Torrance City Council Election 2022, Reflections: The Mayor's Race

Torrance Mayor George Chen

Now that the dust is settling after the June 7th, 2022 election day, I wanted to take some time to analyze the results of the Torrance City Council races.

There is so much to unpack, and more importantly there is so much to celebrate.

Let's start with the Mayor's race.

It was a contest between twice-elected city councilman George Chen and twice-elected FORMER city councilman Cliff Numark.

Councilman, and now MAYOR Chen, has had an incredible, meteoric rise in the city of Torrance.

He first ran for city council in 2018, and he was elected by the at-large electorate, since the city council districts were imposed later that year.

He and Councilman Mattucci were elected that year, and their triumph was only augmented by the fact that they pushed out left-leaning incumbent Kurt Weideman. Quite an upset!

But Councilman, now MAYOR Chen's victories deserve more recognition.

Every time that Chen has run, he has not received the support for the political establishment in any way, shape, or form.

Every public sector union operating in the city has endorsed someone else (as in 2018), or they have endorsed George Chen's appoint. He became 0 for 3 in terms of public sector union endorsements.

Yet each time, George Chen has prevailed. This is really amazing!

But it gets better.

Chen has never sat on a commission in the city of Torrance. Ever. He has not played the "Torrance Way" political games which other city councilmembers and mayors have played for the last thirty years. As Southeast Torrance Homeowners Association President John Bailey had shared with me a few years ago, there is a political establishment in this town, something of a uniparty of Republicans and Democrats who give into all the special interests, who maintain their little club of politically connected self-congratulators. They have pretty much run things in the city of Torrance for the last few decades.

Mayor Chen is not part of that system. He has really broken it up!

He had no backing from the public sector unions.

He had no support from the Scotto-Furey-Ashcraft-Geissert-Armstrong political establishment.

And he won!

His second victory deserves considerable recognition, too.

In 2020, after the city council divided up the city elections in council districts, Chen had to make a choice: either finish the rest of his term at large and not run for city council again, or run a second time for a new seat, District Two.

To make the second choice even more challenging, another city council incumbent Geoff Rizzo lived in District Two, and he was up for re-election in 2020 regardless.

Rizzo had been elected twice already, and city wide: first in 2014, where he was the fourth from the top vote-getter. He had to run again in 2016, because his election filled in a seat for someone else. I even endorsed Rizzo in 2016, just to make sure that turncoat RINO Lie-Lani Kimmel-Dagostino did not get into city council that year.

Rizzo had two victories under his belt. What's more, he was a retired lieutenant from the Torrance Police Department. On top of that, he had the backing of every political machine in the city, including Scotto's people as well as the Torrance Police Officers Association.

Yet for all of that support, Rizzo lost to Councilman Chen by double digits: 57%-43%!

What an incredible upset for the city, and a big win for all city residents. It was really something! I spoke with a number of local conservative activists in Torrance, and they were convinced that Rizzo was going to win out, since he had the backing of the police officers' union.

And yet George Chen won!

Remember, that was his second victory, too.

And now, George Chen is mayor. I cannot think of any mayor in the city's history who did not first serve on one of the commissions. To the best of my knowledge, Councilman Chen is the first outsider to get elected to the city council without "playing the game."

What's also remarkable is that unlike the two previous elections for mayor, George Chen did not have to contend with another Republican splitting the vote. In 2014, Tom Brewer and Bill Sutherland refused to adults and put the needs of the city first, and they both insisted on running for mayor. That split allowed Creepy Pat Furey to cut through the middle and become mayor with a bare 40% of the vote.

This is a big deal, folks. This is not just a win for better governance in the city of Torrance, but a victory for everyone in the city who has felt slighted, ignored, or dismissed by the uniparty political class that put their own narrow interests ahead of the city.

And let's contrast George Chen with Cliff Numark more discretely.

Numark was the machine candidate, if there ever was one. As I had shared above, he had already been elected twice before to the Torrance city council. He was first elected in 2008, a record year for Democrats nationally as well as locally. He was then elected again in 2012.

But then came 2013, when Numark wanted to climb up the political ladder. He ran for the El Camino College Board of Trustees, and he got elected there. Numark abandoned the city of Torrance for political posturing: let's call it what it is.

