Janet Nguyen Count-Up: 53 Days Of Evading The Law

Local liberal blogger Andrew Davey posted this over at Calitics, and I think it accurately conveys the sentiment of the OC blogosphere across the political spectrum:

Left, Right, and Center ALL AGREE: Janet Nguyen Needs to Come Clean

Why is Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen evading the law? This is a question that all of us are asking. This is a question that bloggers on the left, right, and center are all asking. This is a question that Janet Nguyen is forcing us to ask so long as she refuses to file a report on those secret campaign contributions that violated Orange County's campaign finance law. And so long as Janet Nguyen does not file this report, we will all be counting the days that she has not filed.

Even though Martin Wisckol began reporting on this matter at The OC Register's Total Buzz blog, Janet Nguyen has not taken notice, and she has not reported. Even though Mike Lawson has begun counting the days that Janet Nguyen has evaded county law at The Liberal OC, Janet Nguyen has not taken notice, and she has not reported. Even though Matt Cunningham has spoken out about this at OC Blog, Janet Nguyen has not taken notice, and she has not reported. Oh yes, and even though we at Calitics have turned our eyes to Orange County for this, Janet Nguyen has not taken notice, and she has not reported. So what will it take for Janet Nguyen to report these contributions? How many more days must we count?

Why won't Janet Nguyen come clean? Why won't she report these contributions, and report of her returning this money? Who were the donors who gave to her legal defense fund? When did these donors give? And just how much did these donors give? So long as Janet Nguyen does not obey the law and report these contributions, she only invites us all to ask these questions, and she invites us to count the days that she has not reported.

What excuse does Janet Nguyen have? Why can't she fill out the paperwork about the three donors to her legal defense fund? Why can't she follow county law? As she is now a county lawmaker, she should be setting a good example. She needs to file a report. And until she reports, we will be counting the days.

So if Janet Nguyen can't even follow one county ordinance on campaign contributions, then how can we trust her with this and other laws? This is why left, right, and center all agree that Janet Nguyen needs to come clean. We have waited 53 days, and Janet Nguyen still has not complied with the law. And until she complies, we will be counting the days.

 

Comments

[Andrew Davey]

So long as Janet doesn't report, we should ALL keep count. She works for us, and she's supposed to be our lawmaker, so we expect her to actually obey the law. Thanks, Matt, for helping us keep watch.

Janet Nguyen is my County Supervisor... But how can I trust my County Supervisor to truly serve our community if I can't even trust her to comply with county law?

[One Who Knows]

In a little over two weeks, Janet will have held office as a County Supervisor for 90 days.

Under the state Elections Code, the 90th day makes her eligible to be recalled.

While I don't reside in her district, and therefore can not sign or circulate a recall petition, I can, and will, make a small contribution towards that effort.

If someone (Van Tran?) will post the name and address of where to send the money, my check will be in the next outgoing mail.

[Nesta]

OWK-

Great idea, although I do not think Van should be the one heading up the effort.

Van needs to let this one go for now, and maybe try again next year.

That is not to say that I don't think someone should begin that effort though.

[Opus]

If she keeps ignoring the law, I think a recall is definitely in order.

[Art Pedroza]

A recall over a late document? That is nuts! Carona has done far more since his election that is deserving of such a fate.

I'm sure the document will be filed soon.

[Pedrozabot]

Art:

You make it sound like she needs to turn in a late homework assignment.

What part of "breaking the law" don't you understand?

Why don't you remain silent instead of posting these ludicrous defenses of Janet. You'll lose less credibility that way.

[Janet's forcing a recall]

I can't believe it would come to a recall, but what options is Janet Nguyen leaving anyone? She knows she's breaking the law, and doesn't care. It should go without saying that elected officials must obey the law. Why can't Janet do that one simple thing?

[RECALL RECALL RECALL]

Art-

It's not a "late document", it's a CRIME.

[Andrew Davey]

Well, Art does have a valid point here. Mike Carona has done quite a few unsavory things in his not so illustrious career as OC Sheriff. He should be held accountable for all his misdeeds. That's only fair.

