I have known and liked Kevin Muldoon for many years. I had always considered Muldoon to be a committed conservative activist, standing tall on issues when others would fade into the background. I was pleased to play a role in helping Muldoon get elected to the Newport Beach City Council. That said, it turns out I didn’t really know Kevin, or at least I didn’t know about an important character flaw of Kevin’s until these last couple of months.

Kevin cares only about Kevin. Narcissism is a trait that serves nobody well. And it can hurt our communities badly at those times when politics needs to be a team sport in order to win.

That character flaw is the single greatest factor in ultra-liberal Katrina Foley winning last week’s special election for Orange County’s Supervisor. And the worst part is, Kevin knew before he filed that he could not win. Let me walk you through the past few months to explain.

Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel started running for Congress shortly after the ink was dry on Harley Rouda’s certificate of election, after Rouda defeated long-time Congressman Dana Rohrabacher in 2018. She was termed out of her… Read More

8/3/20 UPDATE: BARTLETT IS LOOKING FOR A BACK ROOM DEAL

Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett knows beyond a doubt that she must stay in office beyond eight years. It must be some sort of divine calling. As those who have been following this issue the last few weeks — early in July Supervisor Bartlett brought forward a proposal to the Board of Supervisors to place on the ballot a cynical measure that would allow her to serve extra time in office if it passed. Billed as closing a “loophole” that allows termed out supervisors to leave, and then come back (said loophole has been used once in the history of term limits in OC) by allowing every supervisor to serve twelve instead of eight years in office. Perhaps, most significantly, Bartlett had made a commitment to me personally (so presumably to others) that if she was to bring forward a proposal it would be vetted, and brought around to different groups in the county for their input. In fact she said that ideally signatures would be gathered demonstrating it was “from the people” not from the Board.

Um, those commitments and sentiments turned out to be untrue, as she threw this… Read More