Numark would get elected two more time to the college board, where without a doubt he locked up the support from teachers unions and other political special interests. He was riding high on the Democratic Party pathway to power. A number of powerbrokers in the South Bay wanted Cliff Numark to think about running for State Assembly next, since Al Muratsuchi will be termed out in 2026, but he may just as well as retire in 2024.

So, out of nowhere, nine years later, after serving on the College Board out of the public eye, where he went to every length to impose onerous health mandates on every student (regardless of their health status), Cliff Numark wanted to run for mayor of the city of Torrance. Really? 

"Where have you been, Cliff?" was probably the first question on a lot of people's minds.

Of course, the political establishment in Torrance asked Cliff to run for city council. I was really shocked, dismayed, and downright disgusted to see so many so-called "Republicans" line up behind Cliff Numark. Geoff "The RINO" Rizzo supported Cliff Numark, of course, since Chen had knocked him off the city council in 2020. It was just bitterness, pure and simple. But then Heide Ashcraft, too? A number of conservatives in the city told me that Heidi was a tough lady, and that nothing phased her.

And yet she caved and pandered to the political establishment, just like everyone else. Of course, no one should take this as a shock. She has been part of the political class herself for at least two decades. She served at least three terms on the Torrance School Board, and then the city council appointed her to fill in Sue Rhilinger's seat in 2013, followed by her top victory in Election 2014.

Still, I would have assumed that Councilwoman Ashcraft would have had enough fortitude to stand up to Creepy Pat Furey and his bullying, too. After all, retired Councilman Maureen O'Donnell rushed down to the Torrance City Council chambers in 2014 after soon-to-be former Mayor Pat Furey shamed Councilman Ashcraft in front of everyone.

Furey has been a true blight on the city of Torrance, yet of course he would endorse Cliff Numark, too. No surprises there. And just as every special interest in the city lined up behind Geoff Rizzo, so too they supported Cliff Numark for mayor. The police officers union, the firefighters association, and every other government union in the city AND THE COUNTY lined up behind Cliff Numark. The Sierra Club even leant their endorsement to Cliff Numark!

"Quittin'" Cliff was the machine candidate. He had more money, more endorsements, more of just about everything one presumably needs to get elected ...

And he lost!

George Chen beat the system, beat the political machine, beat the long-standing "Torrance Way" establishment in the city. What a victory!

Truly, it's all because of the Grace of God. There was nothing in George's strengh, experience, or skill-set which would have determined his victory. It's the blessings and grace of God that Torrance finally has a good mayor, Mayor Chen, to lead the city through the tough times ahead.

Auwe! Trouble In Hawaii RINO Dystopian Paradise (Dictator Alert)

This is the craziest nonsense I have ever read about in a Republican Party organzation.

It was bad enough that the Republican Party of Los Angeles RINO Central Committee revoked two charters for clubs which had been active and conservative in the region.

Now I learn that a weak, neophyte state party chair has gone totally rogue and taken all the power to herself. Why? She has staving off all meetings and granting herself all the emergency powers until Election Day.

Which state? The Aloha State, where residents are struggling in dire poverty, where the public sector unions are sucking the state and the taxpayers dry, where welfarism is the way of life, because making a decent living is nigh until impossible.

And where the state Republican Party is all but nonexistent as leadership has spent more time wasting money a mortgage rather than fighting for candidates to win and make Hawaii Great Again.

Shirlene Ostrov was a whacky candidate to begin with. She had only recently become a Republican, and she was suddenly tapped by Pat Saiki, a two-term Congresswoman from the mid-1980s, to head the party.

Of course, Saiki has been in charge behind the scenes ... until now.

HIRA reports:

Aloha, Republicans: Prospects for political success in 2018 are looking even dimmer for the beleaguered Hawaii Republican Party as a massive turf war breaks out just three short months before voters start casting ballots in the General Election.  Yesterday, power-tripping political neophyte and current state GOP chairwoman Shirlene Ostrov cancelled all scheduled meetings of party leadership going forward -- including a crucial pre-Primary executive committee meeting tomorrow with fellow top officers -- and issued her own unabashedly dictatorial directive that centralizes all authority for absolutely all decision-making power under herself and to herself alone; completely usurping the party's executive committee along with its larger state committee.  In the same power-grabbing dictate, petty tyrant Ostrov unilaterally emasculated and threatened to fire fellow officers from her own slate of RINO Republican officers elected just one year ago at a state convention on Kauai. Even though the cadre of party officers which currently run the state GOP were nearly all elected alongside Ostrov on her official 'slate' of nominees at the 2017 Kauai convention, it appears from Ostrov’s one-woman directive that her running mates whom she personally recruited herself aren't doing their jobs or are simply not in sync with Ostrov’s outlook after her 14 months of on-the-job training as state chair.  In fact, in another sign of failed leadership, Ostrov is openly threatening her friends-turned-enemies with being replaced if they don't play by her rules.  However, Ostrov doesn't even bother to explain how -- as their supervisor and executive officer -- she let more than a year pass by without noticing or caring that they weren't doing their jobs right. MAJOR HUMILIATION:  Most explicitly targeted in Ostrov's crosshairs is 1st vice chair and former congresswoman Pat Saiki, who had been elected and charged with leading the state party's 'coordinated campaign program' as Ostrov's running mate 14 months ago.  As of this past Sunday, while appointing herself dictator, Ostrov has cancelled that entire Saiki-led initiative, which under Hawaii GOP rules includes critical programs for registering and identifying voters, promoting absentee balloting, Get-Out-the-Vote efforts, as well as coordinating between the campaigns of GOP candidates and the party in order to maximize effectiveness.  Ostrov has unilaterally deemed this program to be illegal and instructed Pat Saiki to cease and desist from doing her job from this moment forward, thereby seemingly resolving a long-simmering power struggle between Saiki and fellow vice-chair Jane Tatibouet. In Ostrov's multi-page directive which was probably drafted by Ostrov’s hand-picked, sycophantic party lawyers (Gary Grimmer shown here and Ann Correa) -- a move dubbed by HIRA as the "Sunday Night Massacre" -- the politically-experienced Saiki (who endorsed Ostrov for Congress in 2016 and for State Chair in 2017) has been completely stripped of all power by Ostrov, as is Saiki's own committee (with members such as Andrew Walden, Andy Poepoe, and others from Saiki’s team), plus Saiki's budget and plans for a coordinated campaign program in 2018.  Stunningly, neophyte Ostrov -- who wasn’t even a member of the GOP until recently and who’s never even run a precinct or district committee -- has now told the most experienced person in the state party's leadership team, former Congresswoman Pat Saiki, that her services are no longer needed or wantedand that her job description as vice-chair has been completely eliminated.  [It's bad enough that Ostrov failed to ensure that the 51 house districts were canvassed by the state party organization to identify voters which lean Republican so they can be targeted by candidates for votes and by the party for Get-Out-The-Vote efforts.  But now Ostrov and her ambulance-chaser cronies are stupidly calling that crucial activity "illegal" and handing the advantage to Democrats.] Moreover, the state party's treasurer and longtime worker Gwen Honjo has also been warned to be more obedient to Ostrov.  Party insiders tell HIRA that Honjo had been reluctant to allow Ostrov and her RINO colleague Jane Tatibouet to spend money in an ad hoc, unapproved fashion.  At issue, reportedly, are “illegal” promises made by Tatibouet to Republican candidates in 2018 that some portion of their own campaigns' expenses would be reimbursed by the party.  HIRA has learned that Ostrov is desperate to elect at least one or two GOP challengers in 2018 or risk being remembered as coming up short after notably promising "historic gains" only a few weeks ago.  In fact, Ostrov has declared the entire Saiki operation as “illegal” under state and federal law, even though the state party’s rules explicitly establish the ‘coordinated campaign program’ as being Saiki’s responsibility.  [Presumably the party’s legal geniuses who examined the rules and proposed new rules banning HIRA at the state convention back in May completely overlooked the need to fix these supposedly “illegal” rules due to their obsession with stopping HIRA from attacking the liberal party and stopping HIRA from attacking Democrats in 5 years more than the Hawaii GOP has in 40+ years.] Why Ostrov couldn't wait 24 hours to present these proposed courses of action to her fellow officers at an already scheduled meeting the following day rather than opting to CANCEL the meeting and give herself all the dictatorial authority imaginable was not expressed in her communication to her fellow officers.  