees -- which (mercifully for the taxpayers) was narrowly defeated.

Allan Bartlett over at Powder Blue Report vents some righteous spleen at the Governor's appointment of Democrat operative Susan Kennedy to be his Chief of Staff, and reports that John & Ken are going ballistic as I write over John Campbell not going to a forum the night before the election he is going to win in a tsunami. Glad J & K have their priorities in place.

The Sergeant over at Tin Star calls on all candidate's for OC sheriff to conduct a background check on their campaign contributors, discusses the necessity of greater citizen oversight of local law enforcement, and peruses the hysterical Bill Hunt for Sheriff website.

Merry Christmas From the Governator

SactoDan has a funny mock Christmas Message from the Governor.

Read it here.  H/T to The California Observer.

Fleischman's Conversation With Arnold

FlashReport publisher Jon Fleischman has a post about the conversation he had a few minutes ago with Governor Schwarzenegger about the Susan Kennedy appointment:

About fifteen minutes ago I got off of the telephone with Governor Schwarzenegger.  He is spending some of his day today, in advance of an official 2 p.m. press event, making telephone calls to people about his controversial decision to hire Susan Kennedy as his Chief of Staff.

After a collegial minute or two (after all, the Governor is one of the friendliest people EVER), the conversation turned to his appointment.  We spoke about his choice for a few minutes – well, I let him do most of the talking.  I will paraphrase some of what we talked about so that you get the idea.

I expressed to the Governor my concerns – that while I had never met Ms. Kennedy, I had reviewed her resume.  I told him that her resume was more partisan on the Democrat side than mine on the GOP side, which was hard to do,

The Governor said that he spoke with a lot of different Republican leaders in a search for the right candidate to be his Chief of Staff (yeah, he mentioned a few of them, but I’ll keep that secret, so that everyone out there who says they are his closest advisors can pretend he mentioned their name to me).  He said that this search proved fruitless, as he tried to find the right person for the job.  A very difficult job, he pointed out.

You can read the rest here.

My Dearest Arnold

My Dearest Arnold,

When we first started going out, I knew you were never going to be mine and mine alone.  But still I held out hope that you would change your ways.  After all, you protected me from Joe and took him out of the picture.

I have loved the time we spent together, the long walks, special elections, the trip to China and even an occasional Republican party convention.

But now I am feeling truly hurt.  You are not only sleeping around, but you brought another woman home, into our bed.  How could you?

This Susan or whatever her name is, she is terrible.  I hate you for sleeping with her and I hate you for bringing her into our inner sanctum.

I no longer want to be with you.  Good bye for ever.

Sadly,

RepublicanAnna

"Stop Susan Kennedy" Website

Check it out:

StopSusanKennedy.com

That only took a few hours. It's Age of the Internet, after all.

Let's hope this is just the beginning of an effort to pump up the Governor's political common sense.