Larry Gilbert’s 2018 General Election Voter Guide

2018 General Election Voter Guide

By Larry Gilbert

Term Limits is a double edged sword. Case in point is right here in CA. With the recall of Senator Josh Newman this past June, and the election of Ling Ling Chan to take over SD 29, we were able to break the CA Democratic Party’s Super majority.

Well folks it is a new day. Four Republican Senators are Termed Out. They are Tom Berryhill SD-8, Anthony Cannella is SD-12, Joel Anderson in SD-38 and Jean Fuller in SD-16. Half of our 40 Senators are up for election every other year. This year the Seats are even numbered Districts. Let me cut to the chase we must retain:

• SD 4 Jim Nielsen
• SD 14 Andy Vidak
• SD 28 Jeff Stone
• SD 34 Janet Nguyen
• SD 36 Pat Bates

The five Republican Senators who are not up this cycle are Ling Ling Chan in SD 29, Ted Gaines in SD 1, John Moorlach in SD 37, Mike Morrell in SD 23 and Scott Wilk in SD 21. I can count to five on one hand.

As a fiscal and social conservative I simply do not have the time to vet 100 members of our state legislature and a similar number of city council candidates. It is frustrating when I look at the candidates who will appear on the ballot to see the result of the Top Two in these contests. The candidates in SD-2, SD 6, SD-24, SD-26, and SD-30 are either unopposed, both Dems or a Dem and a NPP. That’s five of 20 seats in which Republicans are not even in the game.

• SD-8 Andreas Borgeas (to replace Tom Berryhill who is Termed Out)
• SD-12 Bob Poythress (to replace Anthony Cannella who is Termed Out)
• SD-16 Shannon Grove (to replace Jean Fuller who is Termed Out)
• SD-38 Brian Jones (to replace Joel Anderson who is Termed Out)

Other Senate Republican candidates, whom I do not know, are as follows:

• SD-10 Victor San Vincente
• SD-18 Rudy Melendez
• SD-20 Matthew Munson
• SD-22 Susan Rubio
• SD-32 Rita Topalin
• SD-40 Luis Vargas

Folks. We need to count to 14 to break a Democratic Super Majority in the State Senate

Moving to the State Assembly, where all 80 seats are up every other year, the picture is even darker. Republicans need 27 votes to break the Democratic Super Majority in this House. Of the 80 seats 25 are not being contested by Republicans in the General. Ten seats did not even have a second candidate to select from. No Republicans ran in: AD-7, AD-20, AD-21, AD-27, AD-48, AD-50, AD-51, AD-61, AD-64 or AD-69.

Fifteen other races have either two Dem’s or an NPP as a result of the Top Two voting.

The 22 Republicans Incumbents up for re-election are as follows:

• AD-1 Brian Dahle
• AD-3 James Gallagher
• AD-5 Frank Bigelow
• AD-6 Kevin Kiley
• AD-12 Heath Flora
• AD-16 Catharine Baker
• AD-23 Jim Patterson
• AD-26 Devon Mathis
• AD-33 Jay Obernolte
• AD-34 Vince Fong
• AD-35 Jordan Cunningham
• AD-36 Tom Lackey
• AD-38 Dante Acosta
• AD-42 Chad Mayes. Note: Chad voted for Cap and Trade. I am not recommending Mr. Mayes. This is a listing of current Republican members
• AD-55 Phillip Chen
• AD-67 Merlissa Melendez
• AD-68 Steven Choi
• AD-71 Randy Voepel
• AD-73 Bill Brough (or local member)
• AD-74 Matthew Harper (one of the good guys who owns a shop full of fedora hats)
• AD-75 Marie Waldron
• AD-77 Brian Maienschein

There is one race that I would like to urge us to vote for. AD-65 Alexandria Coronado (over Sharon Quirk -Silva).

We need to re-elect all but one Republican incumbent and add some new faces from the remaining 32

Orange County has three run-off elections:

• 4th District BOS. Vote for Tim Shaw
• Orange County Sheriff/Coroner Vote for Don Barnes
• Orange County District Attorney. Vote for Tony Rackauckas.

Full disclosure. While I have known both of the candidates I am in favor of the current DA. I take issue with Todd blaming Tony where his attack literature states “Orange County’s crime is rising while DA Tony Rackauckas continues to let dangerous predators back on the streets. Public safety is at risk and crime is up 23% under his watch”. The DA did not draft or vote in our legislature for the early release of criminals due to Prop 47, Prop 57 and AB 109 as charged by the Spitzer campaign in their non-stop negative literature.