However, whatever Carona did certainly does not excuse Janet Nguyen's evasion of campaign finance law. And just because Carona has been able to get away with all his misdeeds, Janet should not be allowed to get away with any of hers. If Janet wants us to trust her as an elected official, then she needs to earn that trust by obeying the law.

Janet Nguyen is only hurting herself by not turning over that report. If those contributions were no big deal, then she needs to prove that to us by turning over that report of those contributions (and her returning them). She's not serving us in Central OC by showing such disregard for OC law.

As much as I sympathized for Janet during the recount, nothing that happened during that period warranted the illegal legal defense fund and the illegal contributions. If Janet wants to rebuild the trust with the community that she's been losing, then she needs to start doing the right thing. She needs to report those contributions.

[Pedrozabot]

Andrew,

Art's bringing in Carona is an example of one of his favorite tactics when someone he likes is being criticized: "what about so-and-so?" Art would rather deflect an argument than meet it head on.

Carona has nothing to do with Janet Nguyen.

[rebecca]

I love you guys! Now who wants to comment on whether or not the president should pardon Scooter Libby? I mean, perjury and obstruction of justice are crimes too, right? Anyone want to argue otherwise?

[Karl Rove]

I'm not going to go there.......

[Art Pedroza]

Rebecca,

Great point - but never mind Libby. When is Rove going to get the cuffs slapped on him?

[rebecca]

Pedrozabot? Recall Recall Recall? How about you cats?

[Rifleshot]

Hey, Scooter. You should have lied about sex. Then perjury is no big deal.

[One Who Knows]

Rebecca:

I think the President should pardon Janet Nguyen!

[just...asking]

Lying about sex, I thought we were not going to talk about the big or little Sheriff anymore?

Back to the point, Janet needs to file. Dragging this out only fuels speculation that she really does have something to hide.

And BTW if its such a big deal, then we should still be talking about Norby's fines and legal payouts, shouldn't we?

[Paul Lucas]

12:52
If this is a crime why hasnt anyone pressed charges against her for it? I am not sure is a crime per se but i am pretty sure she canget some pretty hefty fines imposed on her as any one can for not filing the proper paper work on time or in a timely manner. My best guess is that she may have some heavy fines to pay for this problem.

One thing Iw would like to know is where is Shirley Grindle in all of this. I would have expected to see her in the paper at least once over this?

[rebecca]

Interesting. So none of my conservative friends are willing to go on record about a Libby pardon? At least not at the same time they're yelping about Janet's "crimes"? That's cool, guys. Crime, crime, crime.

And Rifleshot? I don't know whether you're one of my friends or not, but I'd say lying about sex IS less serious than lying about outing an undercover CIA operative, but as I recall, your side were pretty het up about the perjury when Clinton did it.

I'm just asking you all to at least TRY to be consistent.

PS: Totally recall Janet. God knows we could use ANOTHER special election so OC Blog can focus on nothing else for a month or two!

[RECALL RECALL RECALL]

Paul-

Forgive me for coming to the conclusion that violating the law of the land is a crime.

Rebecca-

The President should absolutely pardon Libby. He should do this not because Libby didn't have something to do with the leak, but because the sentence is absolutely ridiculous instead.

The prosecutor (knowing full well that Richard Armitage was the actual leak) had it out for him from the beginning.

Clinton lies and gets his law license taken away. Libby lies and gets 2 1/2 years in prison.

Like you said...consistency right?

[OCNative]

Maybe the Carona and Nguyen recalls should join forces to save money.

[FLowerszzz]

Art she is knowingly violating the law. She knows she needs to report the donors within 3 days.

So how do you file donors who gave directly to the Attorney. This is unfair to any candidate that gets sued and unconstitutional Janet should fight this to to the end and make Mike S. even worse.

[Re: Flowerezz]

That is the weakest argument I've heard about this issue so far.

[Poor JN]

Finally, Janet Nguyen filed her paper today. It showed three donors: Mission Viejo Company for $5K, Townsend for $5K and Parking Concept for $2.5K. All checks were returned on April 14.

Check it out