Ostrov merely sent them her wide-ranging unilateral decisions and then told them in a hyper-legalistic fashion that the following day's party leadership meeting was cancelled and that they better wise up if they want to keep their jobs. Like Barack Obama using executive orders because Congress would never approve his garbage proposals, Ostrov is megalomaniacally exploiting a little-used provision in state party rules that allow her to exercise decision-making authority between meetings of the various governing bodies of the party so that she can assign all power to herself.  And then, by cancelling all meetings (thereby preserving her “in-between meetings” authority), Ostrov clearly intends to cling to that power for the rest of the year.  HIstorically, this authority has been limited to minor matters of incidental party business.  But delusions of grandeur have led Ostrov to grant herself all financial power of the purse and decision-making power at the Hawaii GOP, as well as giving herself carte blanche authority to hire outside lawyers to pursue whatever legal agenda Ostrov desires.  In addition, Ostrov also gave herself the authority to permit Andria Tupola and Gene Ward to establish brand new, unprecedented, official 'caucus' campaign committees for the purpose of electing more committed RINO’s to the State House in the mold of Beth Fukumoto, Lauren Cheape, Cynthia Thielen, Aaron “Ling” Johanson and other wishy-washy future Democrats. Another possible headache for the party in the wake of this coup by Ostrov is that she was installed as state chair with the overwhelming support and delegate votes of the Oahu League of Republican Women(president Carol Thomas shown here), which plucked neophyte Ostrov from obscurity and made her their choice to become state chair.  To this day, Ostrov remains the vice president of the Oahu League of Republican Women, her original political base of supporters which turned out in droves at the 2017 Kauai state convention.  That organization's treasurer, Gwen Honjo, is now under attack by Ostrov as the Hawaii GOP's simultaneously serving treasurer; with Honjo being told she is on the verge of being fired by Ostrov using her power-grabbing one-woman authority.  As of now, it is not known how the members and officers of the Oahu League of Republican Women feel about this coup d'etat led by Ostrov.  Throwing venerated members of that GOP auxiliary organization like Pat Saiki and Gwen Honjo under the bus while also threatening the status of other Oahu League members who serve on Ostrov's executive committee might cause headaches for the embattled state chair.  It should be disclosed that HIRA obtained this document signed by Ostrov via party officials affiliated with the Oahu League of RINO Women, which suggests they may be rethinking their their embrace of Petty Tyrant Ostrov. HIRA has warned for months that the party has been on a disastrous course leading up to the 2018 election.  HIRA has exhaustively reported on extensive dysfunction, incompetence, missteps, and ill-preparedness at the Hawaii Republican Party since the beginning of the year. With just three short months until folks statewide begin casting ballots in the General Election (yes, ballots get mailed 20 days before November 6th), Ostrov’s nutty power grab could very well be part of her own attempts at damage control and even survival as state chair.  Ostrov probably realizes that she will fall far short of the “historic gains” she promised all party members as recently as March 2018.  Playing the blame game has proven to be a standard play for Ostrov who has repeatedly tried to blame HIRA for her own inexperience, incompetence, and dysfunctional leadership.  Now, Ostrov is blaming her RINO running mates Pat Saiki and Gwen Honjo and other internal critics of her rule who question her ineptitude and poor results. Folks at Kapiolani Blvd. are surely wondering who could be next on Ostrov’s chopping block?  Hmm, maybe that’s why Saddam Hussein-Ostrov has given herself the autocratic power to “engage the services of internal or external legal counsel on all such matters as the chairman deems necessary” after such power was explicitly rejected by the party’s State Committee only a few weeks ago.  National committeeman Miriam Hellreichand national committeehermaphodite Gene Ward have clearly failed to rein in the third member of the trio which represents the Hawaii GOP at the Republican National Committee. Look out folks, the promise of a local “red wave” in 2018 is receding faster than the low tide before a blue tsunami hits.  The two governing bodies of the Hawaii GOP and its officers have just been completely (and formally) emasculated through the end of Ostrov’s term in May 2019.  The state party is now just a party of one.  And that 'one' is tyrant Shirlene Ostrov - a political neophyte who doesn’t play well with others and who probably overreacted this weekend when she saw herself going the way of prematurely ousted predecessors Jonah Kaauwai and David Chang. The Sunday Night Massacre at the state Republican headquarters is a cry for help from these warring camps of RINO’s which effectively drowns out the real problems demanding real leadership that real island residents are looking for, but won’t find from the Hawaii GOP in 2018.  Even with all the issues and headlines potentially making local Democrats look corrupt and inept this close to Election Day, Shirlene Ostrov and her RINO brigade has really blown the chance to degrade the Democrat brand and position the GOP brand for victory.  Auwe! #     #     #     #     # *** HIRA believes you deserve to know that the Hawaii GOP is just a front organization for liberals who don't ever want the Aloha State to turn red, ever. *** -------------------------------------------------

