Color me strange, but I actually like looking through campaign finance reports. I find it interesting to see who's giving to whom.
I finally took a look through Tom Umberg's January 1-20 filing. It's replete with contributions from a myriad of union PACS, but there were some interesting individual donations:
$500 from Blake Anderson: The former General Manager of the OC Sanitation District who was canned following the furor over his spending tens of thousands of dollars on a consulting contract with a New Age guru. For some reason, the report lists his occupation as "General Manager, Orange County Sanitation District" even though he was fired about a year-and-a-half ago.
1,500 from Lawrence Agran: You and I know him as "Larry" the mayor of Irvine. What a shock! But Umberg used to live in Irvine, after all -- before he moved to Garden Grove to run against then-Assemblyman Curt Pringle in 1990.
$500 from Brian Bennett: Brian certainly has come full circle in central OC politics -- from running the Bob Dornan operation and a few abortive legislative/congressional candidacies as a conservative Republican, to now donating to The Democratic Choice for Supervisor!
$100 from Jerry Patterson: This is really only interesting in the context of Brian Bennett, since it was Brian's old boss Bob Dornan who ended Patterson's career in Congress.
$1,500 from Denise Bittel: Denise doomed her chances for the OC GOP endorsement of her doomed Orange Unified School Board candidacy last year by contributing to Umberg's state Senate campaign. I assume this means she's writing off any future shot at an OC GOP endorsement.
$500 from Belal "Bill" Dalata: Dalati cements his status as a Democrat by giving to The Democratic Choice for Supervisor! Note to Dems: don't be mean to Bill, because then he might re-register.
$250 from Harvey Englander: What a cheapskate! Harvey can certainly afford to max out -- pony up, man! Maybe Harvey thinks Tom isn't running a vicious enough campaign.
$1,500 from Kay Rackauckas: Fascinating.
$1,500 from Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties Community Action: A late contribution from the abortion mill. Lovely.
$1,000 From Disney Worldwide Services: The Magic Kingdom pitches in.
Here's a strange bedfellows situation: Umberg received a late $1,000 contribution from John C. Manly, the attorney who has made his fortune suing the Catholic Church. He also received a $250 from Magnuson & Waters -- partner Meg Waters used to be a media consultant to the Diocese of Orange when they were/are being sued by Manly.