In an amazing confession of weakness Orange County Democrat Party Chairman Frank Barbaro and Democratic Foundation of OC chairman Wylie Aitken sent a letter to Supervisor Lou Correa back in January, urging him to stay in his current job rather than run for the 34th Senate District.
The letter that just surfaced, says, "As you know voter registration [meaning Democrat voter registration] has severely declined during the last few years and the Republican Party of Orange County and Senate Republican Minority Leader plan to mount a very aggressive race against us this fall. Now more than ever, we need to stand together to unite behind Tom Umberg and work hard to elect him to the 34th State Senate seat. (To see the full letter, click on the link below.)
Certain Republican leaders over the years have been accused of strong arming candidates or being less than supportive of nominees but I have never seen a letter like this come out on official GOP letterhead.
From supervisor Correa’s perspective, this must have been an unwelcome letter, but also one that was seemingly produced out of desperation.
Correa has pulled papers according the Orange County Registrar candidate log.