Final Reflection

There aren't enough Republicans to contest seats held by Democrats in the state legislature.

The Democrats will still hold their supermajority.

There is one solid conservative running for Lieutenant Governor, and that's it.

The Republican Party isn't offering even an echo, hardly a whisper. You can't hear them or see them, unless they say ... "Aloha."

Hawaii has remained off the radar for the most part. The state has not gone Republican for a Presidential candidate since 1984, but even Wisconsin went GOP in 2016. While some states have witnessed a massive shift in the last eight years for the GOP (Pennsylvania and Michigan too), states like Hawaii, California, and even Oregon have not broken free of the Deep Blue doldroms at all.

What will it take?

For started, dictator neophytes like Shirlene Ostrov have to go!

But there needs to be real leadership to take its place. Is there hope going forward for Hawaiians looking for any kind of sound governance?

More RPLAC Fails: 66th-AD Central Committee Cannot Replace One Member

The Republican Party of Los Angeles is bumbling, bereft, and for all intents and purposes bankrupt.

Whatever fundraising done by RINO Chairman Richard Sherman, they have no money to show for their anti-conservative efforts.

The board members of the Beach Cities Republicans have no interest in regaining a charter from the Central Committee. They had every interest in persecuting me and others in the Beach Cities Republicans, but they had no interest in winning elections against corrupt, evil, baseless Democrats. In one case, it seems as though the self-enriching consultant class has been more interest in representing candidates and getting fees than winning back the state of California for all citizens. When does their loser-mentality failures end?

The 66th-AD Central Committee had an epic opportunity to carry on their victories. They witnessed the election for the former CAGOP Central Committee chairman David Hadley, who won the assembly seat, the first Republican to represent the South Bay in 22 years.

"I'm a loser!"

And what did Chairwoman Janice Webb and company do with this victory? They lost.

What were they thinking?

Now a steady exodus of members from this bereft, corrupted Central Committee has emerged, and even now they are missing a member.

Who would want to work with micromanaging loser Janice Webb, anyway?

What's the matter, RINOs?

No one wants to work with you?

What can I say? No one wants to be around a bunch of losers!

RPLAC Mismanages Money to the Hurt of the County Republican Party

More bad news about the corrupt Los Angeles County Republican Party Central Committee.

Not only did they lose their overpaid and underwhelming Executive Director Jason Maruca.

Not only are they playing more crappy identity politics, as though appealing to voters based on token features like gender or ethnic background.

But now they are completely on life support, with no interest in raising money or helping to elect real Republicans to local, county, or even statewide office.

Check out this email that I received from reliable sources:

Good Morning Friends…

It’s something this past week to rise every morning and tune in to KPCC and listen to story after story in which they weep, wail and gnash their teeth over the defeat of Hillary Clinton by Donald Trump last year.

It is just so wonderful to know that we live in the heads of liberal loonies rent free every day. They can't stand the fact that their Anointed Swamp Queen melted and then drifted away with nothing to show for her hateful losses.

This morning was no different.  Except, this morning it was Donna Brazille hawking her newest book about her brief tenure as DNC Chair. What grabs me when I hear these stories is how completely and totally out of step many of the leaders in the DNC are with “Middle America”.  As many of you know, one of my favorite terms is “Situational Awareness”, or lack thereof.

Middle America is real America, not the desiccated coastal elites who have no idea what life is about, who swirl around from one cocktail party to the next with no idea what is happening. They have become the unjust, uncaring nobility, created by government fiat and living off of taxpayer dollars. They spend our money on their little hare-brained schemes, and the rest of us suffer the consequences.

How much longer do they really think that they are going to get away with their anti-American tirades?

Of course, how can we not notice that Donna Brazile is raising hell against Hillary Clinton and the rest of the corrupt Democratic National Committee. There is only one problem: Brazile is just as corrupt as the rest of them. After all, she was feeding questions to CNN and giving 

Like Hillary Clinton, Donna Brazille and many on the left, RPLAC and those gnomes who have flogged RPLAC for free eats and drinks are not only lacking “Situational Awareness”.

The California Republican Party leaders have none of this. None. They don't realize how badly they are getting defeated, and they have really no interest in winning.

