In the mail and on Facebook today:
We’d previously questioned Michelle Steel’s position on the toll lanes as she’d had nothing to say about this Caltrans atrocity and misuse of OCTA Measure M funds which were NEVER committed for toll applications, but just for widening of the freeway. SD2 Candidate Allan Mansoor has opposed tolling from day one, and has taken strong, positive action to send the message to an OCTA Board majority that doesn’t live in SD2 (like Michelle?) and favors them.
Steel had this published in the Register on October 1st: Caltrans takes a toll on O.C. residents, writing
…it appears even some county leaders have given up. A majority of the OCTA board recently decided not to move forward with further challenges against the state’s plans to build toll roads with our tax dollars. And make no mistake about it, the proposed toll lanes would be paid for in large part by Measure M2 funds…I continue to be firmly opposed to taking existing lanes funded by taxpayers and effectively blocking those same taxpayers from using those lanes unless they pay even more.
The Register has yet to make an endorsement for SD2. It’s winner will automatically represent the 2nd District on the OCTA Board and could easily be its chair a few years out as that position is given every third year to one of the five County Supervisors.
While we accept Steel’s statement at face value, we’re not impressed that she’s taken the No-Toll position so late in her campaign. This is a BIG DEAL in SD2, but she’s concentrated more on fundraising and softer, less tangible issues. Mansoor (who was an OCTA Director when he was the Mayor of Costa Mesa) understands the impact toll lanes would have on both commuters and businesses, especially where they’d displace free, “general purpose” lanes that are more significantly needed.
The bottom line in this, which Steel somewhat misstates in the Register piece, is that M funds, that are solely collected in Orange County via a half-cent sales tax, were NEVER intended to fund toll lanes on any local freeway. Had M been written to do that, as former OCTA CEO Will Kempton fully understood, the Measure’s renewal would have failed. Kempton, who once ran Caltrans, supported tolling, and was privately shown the door because of it — and we’re much better off for that.
We also distrust Michelle Steel’s association with and endorsement from Toll Lane Lucy Dunn, the CEO and founder of the OC Business Council. Big Lucy, who lives in Coto de Caza, nowhere near 405 traffic, has favored tolling since it was first proposed. She is also Vice Chair of the California Transportation Commission and supports the High-Speed Rail that will never be seen in Orange County, or at the $200 million ARTIC train station she helped build.
Allan Mansoor favors the best solution for widening the 405: TWO free lanes in each direction. Current Supervisor John Moorlach also supports dual, free lanes. We’re unsure that as a carpetbagger, Michelle Steel understands this issue at all. We believe if she was pressured by the monied elite of the GOP, the crony capitalists at Pringle, Inc. and the OCBC that she’d change her position.
OC Politics Blog has endorsed Allan Mansoor for 2nd District Supervisor. As a long-term OC resident, former Deputy Sheriff, former State Assemblyman, and former Mayor, he’s more than qualified for the job.
“The candidate who most looks like, sounds like has the shared experiences and shared values of the neighborhood tends to win.”
Brutle is right, but unfortunately the party bosses are too lazy to actually recruit right of center candidates that actually understand local issues.
Instead they turn to Shawn Steel mouthpieces whose only interested in enlarging his own coffers and promoting his own agenda (that doesn’t necessarily consider local issues). As a result, Mrs. Steel is weak on all the issues and unable to actually implement a well thought out agenda that discusses issues like the I-405 toll lane scheme. But she tries to get around this because of her husbands connections as a failed party boss (he left the CAGOP in shambles in 2002 with straight losses and has been at the forefront of the party’s shrinking voter registration rate). Leave it up to OCGOP party bosses to bow down to his bullying nonetheless.
As many see it, Shawn Steel props up his wife to run for office since he couldn’t get elected dog catcher, they (the Steel’s) reported close to a million dollars in income last year, they (the Steel’s) own a mansion in Palos Verdes and supposedly now reside in one of the most expensive areas in OC (Surfside), Shawn Steel stirred anti-Arab resentment in Anaheim some years back, now goes after Jose Solorio for accepting union IE money (even though his wife has accepted well over $100,000 in union IE money in violation of the Baugh rule distorting Mansoor’s record), and seems to have a fascination with attacking liberal Hispanic legislators (his comparison of Solorio to ISIS and his recent fb post calling Kevin De Leon a “political gangster” are perfect examples of this).
We now are to believe that he (and his wife) are the mouthpieces for the OCGOP’s minority outreach based solely on “Vote for me because I’m Korean and they are not.”
He may have an uphill battle, but I’m voting for Mansoor. I don’t agree with him on many things but at least he’s local and on one of the most important issues facing this district (405 toll lanes) he’s been on the forefront.
Watch a press conference on 405 Toll Lanes topic held in July: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1VvYk1rhZo
Mrs. Steel does not live in the district. In fact, she doesn’t even live in the county. Wow. A new low in fake residency.