I have known since March 15, that Brett Barbre, a member of the Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors, has been assisting Republican Troy Edgar’s campaign for the 72nd Assembly District. I thought nothing of it as Barbre is a campaign consultant, but the folks at the Red County blog are having a fit over this.
Their angst is due to the fact that Barbre is also a lobbyist with Athens Services, with regard to trash hauling and street sweeping services – and Edgar, as a Los Alamitos Council Member, got caught up in a lawsuit involving the granting of the Los Alamitos waste hauling contract to a company that donated to his Council campaigns, Consolidated Waste Management.
But Orange County Superior Court Judge Andrew Banks “threw out allegations of Los Alamitos City Council corruption in granting a multi-million dollar trash contract to Consolidated Disposal Service in exchange for thousands of dollars in political donations,” according to the Los Alamitos/Seal Beach Patch.
Red County also ripped Barbre for donating to some Democrats – but Edgar’s opponent, Travis Allen, a resident of Huntington Beach, has a long history of doing that too. And to be fair, Barbre has donated to a lot of Republicans too, as you can see here, here and here.
Has Barbre dallied with Democrats in the past? Well yes he has. But he is a consultant. He has to work all sides. And it is funny that Red County would get so bothered by this when that blog was created by Matt Cunningham, a Republican lobbyist and PR flack with a long history of working both sides of the aisle.
In fact Red County ripped Barbre because he made $50,000 while he was promoting an O.C. sports hall of fame, but Cunningham made a small fortune doing inane tasks for the O.C. First Five Commission – and that money was supposed to help educate preschool children. Click here to read about Cunningham’s shenanigans.
The real issue here is Edgar, who is still in hot water over the trash deal with Consolidated. Evidence has popped up that Consolidated may have tried to influence the City of Los Alamitos’ contract policy, according to the Los Alamitos/Seal Beach Patch.
The race for the 72nd A.D. is a bit of a mess for the Republicans as Edgar was a Democrat until 2006, and Allen has contributed, repeatedly, to Democrats. The only GOP candidate with clean hands is Long Pham, an OC Board of Education Trustee, and resident of Fountain Valley. But even Pham has some issues as he refuses to name the university that allegedly granted him a doctorate degree.
You have to wonder if Red County is doing Allen’s dirty work by fingering Barbre and Edgar. GOP candidates have been known to feather Red County’s nest in the past – in fact failed Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman gave them a bundle, according to the Orange Juice blog.
If the voters tire of this motley crew of Republicans their other options include former Decline to State voter, and current moderate Democrat, Joe Dovinh, a businessman who serves on the Garden Grove Planning Commission, or Albert Ayala, an 82-year old military veteran and Tea Party Democrat.
Interesting stuff, looks like some real winners on the Republican side.
BTW- Ayala should thank you you made him 7 years younger he is actually 89.