Former Irvine Councilmember Tammy Kim, caught in the middle of a scheme to run in the District 5 special election using the second in a series of fake voter registrations, is – along with her political allies – furiously trying to paint herself as the victim of dark and powerful forces.
Reportedly, Kim also asked for a $10,000 payout in exchange for dropping out of the race.
Last week, following a poor court showing by her legal team, Kim agreed to drop out of the race, mere hours before Superior Court Judge Craig was due to rule on Ron Scolesdang’s lawsuit to boot her from the ballot.
Kim immediately began playing the victim card.
READ: Is Tammy Kim Faking Her Residency In Special Election for Vacant Council Seat?
READ: Tammy Kim Off The Ballot Amidst Fake Residency Allegations
READ: Tammy Kim Removed From City Commission, Served With Subpoena, Cancels Campaign Fundraiser
READ: Tammy Kim’s Strange and Strained Legal Defense
The details are available in prior OCIndependent.com articles, but let’s recap the fundamental facts:
- Tammy Kim has lived for years in a District 3 condo that she owns.
- It’s obvious to any reasonable person that she lives there, with her adult son.
- During 2024, Tammy Kim registered to vote, and voted in the November 2024 election, from a different condo, located at 19 Aleris Aisle in District 5. She does not live there, according to the family that has been living there for the past eight years.
- She used the Aleris Aisle address when she first pulled papers to run in the District 5 special election.
- After discovering she’d been discovered, Kim compounded her error by re-registering at a different fake residency and using that fake residence to pull new nomination papers.
- Kim has never addressed her claim to have lived at 19 Aleris Aisle, her attorneys contending in court that is irrelevant.
- She did all of this deliberately, knowingly, and of her own free will.
Now she’s pretending she’s the victim, with the OC Democratic Party and media enablers echoing her claim.
Kim claims, in a statement, that she settled the lawsuit not because it was going badly and she would likely lose – but because she was being “subjected to harassment.” By “harassment,” Kim meant Scolesdang doing due diligence as to where Kim actually lived.
If you examine Kim’s statements closely, she never really claims to live in District 5: as in she sleeps there, watches TV there, showers and does laundry there, hangs out there. She says she “legally lives” there or “met the residency requirements for the seat.” No one uses that kind of stilted, parsed language to talk about their home.
Kim shares confidential correspondence between her legal representatives and Scolesdang as if it were a smoking gun:
They demanded I sign an affidavit with:
- False statements about a 2023 City Council vote regarding Live Nation. They sought to wrongfully accuse Councilmember Treseder, a vocal critic of Live Nation and their lobbyists, of alleged Brown Act violations—claims that are baseless. More about this vote.
- Attempts to discredit city staff in a blatant effort to pave the way for Live Nation’s reentry into Irvine under the new council.
- My support for Anthony Kuo for Irvine City Council.
- Non-disparagement clauses that would prevent me from criticizing Live Nation, Patrick Strader, Anthony Kuo, Ron Scolesdang, James Mai, and other figures linked to the Republican Party.
“This ordeal has clearly demonstrated that their lawsuit was never about my residency,” Kim says – incredibly, since the lawsuit was entirely about Kim’s residency. It was Kim’s clumsy fake-residency hopscotch that doomed her.
Kim goes on to speculate about who is “really” behind this imagined harassment: LiveNation!
“Is Live Nation involved??? It is estimated that $200,000 was spent so far. Would any private person without the support of deep corporate pockets have the ability to fund this?” Kim writes.
The better question is what evidence does Kim have for any of that speculation? Almost certainly none. If she had it, she’d produce it.
The LiveNation deal died a year and a half ago. It’s not coming back. Kim is asking the public to believe this publicly-traded company with a $34-billion market capitalization finds the prospect her potential return to the Irvine City Council so frightening that it would surreptitiously hire private investigators and a blue-chip election firm to knock her out of an election she was probably going to lose anyway.
As if that is more plausible than a hyper-ambitious politician breaking the rules to advance her career.
Kim’s spin says more about the landscape of her psychology than anything else.
Florice Hoffman, chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County, in a remarkable exercise in reality inversion, echoed Kim’s histrionics:
According to Hoffman, who is an attorney, holding an elected official accountable for committing election fraud amounts to “legal dirty tricks.” Isn’t this the same political party that talks endlessly about “protecting our democracy”? Or is that only from Republicans?
If Kim is charged with election fraud by the OC District Attorney’s office, what will Hoffman and the OC Democratic Party have to say, if they say anything at all?
Kim Demands $10,000 To Leave The Race
Kim’s loud and continued claims to be the victim prompted Scolesdang to go public with some embarrassing revelations about the former councilmember.
“Notably absent from Kim’s statement is the fact that she attempted to settle the case by demanding a payment to herself. Last week, she offered to withdraw from the race for $10,000,” Scoledang revealed in a statement.
“After the court hearing yesterday, she reduced her demand to $5,000. Ultimately, she settled for nothing—no payment was made to her. My legal team and I decided that simply having her removed from the ballot was victory enough and waived our right to pursue legal fees. Justice has no price,” Scolesdang said.
That seems to track with Kim’s transactional politics, as TheLiberalOC.com reports in their latest article on the scandal:
“Sources, speaking under condition of anonymity, have told the Liberal OC that, as a city council member, Kim sought political contributions from Live Nation to be directed to a Korean-American PAC that was supporting Kim for mayor. The amount was allegedly $5,000 and was rejected. Candidates and PACs are not allowed to coordinate political activity. She also sought benefits for council member for a LiveNation venue (a premium suite, free tickets and parking for each concert, and wanted LiveNation to offer multiple shows feature K-pop music). Those requests disappeared when the deal died 18 months ago.”
Scolesdang pointed out that Kim “did not voluntarily withdraw from the race. She signed a stipulation agreeing to be removed from the ballot rather than face the overwhelming evidence against her.“
“We call on her to stop mischaracterizing the legal process as ‘harassment.’ Investigating potential voter fraud is not harassment—it is upholding the law,” said Scolesdang.
“The address Kim falsely claimed as her residence between May 2024 and January 9, 2025, allegedly belongs to a Board Member of her nonprofit, the Korean American Center,” Scolesdang continued. “As someone who also operates a nonprofit, I find it appalling that an organization benefitting from U.S. tax exemptions would be used for personal gain in this manner.”
Scolesdang zeroed in on the fact that the non-profit Kim runs and is employed by, the Korean American Center, is the recipient of federal funds.
“Furthermore, the Korean American Center has reportedly received grants from the U.S. Department of Justice to teach Korean language and culture. No recipient of federal taxpayer funds should be allowed to knowingly violate election laws,” said Scolesdang.