Another grievance I have with Todd is his vote for County employee pension spiking. Although he was only one of five BOS members votes he voted for 3% at 50 retirement .I don’t find reference to that vote in his campaign literature .Check out Jack Dean’s Pension Tsunami blog to see how out of control the unfunded pension debt has grown in our state.

Let me close by addressing my own city council race, in Mission Viejo, where I am not recommending any of the candidates.

Everyone has surely heard of the CVRA where many cities are being threatened (and subsequently) switched from “at large” to District based council seats. Our city created a Map Z that portrayed how we could be compliant with the charges against us. That map was gerrymandered to protect every one of our five council members. The public was given the opportunity of submitting our own proposed District maps based on voting data provided by the ROV. A dozen different maps were accepted including two of my own. As our hired gun City attorney dragged his feet the City eventually admitted that we could not comply and would switch to weighted voting starting in 2020. If the City draft map Z was non compliant why were we misled? As such two of the candidates up for election next months would not have to compete against each other in Nov. as they would probably be in the same District. They are Mayor Sachs and Mayor pro-tem Raths. We were lied to from day one that we could not meet the high bar for creating new Districts based on where our “protected class” residents live.

I’ve done my part and now the ball is in your court. For other conservative Voter Guides go to Nancy’s Picks, HJTA, Robyn Nordell, Craig Alexander, John Moorlach, CRA and Republican Party for their recommendations. You are also welcome to share this information with your friends and neighbors. As I look around the state we are at a tipping point and must elect fiscal and social conservatives to save our state . Good luck.

Updated: “All hands on deck”. We have a Country and State to save starting right here in Orange County. Two years ago I told my bride that after 20 years I was cutting back on my political activism starting with ceasing my generation of voter guides. Today I break that promise. Greetings. Since the primary election I have added hundreds of a new Facebook friends based on our common interests and Friends. This is part of a plan for Republican success on November 6th. We need to encourage voters. If you agree with my recommendations please share this post!

As this report is lengthy I will break it up into two parts starting with the highest priority of Congressional and State offices. Former president Obama has endorsed ten California candidates for the midterm election. The seven congressional districts targeted by the DNC are as follows. 10th, 21st, 25th, 39th, 45th, 48th, and 49th,.

Please vote for:

• CD-1 Doug LaMalfa
• CD-4 Tom McClintock
• CD-8 Paul Cook
• CD-10 Jeff Denham
• CD-21 David Valadao
• CD-22 DEvin Nunes
• CD-23 Kevin McCarthy
• CD-25 Steve Knight
• CD-39 Young Kim
• CD-42 Ken Kalvert
• CD-45 Marion Elaine “Mimi ” Walters
• CD-48 Dana Rohrabacher
• CD-49 Diane Harkey
• CD-50 Duncan Craig Hunter

Some may be more conservative than others but we must protect our 14 House Seats. Thinking of the “top two” disaster we do not have a Republican candidate for lieutenant Governor.

Let me address those of us who might have been disappointed when Scott Baugh and Travis Allen lost in their primaries. It’s time to move forward. We need to unite to win this fight. Think back to the presidential primary or should I say the Republican circular “firing squad ” where a good number of us did not support president Trump. Notice that he’s going to Texas to support Ted Cruz in the fight of his political life. Let’s look out our windshield instead of our smaller rear view mirrors.

• For Governor I’m recommending John A Cox,
• Stephen Bailey for AG
• Mark Meuser for Secretary of State
• Greg Conlon for Treasurer.
• Konstantinos Roditis for Controller
• BOE. Office one Ted Gaines,
• BOE Office three Rick Marshall
• BOE Office four Joel Anderson whom The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association labeled a “rockstar for taxpayers.”

About Larry Gilbert:

• Former president of the Saddleback Republican Assembly, a chartered of unit of the California Republican Assembly where we interviewed numerous candidates from local races to County, State, and Judicial races. Two of those successful judicial candidates invited me to visit their Santa Ana courthouse. I’ll pass.
• Our SRA hosted a Statewide CRA convention in Irvine where were we interviewed and voted in a primary election for governor and other CA offices.
• Appointed by the OC GOP as City chairman for GOTV in Mission Viejo.
  Former OC GOP Alternate for Mission Viejo Central Committee member Greg Woodard and later Congressman Darrell Issa where we vetted and endorsed Republican candidates.