...And November Election Losers

And now the time has come to review some of Election Day's losers, here behind the Orange Curtain:

Cassie DeYoung
What can you say about someone who puts $2.6 million of her own money into a supervisor campaign, spends it on everything except carrier pigeons to communicate to voters, and garners just 37.3%? Then, that certain someone puts another $775,000 and pushes it to 46.7%

Would you say that person has a bright future in OC politics?

Neither would I.

Cassie DeYoung proved to the world that there is someone who wants to be a county supervisor so badly she will spend more than $3 million of her own money on that ambition. It's a free country, so why not.

Pat Bates is a class act, an experienced campaigner and a veteran vote-getter. But she's not invincible - nobody is against that much campaign cash. Bates' victory owed a lot to her qualities and the savvy of her campaign team -- but it is also a testament to what a bad candidate DeYoung proved to be. She periodically reinvented her campaign persona, and never advanced a consistent, coherent message to the voters -- even as she buried them in a mind-numbing flood of mail.

I suppose it's possible Cassie DeYoung may return as a candidate for the 73rd Assembly District when incumbent Mimi Walters runs for the 33rd Senate District seat in 2008 (when Dick Ackerman is termed out). Frankly, I think she has left such a bad taste in the mouths of so many South County voters that even those who cast their ballots for her on Tuesday might well prefer an alternative to DeYoung in a future race. Besides, I doubt she could successfully transfer her coalition of enviros, Democrats and moderate Reps and independents to a partisan primary in one of the most Republican ADs in the state.

Carol Rudat
The bizarre tale of Carol Rudat's campaign for Orange City Council came to a just end on Tuesday, garnering just 13.1% of the vote -- pretty measly considering she spent more than anyone ever has in an Orange City Council race.

Rudat's defeat answers the eternal question: can you register to vote at a house in which you don't live in a city you left a quarter-of-a-century earlier, file to run for city council three months later, falsely claim in your candidate statement that you've lived in Orange nearly your entire adult life when you've actually been living in Anaheim and Newport Beach, kind-of-sort-of start living in that house because your carpetbagging status is drawing attention, and then spend $150,000 of your own money in hopes of compensating for the fact the only news coverage you receive centers on your residency  (or lack thereof)?

Orange voters -- who prefer their councilmembers to have lived in the city longer than the lifespan of a mayfly -- answered with a definitive "No."'

Rudat displays that bulldog tenacity you often find in people who are successful in spite of being generally dislike, as well as a great capacity for revenge -- so Ii don't think we've seen the last of Carol Rudat.

And while she's finished politically in Orange, there are 33 other cities for her to choose from.

Forde and Mollrich
F & M is successful campaign consultancy with a good track record, and Arnie Forde is a true voter communication pioneer, but there's no getting around the fact they had $3 million to elect a supervisor and couldn't do it. Not that they didn't concoct every piece of mail and message variation the human mind can conceive in their attempt to win the 5th SD race, but this one goes down as a very big and expensive "L" in the F & M campaign ledger. But they still have Larry Agran and the Great Park, so all is not lost.

Orange County Democratic Party
The DPOC slept while the OC Republican Party stole a march and nearly wiped out the 11-point registration advantage the Dems enjoyed in the 34th Senate district originally enjoyed. Hollering about the registration-flipping mess generated some press stories and gave the OC GOP a media black-eye, but it failed to spook the Republicans into calling off the registration drive -- and it was that registration campaign that made it possible for Lynn Daucher to run for the 34th Senate District and (presumably) win. Declarations of outrage can't obscure failure to hold onto that Democratic huge registration advantage.

Tan Nguyen
What's there to say that hasn't already been said? Not only is Tan is a shameless opportunist,  he's not a very good one. After all, he runs as a Democrat in a solid GOP congressional district in 2004. After he fails to even win the Democratic primary, he moves to a solid Democratic congressional district and runs as a Republican. He had his 15-minutes of fame in the wake of the "immigrants can't vote letter," but now that the election is over he finds himself a pariah in both parties, and facing the law on his own.

Otto Bade
Otto's attempt to payback Dick Ackerman and Lynn Daucher by running as a 34th SD write-in candidate at the behest of Democratic special interests may have diverted several hundreds votes from Daucher but appears to have fallen short of the mark. Not only has Otto failed to torpedo Daucher's candidacy, but he's marked himself as Benedict Arnold willing to sell-out his side -- meaning his motives will always be questioned and political actions viewed with suspicion.

As Merlin said to Uther Pendragon in the cinema classic (and bitchen' guy movie) Excalibur:

You betrayed the Duke. You stole his wife. You took his castle. Now no one trusts you.

NIMBYS
The forces of NIMBYism iin Oorange County -- an agglomeration of no-growthers, environmentalists and affluent homeowners with a draw-bridge mentality -- took a beating on Tuesday. The most high-profile loss was the overwhelming voter rejection of no-growth, anti-property rights Measure X.

But NIMBYism had no bite in the Orange elections, in which opposition to The Irvine Company's East Orange development was a major feature in the campaigns of every candidate -- every losing candidate, that is. The only three candidates who publicly supported the East Orange project -- Carolyn Cavecche, Mark Murphy and Denis Bilodeau -- were elected handily. The Orange Hills Task  Force people had been pummeling Cavecche for weeks with really vicious newspaper ads citing her support for the East Orange residential development, and she beat opponent Mike Alvarez (who embraced the NIMBY stance) by 20 points.

That's all for now. Stay tuned for a second installment of election winners.

Comments

[Wake up Orange County]

Nobody in the 68th has lost as bad as Van has done. If his Absentte program was so good why did his buddies all lose. People need to learn this guy isn't that good. For god sakes Paul Lucas is a nobody... Van needs to take care of his own seat before trying to take over central county... If Lynn loses its Van's fault none of his slate won and they did this whole absentte thing.... Hello Dick Ackerman and Scott Baugh.....

Trung Diep Last place and over 20k spent on him and you could vote for 3

Trung Nguyen lost central committee you could vote and you could vote for 6 and then lost to Kay Barr who didn't do anything

John Duong Lost

Tri Ta lost and you could vote for 2

[Ken]

What happens to Denis if he is convicted?, not for taking the signs down, more seriously, for lying apparantly to the police as indicated from someone esle on this blog

Kind of like what happened to Martha Stewart.

Do we really want someone who would lie to the police about something they just did?

[Reality Check]

Lying to the police is a misdemeanor. The penalty isn't much more than the penalty for taking the sign down.

Martha lied during a federal investigation which falls under a different set of rules.

More than likely Dennis (if found guilty) will probably face some sort of community service, pay a fine and informal probation.

[Ken]

The question was really two part

Do you really want to be represented by a guy who panics and lies to the very police he is going to suppose to supervise as a council member.

Seems a pretty serious flaw not to own up to it and act like a wuse. What will he do next time with something more serious

Really, its not a question of if he would lie, hes proven that. the question is what would he do next

The whole campain was unseemly and Orange deserves better, both with Rudat and Denis.

I just dont understand why we have to settle for people like this