Republican OC Supervisor Jim Silva is the front-runner in the race for the GOP Nomination in the 67th AD. His consultants are Gilliard, Blanning, Wysocki & Assoc. Cypress City Councilman Mike McGill is also in the race, he does not have a mainstream consultant as far as I can tell but, he is getting a little help from OC-YAF (Young Americans for Freedom).
They have been emailing around "The Real Silva Bullet" a take-off on the Silva campaign’s own Silva Bullet blast fax/email.
The substance of the YAF hits has some merit, they call out Silva for some poor choices he has made over the years. But there is something more than just a few bad policy votes behind this YAF effort.
Brian Park (Mr. OC-YAF himself) is a bitter enemy of Gilliard et al having taken over the management of the Non-Partisan Candidate Evaluation Guide slate from the Gilliard firm within the last couple cycles. McGill has bought onto Park’s book of slates and it seems that bought him some goodwill with the historically pro-liberty YAFers.
While Silva has made some notoriously bad votes in his decade on the Board of Supervisors, most recently for a bloated public employee pension deal, McGill is famous for trying to condemn a church through eminent domain to build a Costco. Neither of them are saints but compare them to the unknown and scary Diane Harman (wife of incumbent termed-out Assemblyman Tom Harman) and you begin to understand why McGill’s friends hits on Silva could be a great boost to Mrs. Harman.
Everyone has a right to run and run hard, McGill has actually out-raise Silva in the last reporting period. But Silva’s ten years on the Board of Supervisors and services on the Huntington Beach city council prior to that trump McGill’s days on the Cypress (a small town) council. Also, I have a lot more confidence in a campaign that has a consultant at he helm, especially GBW&A. Bottom line, Silva and McGill should figure out which one of them (flawed as they both are) should stay in this race and which should take a back seat. Or we are headed for a disaster: Assemblywoman Diane Harman.
February 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Here’s a question for all the readers. What’s worse, being a shill for the unions and putting the OC on a path to bankruptcy or voting to eminent domain a church? I think the former is worse, but not by much. It is a conundrum for conservatives.
February 22nd, 2006 at 12:00 am
Joe Giardiello is the consultant.
As Cal-YAF Chairman, and knowing the work the OCYAF guys have done, I can say without question that Brian had no part in dreaming up, writing, or distributing the Real Silva Bullet.
February 25th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Joe is definitely a talented consultant and I am sure he will be very hands on.
I agree with Allan that both have some terrible votes in their pasts. The difference that I see is McGill has learned from his mistake, made his peace with the church, and I don’t expect to see him repeat it. I am not sure Silva has learned from his mistakes.