Jason "Spellcheck" Maruca

Recently, I was informed that Jason Maruca was terminated as the ED of RPLAC.  I was shocked when I was told that Maruca was compensated in excess of 5K a month for that position.

The useless executive director was drawing a $5,000 a month salary! For what? To answer phones and arrange Central Committee meetings, which turned out to be an epic waste of time. What a bunch of losers. Another question: where did all of this money come from?

Now, I’ve not seen the filings by RPLAC, but I can assure you that in my opinion I have zero, zip, nada idea what Maruca did to earn that 5K.

He did nothing. That's right: nothing. He couldn't even write decent emails.

To add insult to injury, I’ve been told that RPLAC recently decided to hire a young Latina to be the newest ED.  When I asked how they could afford that, I was told…”Oh she’ll be paid way less than Jason was paid.

Folks…Can any of you understand how RPLAC has now brought “The War on Women”…AND, in this case a minority woman, home to all of us?

So, they decide to pay the woman less money? How sexist is that? At least, that could be the perception from the local press. Of course, the media love to champion weak, liberal, RINOs since they ensure that more Democrats will get elected, or at least that they will continue to push the left-wing agenda bringing this state to its knees.

Since the loss of Charles Munger Jr.'s largess, RPLAC has been operating on life support.  Yet, they continue to pay “Andy Gimmekandy” in excess of 5K himself.  Recently I was told by an RPLAC “Official”…”Oh Andy runs the entire show”.

Andy Gharakani was not too happy to see me at the CAGOP Convention in October. He and other members of the Executive Board have plenty to answer for. Why are they wasting all of that money on executive directors who accomplish nothing?

It would appear to me that these so-called leaders in RPLAC would rather live on their knees,
than fight on their feet. 

Final Reflection

I don't want to live on my knees. There is too much opportunity, too much winning to take advantage of in the days to come, the years to come. Political options may be fleeting in California, but moral and legal victories are already on their way. When the state legislature thought they could force pregnancy clinics to inform patients about abortions, an appellate court struck down that unconstitutional law.

When LGBT Bigot Ricardo Lara wanted to shut down Christian colleges and bully them to give up their moral foundations, federal law intervened and made it very clear that the privacy of students and the rights of institutions to preach the Gospel Truth would remain protected and intact.

It's time for conservatives across the country to stand strong and demand real leadership from our central committees, from our elected officials, and from the men and women who claim to represent us in partisan efforts. These matters matter a great deal. We cannot continue to allow arrogant, unimportant elites to decide that they will sit back and do nothing while the state of California slides into serfdom. There are too many hard-working people in this state who want better for themselves.

Shame on the RPLAC Central Committee for Mismanaging campaign and donor dollars. Shame on them for ignoring the needs of every day citizens in the street who want to see California thrive, and who do not want to flee from their home state. Please, someone tell me when this rot will be cleared out for good!

BREAKING: Another Member Quit the 66th AD Central Committee

Remember when I reported that two more people were thinking about quitting the abortive, corrupted 66th AD Central Committee?

Guess who is no longer on the South Bay "Republicans website"?

Joseph Ungoco:

He's a realtor and a social media professional.

He was serving as Janice Webb's alternate for the Central Committee.

Webb can't seem to keep the members of her Central Committee to stay!

I wonder why ...

"My central committee is melting ... melting!
Andy Gharakani won't be happy with me!"

Before Manhattan Beach, he lived in New York, where he had assisted a candidate for NYC City Council. That candidate lost, but eventually won an assembly seat to the New York state legislature.

He styles himself as a moderate Republican, and NRA member. He is also openly gay, an open member of the Log Cabin "Republicans".

When I first spoke with him, he told me that part of the reason he moved to Manhattan Beach was the swift professionalism of the city staff. Good enough for me.

He ran for Manhattan Beach City Council this year. He did very poorly. Some of the residents of the city even encouraged him to "wait his turn."

I have to admit: living in a city for two years does not give voters a real sense that you will do what is best for the city. Two years? Some cities even have residency requirements for longer than that.

Final Reflection:

Janice Webb has been an abortive for the South Bay Republican Party movement.

Instead of doing what is right for the state and the party in the region, she undermined the largest volunteer organization in Los Angeles County, then had the charter revoked.

