OC Blog

CommieGirl: "Todd The Wet Sprocket"

The always-entertaining, impossible-to-copy Commie Girl has a funny column about having coffee with Todd Spitzer (hat-tip to regular commenter Not Today).

Although, Commie Girl is completely wrong when she claims that upon taking office, Tony Rackauckas fired everyone in the D.A.'s office who had endorsed his opponent, the alliterative Wally Wade. Rackauckas did transfer several internal antagonists (including Wade) into the child support unit, following his re-election. That unit was scheduled to become part of the County of Orange.

An example of punishing one's enemies? I certainly hope so.

NTW -- what was that hit that Toad the Wet Sprocket had?

Fleischman on Spitzer's D.A. Bid

For those of you who don't subscribe to the Flash Report published by Jon Fleischman, I'd like to reprint (without permission, but I'm sure Jon won't mind) his commentary from yesterday's Flash Report on Spitzer's bid to unseat Tony Rackauckas. Fleischman combines political savvy, commitment to principle and clear-headed analysis to his activism, and I always accord his insights considerable weight:

I attended a fundraising event for Orange County District Attorney Rackauckas last night -- over 400 people and a ton of $$ raised (well over $100,000). The attendees were a who's who of leaders from around Orange County -- Orange County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh's (the event Master of Ceremonies) and Sheriff Mike Carona's introduction and praise for Rackauckas set the tone for a great evening. For those of you who do not know Tony, he is a loyal conservative Republican DA in my county, who has been extremely supportive of the Party, and the movement. Not only should he be re-elected, but enthusiastically so!

Curious then is that GOP Assemblyman Todd Spitzer seems to have his aim on knocking off Tony, and becoming our county's DA. First and foremost, I do not question Spitzer's right to run -- it is, after all, a free country.

That having been said, when we have an incumbent who is rock-solid like Tony, my opinion is that it is a bad idea for someone from his own party to challenge him. It begs the question of Spitzer's motives, which seem selfish. All of that having been said, in my opinion, Spitzer's amassed campaign funds will not be enough to elect him over the incumbent, with the huge breadth of support that Tony enjoys. Perhaps Spitzer should think about running for Attorney General, or Secretary of State. Shifting the focus of his future away from challenging a loyal, capable District Attorney would be a marvelous demonstration of teamwork, and loyalty to the conservative movement. Let's see if Spitzer is up for THAT challenge!

Well said, Mr. Fleischman.

If you'd like to subscribe to the Flash Report (it's free and Jon doesn't share his distribution list), e-mail him at jonflash@earthlink.net.

"Hi, I'm Todd Spitzer and I'm Running for District Attorney Because I Can"

I spoke recently with a former elected official whose endorsement Todd Spitzer has been trying to secure. Being curious, I asked him what rationale Spitzer gave for why he should replace Tony Rackauckas, and why this former elected official should support him.

He thought for a second, and replied, "Basically, Todd said I should back him because he has a million dollars and he's going to win."

There you have it, folks. It didn't sway this former elected official (who's supporting Rackauckas) and I doubt it will persuade the voters of Orange County, either.

Of course, Spitzer is not going to send out mailers saying "Vote for me because I've raised a ton of money, and I'm going to win anyway." But it illustrates that Spitzer has no compelling issues with which to defeat Rackauckas -- no well of public dissatisifaction to tap -- which makes it really tough to defeat an incumbent D.A. Is there anyone in Orange County old enough to remember the last time it happened here?

Spitzer Does The CenterLine Straddle

And last but not least, a Quote Whore Award goes to Todd Spitzer for scoring a quote in the Times piece as an advocate of a public vote:

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (R-Orange), a longtime OCTA board member and former Orange County supervisor, said there have been long-standing questions in the county about whether the public really supports CenterLine.

"The project is now on life-support," Spitzer said. "It is incumbent on OCTA to put this to the voters. We need to get the question out there front and center."

Funny.  CenterLine was on life support throughout Spitzer’s 2002 tenure as OCTA Chairman, but he never called for putting the project before the voters during that whole, long year.  Come to think of it, Todd was a CenterLine opponent before flip-flopping and embracing the Folly Trolley upon assuming the OCTA Chairmanship.  Makes one wonder if Spitzer sold out on CenterLine in exchange for being elected 2002 OCTA Chairman – positioning himself even more strongly to grab headlines during his campaign for Assembly that year.  Naahh.  Todd would never do something so craven and opportunistic.

King of the Molehill

Whew – been a few days since hitting the keyboard, and there’s plenty to blog about.

Let’s start with our favorite media-hog, Todd Spitzer.  Kudos to Todd – he managed to squeeze news stories in two separate newspapers, on the same reckless accusation -- 4 days apart!  Headline-grabber high five there, Todd!

Yesterday’s LA Times piece was basically a re-hash of the June 17 OCR story – albeit with more detail. 

But the additional details only confirm that Spitzer is taking a molehill and trying to turn it into a media mountain.  Mike Schroeder is exactly right – Spitzer’s motivation has nothing to do with good government and everything to do with softening Tony Rackauckas up for a 1996 challenge.  You’d have to be a fool to believe otherwise.

OK – so a few people wound up wearing the electronic bracelet who apparently weren’t eligible.  That decision was made by the judges in those cases – why isn’t Todd going after them? 

Besides, this is a PILOT program – meaning it’s a trial run to work out the bugs before authorizing it as a permanent program, so it stands to reason there will be some process errors.

There seems to be no dispute that this program saved the taxpayers thousands of dollars – and every cent counts in this cash-strapped county government – and saved space in crowded jails for the scarier violent types. 

Isn’t that the bottom line here?  Excluding your own county from a cost-saving pilot program because (supposedly) of procedural errors, a late report and because one offender actually served 12 more days than he should have (that’s a bad thing?) – well, the phrase “cutting off your nose to spite your face” is an understatement in this instance.  OC Blog is sure Spitzer’s Assembly colleagues could barely conceal their snickers when they went along with barring Orange County from the program. Maybe somebody can remind Todd that OC only gets back 7% of its property taxes from the state, and ask why he’s driving that percentage even lower.

Spitzer Spat

Todd Spitzer long-running sniping at DA Tony Rackauckas burst into the open today on the front page of the OC Register’s Local Section. According to OC’s most manic assemblyman, Rackauckas is guilty of telling “lies, half-truths and misrepresentations” to the state legislature.

Wow – sounds pretty bad.  What injustice has Todd uncovered now? Illegal wire-taps? Prosecutorial misconduct?

Not exactly. The object of Spitzer’s outrage is the District Attorney’s office’s participation in a state pilot program to save money by having serious traffic offenders wear electronic bracelets instead of taking up space in the hoosegow.  Spitzer’s j’accuse boils down to some niggling differences over how the DA implemented the program.

Of course, the larger context is Spitzer’s ambition for higher elective office – any office.  It’s no secret Spitzer, who’s termed out in 2008, is seriously considering challenging Rackauckas in 2006 (especially since Chuck Poochigian’s candidacy has foreclosed the possibility of running for Attorney General).  Why else would he be hassling Rackauckas in the media?  This ambition will color Spitzer’s every utterance regarding Rackauckas.

The irony is self-styled taxpayer champion Todd Spitzer is trying to have the Orange County DA’s office barred from further participation in the program, which saved county taxpayers $18,000 in incarceration costs during the last four months of 2003.  Given a choice between saving the taxpayers’ money and getting a single sensation headline, Spitzer will go for the headline every time.