You know, I've been so wrapped up in promoting my Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, that I lost track of who was going to face off against Janet Nguyen in her reelection bid for the First Supervisorial District seat. I knew Rocco was going to face off against her, but what Democrat would take her on to give the party the only supe seat they will ever take?
As it turns out: NOT A SINGLE ONE. And that's Reason #234,329 why Democratic Party of Orange County chair Frank Barbaro is an incompetent pendejo.
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“To be real honest with you, we couldn't get our act together,” Barbaro told Orange County Register reporter Andrew Galvin. “We could not get consensus on a candidate…[there's] a real groundswell of people in the Democratic Party that like Janet Nguyen, think she is fairly moderate and she is somebody who we shouldn't be opposing…it would have just been too divisive were we to have floated somebody in that race.”
Now THAT'S leadership! Barbaro is in support of a Republican who has trashed Mexican immigrants and the famed nonprofit Latino Health Access–and that's something to like? Instead, Barbaro has allowed the 69th State Assembly District Democratic primary to become a Royal Rumble that's allowing three Democrats with name recognition (SanTana councilwoman Michele Martinez, labor man Julio Perez, and longtime pol Tom Daly) to beat themselves dead. Now THAT'S leadership!
I've long maintained that the only reason the Democratic Party has any power outside the local level in Orange County is because they lucked out on demographic reality with the browning of central OC. With Barbaro ceding control of the only supervisorial district where Democrats matter (and don't forget that Barbaro pulled the same shit in 2008, when Nguyen handily beat someone named Dina Nguyen), one wonders whether Barbaro would rather Latinos have no political power than token seats. Fuck, local Dems: boot this empty, high-priced suit already…
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