Stephen Frank, California Political News and Views, 3/16/22
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VERY BIG STORY!!!!
You wonder why folks want no part of the organized Republican Party in California. You see growth in the clubs and independent organizations, but the State Party and many of the County Parties seem to operate as if elections do not matter—and they endorse candidates that seem more like grifters or Democrats.
Last Saturday the Los Angeles County Central Committee, LAGOP held its endorsing meeting. As usual, when important things are going on the elected Chair, Richard Sherman, gives the gavel to Andy Gharakhani. Andy opened the endorsement process with these words, ”You should know the LAGOP has no money to give to candidates, we have no volunteers or activists to help your campaign. If you want to be considered for endorsement, you need to pay $250.”
Joe Collins, running for Congress, when it was his turn to ask for the endorsement said this, and ONLY this, “I am the only candidate that has donated over $10,000 to the LAGOP” Then he sat down and got the endorsement. This, even though San Diego County is suing him for being a deadbeat Dad. He has four children he is not paying child support for. This even though they asked him to take a blood test. His response? “If you want my blood, which is extremely rare and valuable you have to first pay me $15 MILLION.” Questions have been raised about how he left the Navy..all of this was known by the LAGOP before they voted to endorse him. How would you have voted?
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TALKING POINTS
- Then you have San Benito County. The Chair of the GOP, Rob Bernosky, got the Republican member of the Board of Supervisors, Peter Hernandez to run for a yellow dog Democrat congressional seat. This, even though we already had the past Chair of the County Party running for the seat, but he is a conservative. Now we are going to turn over a GOP Supervisors seat to the Democrats, do not win a congressional seat, but punished a good Republican for being a conservative.
But there is more to Rob Bernowsky. In the August 13, 2021 Cal Matters, it reported this:
“Similarly, the secretary of state’s list shows that unsuccessful Assembly candidate Robert Bernosky, a Hollister Republican, owes more than $34,000 from a campaign in 2012. But his attorney Harmeet Dhillon said Bernosky paid a $2,500 fine to the FPPC and was never notified that his name sat on a list of outstanding fines: “If the secretary of state is defaming people with nonsense like this, that just underscores the incompetence of the office.”
Note that the original story was published on April 14—so in the update they did not change his portion of the story.
We lose a Supervisors seat, we lose a congressional seat, we punish a conservative, we have a fine dating back to 2012 not paid. Why is this important to you?
Because Rob Bernosky is running for Secretary of State—and could ask you for your endorsement at the upcoming CRP convention. Would you vote for him?
Oh, when did he file? Just a few hours AFTER a conservative filed—the same conservative Rob pushed out of the Congressional race!
- Then you have the Ventura County Central Committee. They just endorsed for Supervisor the immediate past Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles, Jeff Gorrell, a former Assemblyman. In fact, his term seems to have been a role model for Chad Mayes. Do you think Garcetti would appoint a real Republican to be Deputy Mayor and a Democrat operative? Then Garcetti placed Gorrell at the L.A. Ports with a high paying job, as a patronage job—think they give that to Republicans? Oh, to get the GOP endorsement he first had to CHANGE his Party registration to Republican from NPP.
With this endorsement, how do you trust the other endorsements from the Ventura GOP?
- Both NPP Assemblyman Chad Mayes and State Senator Melissa Melendez announced they would run against Ken Calvert for Congress. By the end of filing neither filed. But, Calvert is still extremely vulnerable. His district has gone, due to redistricting, from a plus 9 GOP seat to a plus one seat. Since November, 2020 the Democrats have been registering voters in that district. Since November, 2020, the CRP has been talking about voter registration. Watch this race—it will be close.
(Periodically the California Political News and Views will publish tidbits of political news, to keep you in the loop of what the pooh bahs know. The phrase “tom/tom’s” comes from my mentor, Lorelei Kinder who never passed a rumor, just called to tell me what she heard on the “Tom/Tom’s”. This column is named in her honor.)
