I AM I SAID, TO NO ONE THERE

Mike Levin all by himself: Well, this is awkward

A Dem PAC called "Flip the 49th" organized a "Candidate Viability Forum" on Friday, March 2nd and invited all of the Dem candidates to come and make the case for why they have a path to win in the primary.

The PAC's rationale for the event? To narrow the Democratic field.

How'd that work out for them? Ho ho ho.

Two candidates showed up: Mike Levin and Christina Prejean.

All the other candidates were no-shows, bailing at the last possible minute, citing legal issues stemming from the specter of potential coordination with the PAC organizing the event. The internets were immediately en fuego, filled with dueling scans of official legal letters and FEC citations as surrogates spun like tops.

Back to the event, where (to her credit), Prejean promptly dropped out of the race in her opening statement. Seems like a victory for "Flip the 49th" in spite of all the no-shows, right? The forum worked, right? Well, Prejean was polling at 1%. The Dems really needed to knock Sara Jacobs out of the race.

Sara wasn't there. In fact, from what I hear, Sara was the one who convinced all the other candidates not to show up, brandishing her opinion letter from Perkins-Coie like a weapon (making the case that attending was a bad idea).

It's pretty obvious why Sara didn't want to go - she was going to be the focus of all that pressure to drop out (and rightly so). It's less obvious why Doug Applegate and Paul Kerr started taking legal advice from Sara's law firm. Point to Sara for scuttling the forum and getting others to go along with her.

Anyway, the debate went on as planned with lots of people coming up to the mic and asking questions to candidates who weren't there. It was a very weird moment.

To some extent the evening became the Mike Levin Show since he could hold forth as much as he wanted. But the moderators insisted on the original debate rules and held him to 90 second responses, at times cutting him off in the middle of his remarks. Which was again, profoundly weird.

This whole thing seemed like yet another symptom of the craziness and confusion among the Dems. Sara wiggled out of a potentially acutely embarrassing situation and lives to fight another day. The Democratic circular firing squad is still going strong (and may be picking up steam).

DIRTY DIANE GETS THE OCGOP ENDORSEMENT 

The Orange County GOP formally endorsed Dirty Diane Harkey for the 49th in spite of her Board of Equalization woes (corruption and misplaced funds led to a drastic "smallifying" of the agency's power) and the swirling controversies around her and hubby.

That's not a huge surprise.

Dirty Diane Harkey in Orange
(We assume OC Orange)

What is interesting is an SD Rostra post about why Kristin Gaspar had no chance: Because Gaspar "supported and passed" an "anti-Second Amendment City Council proclamation" during her time on the Encinitas City Council. Not just that, but she has donated money to Democrats in the past. Doh.

Gaspar Glamor Shot

During the regular February OC GOP Central Committee meeting (about a week before the endorsement vote), Michael Schwartz of the Orange County Gun Owners made an impassioned speech against Gaspar and distributed a bunch of nasty flyers. Ouch.

Is Gaspar a RINO according to the GOP hardcore? That could be trouble for her!

Here's a link with details:

SD Rostra Post on Why Kristin Gaspar Lost the OCGOP Endorsement