What's even funnier, however, is that one of the ex-officio members, Omar Navarro, has been blocked by the Republican Party of Los Angeles County Twitter account! Talk about dysfunction and upheaval.

And now three members have quit in the last three months!

Heckuva job there, Janice!

UPDATE: Who Else is Leaving the Corrupted AD-66 Republican Central Committee?

Wow.

Janice Webb, the corrupt, craven, micro-managing chairwoman of the 66th AD Central Committee just can't catch a break.

People thought I was a great leader ...

First, she threatens, alienates, and then ultimately pushes to remove the charter for one of the most successful Republican clubs in Los Angeles County.

Then she alienates and irritates members of the Central Committee which she chairs.

Isn't she supposed to help Republicans get elected?

What about raising money and registering voters?

NOPE. NOPE. NOPE.

Now, two members of the Central Committee have walked off, although their reasons have not been clearly announced (one can certainly guess, and none of it is good for the RINO-PLAC Executive leadership of Janice "Caught in a" Webb of Lies.

Then there's more.

Words in the background suggest that MORE MEMBERS are about to jump ship.

Who could they be?!

And why so many defections?

Why ride a corrupted, creaking central committee which spends more time undermining Republican activists and candidates instead of helping to build the team?

It's time for more Republicans to follow the pattern of the Hawaiian Island Republican Assembly and demand the following:

1. Clean House

2. WIN!

3. Make California Great Again

With crappy, failing leaders like Janice Webb, Richard Sherman, and Mark Vafiades, leadership that continues to lose will be the norm rather than the slight exception!

Enough is enough!

.. But I'm really a useless micromanager ...
And that's why everyone's quitting  the Central Committee

Call Janice Webb, and demand that she step down from her corroded lack of leadership NOW!

Janice Webb – Chairperson        

JaniceWebbUSA@gmail.com     

 310.493.2456 Cell

From Tea Party to "Me Party": Gary Aven, Illegal Immigration, and How He Blamed Me for It

It has been hard for me to take in all the crap and backroom corruption that has been eating up the Republican Party in Los Angeles County and the conservative movement in the region, in particular.

When I had learned that John Paul Tabakian was using his corrupt and now dwindling West Cal Academy program to recruit illegal aliens and use them on campaings.

I was livid.

I was horrified. This was terribly offensive to me. We have thousands of young people in the South Bay and throughout Los Angeles County who are looking for a better education. Why do the DREAMers born in our country get short-shrift or no attention and respect at all, while these illegal aliens, regardless of their age, get all the love and attention!

I had stormed out of a meeting at a fundraising event for former Congressional candidate Chris Castillo--another "progressive" RINO who ended up embracing perverse views, then tried to shame and discredit me and others publically.

Tabakian had sweet talked him about using illegal aliens for his campaign.

I stormed out of the fundraiser.

Then I received a phone call that evening.

It was from ... Gary Aven:

Why was he calling me?

At the time, he was the chief financial officer for this West-Cal Academy program.

He was invested in it, to put it mildly.

You will notice that Gary is mentioned in the above comments. 

Gary has told others that he was not aware of the illegal immigration/illegal alien connection intertwined with West-Cal Academy.

All of that is a lie.

Anyway, back to February 2016 ...

He called me pretty quickly that evening, after I saw that Tabakian was still a shady, corrupt individual out to violate our immigration laws, with no regard for our citizenry or the rule of law.

Gary started telling me that this program was the right thing to do. That we should be helping the illegals get an education.

Then this statement really offended me:

"Now Arthur, you realize that it's our fault that these kids are in our country illegally. We are responsible for this!"

That was the most offensive thing that I had ever heard. One could even call it a simplistic form of "white guilt."

You don't believe he shared these views? He was the President of the South Bay Tea Party.

Check out what the blog reads:

"There are also several presuppositions that we must consider.  As a country we have not enforced our immigration laws.  We cannot just blame the government for the past 35 years but we also have to blame we the people who elected the government."

Here's a snippet of the statement on the blog, in case Gary takes it down:

Our borders are not secure, and illegal immigration is rampant in California because our government refuses to enforce our laws. We the People have a responsibility to elect good leaders and ensure that they enforce our laws

But the fact that he was blaming me?! Outrageous!

He then tried to talk down to me, as though to calm me down.

"Now, Arthur ... Arthur. The two of us are really not that different. We agree more than we disagree."

The last time someone had said that to me? Torrance Mayor Pat Furey, who had colluded with the McCormick PAC to aid his election as mayor in 2014.

