With the attention of the national and international press now gazing elsewhere, Anaheim voters did the same ol, same ol' electing Curt Pringle tool Jordan Brandman and Know Nothing pendeja Lucille Kring to the city council.
Endorsed by the Orange County Register and Mayor Tom Tait, Republican John Leos could only place a distant third, as he did in 2010, even with the Orange County Employees Association making it rain on his campaign.
Ladies and Gents, after tumult in Toontown, the incoming city council will be sans minorities and all-gabacho! But this is a diverse council: with Tait-endorsed Kring coming back for a third overall term, she'll join Gail Eastman in boosting ginger representation–much to the ire of Cartman from South Park!
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The only silver lining in this mierda is that, despite being backed by establishment interests, sudden Mexi and dirty cop Steve Lodge lost…badly. The cheap “Chavez” trick wooed neither Latinos and may have even repelled reactionaries! His supporters saw the burrito for the beans as robocalls emphasized Brandman while completely ignoring Lodge. Opponents focused their hit piece mailers on the former as well knowing the jig was up for one-half of the corporatist twinsies.
Lazy Anaheimers also did their thing as usual. How else to explain Linda Linder and Jennifer Rivera getting about ten percent of the vote each despite running phantom campaigns? Linder's ballot designation as “Retired Deputy Sheriff” railed in the law enforcement-loving crowd. As for Rivera, has anyone actually seen this AnaHeina? The Latina law student ran on a ballot statement and nothing else. Even with that, her surname alone was good enough for a couple thousand votes.
And then there was Duane “Desmadre” Roberts. We wrote of him. Gustavo endorsed him. We doomed him. A hell-raiser par excellence who threw his hat in the ring last minute, Roberts still managed to earn five thousand votes. Making his presence immediately known, he tipped the apple cart and disappeared a “Lodgeman” friendly candidates forum in the works at Ember Cafe — transparency in action!
Other candidates swagger jacked his populist ideas when his suggestion of moving the start time of council meetings to 7 p.m. so working people might actually have the time to attend gained traction. If Roberts' five percent means anything for a progressive future in Anaheim, those folks who he resonated with need to organize soon and form a grassroots coalition, one that can scare the shit out of the Disneyocracy!
As it stands now, the reactionaries have the floor. Following the social unrest in late July, City Hall faced a deluge of overt racism lumping illegals, gangs, district elections into one big burrito of bigotry! When Mayor Tait called for a special meeting of the council in August to be held at Anaheim High School's Cook Auditorium, many residents of the Colony District irrationally feared rampaging Mexis would be “rioting” too close to home.
My hermano and I cruised through that neighborhood as I politically cased it out a few weeks ago. The signs were hybrids. Tait's slate held no weight. To the detriment of Leos, Anaheim voters–and the Hills are not to be forgotten in all of this–are still too allergic to anything that whiffs of public unions, or any unions for that matter. Tellingly, residents of the Colony wanted Brandman and Kring and in a quick symbolic overview, that's what was ultimately delivered for the rest of the city.
Brandman was supported by the Anaheim Police Association and Kring, despite not getting their endorsement, promises more hires anyway. If the investment theory of politics holds true, Brandman will do the bidding of the resort cabal known as SOAR that supported him and Kring's past shows her to be no stranger to developer subsidies. Deregulation? That shit isn't even on people's radars yet as it economically advances throughout the city. “Pay to play” and “say to play” politics won the day. Expect future council meetings next year to resemble something like this:
My beloved city of Anaheim, reactionary as FUCK!
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!