PLEASE!

John Paul Tabakian

This man--Tabakian--with Gary Aven was pushing a destructive to get rich, or at least to feel good about himself. His crony in this immoral behavior, John Paul Tabakian, raved about getting rich and making lots of money through this "career pathway" agenda.

Who would have known that it was really about getting illegals involved in politics?

This is just shameful.

Then add to this corrupt mess ... Gary Aven is a member of the 66th-AD Central Committee ...

The same committee whose Chairwoman was trying to get rid of me from early September.

"Get rid of Arthur!"

What is going on with all of this nonsense?

The Republican Party of Los Angeles County thinks that illegal immigration and embrace of this lawlessness is going to somehow make the GOP a relevant force in the county again?

How has that worked for the last 20 years? The state is turning into a third-world cesspool, corruption, illiteracy, poverty, and overall moral decay.

We need the rule of law in our country, in our state!

To pander on immigration is not the way to go!

Then came the Sheriff Joe Arpaio event in September, 2016

Another attendee at the event shared with me that Gary didn't know that Sheriff Joe would be there.

Really?

Then the crazy anti-social injustice warriors showed up to try and ruin the event:

What I found interesting was that Gary Aven knew the names of the people protesting!

How would he know that?

Then when I wrote an expose connecting Tabakian and West-Cal Academy and those things, I got a sinister phone call at 1:00 in the morning!

"Take down that posting you did! You're looking at a lawsuit!"

I have learned since then that Gary Aven routinely resorts to threatening people with lawsuits and pressing charges against people when they say or write things that he does not like--especially when they are true!

He then texted me against about the young Hispanic male who had yelled in my face and flipped off Sheriff Arpairo:

"His name is Vincent Quintero. He worked on the Rubio campaign six years ago. We need people like him ..."

He knew who that guy was too?!

So was this whole thing about trying to bring in young people of color into the Republican Party by pandering on amnesty?

Oh brother!

And now there are more reports that he routinely argues with current (perhaps former) members of the Central Committee. He has attacked me personally because of my firm stance on immigration, too (no amnesty, period!)

This is getting out of control.

Please, do not bore with the long talk about Reagan's 11th Commandment. The fact is, a party without principles has no principle reason to exist. Go beyond party labels, and focus on doing what is best for the country based on the rule of law, limited government, constitutional rule, national primacy and individual liberty.

It's about time that we called out this crap, especially in regards to illegal immigration.

And now I understand that Gary is still throwing his weight around, giving people a hard time.

Enough with this!

It's time to Make America Great Again! It's time to Make California Great Again!

It's time for our laws to be honored and enforced, and to expose people who are undermining the rule of law and our national sovereign!

"Chucky Cheese" Martinez and Los Corruptitos de Huntington Park in Central Committee [UPDATE!]

The 53rd Democratic Central Committee added some new members.

The top vote-getter was Laura Herrera, who is running for Huntington Park City Council.

The Number Two vote getter (and I meaan #2 in every way) was Huntington Park City Councilwoman Karina Macias.

She was a DISTANT second according to the final tally.

Macias has been spending big money on flyers.

Yet she was 6,000 votes behind Herrera.

Not a good sign for an incumbent city councilwoman who wants to get reelected.

Now, check out these photos at the installation meeting for that Central Committee:

There we have Efren "Chuck Cheese" Martinez, the puppet-master of the four Corruptitos.

He owns that committee. That's what is happening.

Republicans have only begun waking up to the necessary influence of these committees. Democrats have understood for years how these voting blocs, which recruit, endorse, and fundraise candidates, wield an inordinate amount of power.

Martinez is buying up influence with his PAC money from his aborted assembly race for the 59th.

And look who else was there ...

There's Kreepy Karina, sitting with her girlfriend Graciela.

Ugh.

The whole thing is just sickening.

These ratas con cuatro patas must be exterminated.

The vermin can and will be chased out of Huntington Park!

The Democratic Central committees in Southeast LA County are a cauldron of conflict and corruption.

They need to be emptied out and cleansed thoroughly.

Let's start with Huntington Park!

UPDATE!

Another source has confirmed what I had feared.

This Democratic Central Committee meeting took place at Kenneth Hahn Hall, where the Board of Supervisors meets!

This is a massive abuse of public funds! OUTRAGEOUS!