If we’ve learned one thing from the November elections in Orange County, it’s that scandals that would once have doomed a candidacy are no longer politically lethal.
Drunk driving. $35,000 judgments for harassment and sabotage of a home sale. Assault and battery.
None of them deterred enough voters in several contests to deprive the guilty candidate of a win.
A recent drunk driving conviction wasn’t enough to keep state Senator Dave Min from eking out a win over Republican Scott Baugh. Min – incredibly – cast Baugh as the candidate with character flaws, even though Min was the one with a conviction.
Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Education member Alfonso Alvarez was re-elected despite being arrested and convicted of drunk driving – and hitting another motorist while intoxicated – barely a year earlier.
Granted, it’s been a while since DUIs have served as candidacy killers. Three DUIs didn’t stop then-Yorba Linda Councilman Mike Duvall from winning the determinative GOP primary for Assembly in 2006. And Kristen Maahs handily won election to the Anaheim City Council from District 5 despite being pummeled for two old DUI convictions by her carpetbagging opponent Andrew Sarega.
However, Maahs convictions were many years ago, and she subsequently changed her life and no longer drinks. Many, if not most, voters know someone who has made a similar turnaround and don’t consider it a disqualifier.
Min’s DUI arrest, on the other hand, was only 18 months ago, and displayed an egregious lack of judgment. As a state Senator, Min had numerous alternatives to driving drunk: he could have called one of his staff for a ride, or even the Senate Sergeant at Arms. He could have called Lyft or Uber like any other citizen. He then lied to the arresting officer about how much he had to drink, claiming he’d had just two beers over the previous 5 or 6 hours, when he in fact registered a Blood Alcohol Level of 0.15.
READ: Sen. Dave Min Arrested For Drunk Driving
Alvarez had been boozing it up all day, got behind the wheel of his car and rear-ended another driver on his way home. He lucked out in drawing a poorly-resourced, last-minute opponent, and in the Santa Ana Police Department steadfastly refusing the release the Body Worn Camera footage of his DUI arrest and field sobriety test, until a few days before the election.
Chronically-underemployed Santa Ana Councilmember Jessie Lopez was hit with a $35,000 court judgement stemming from her refusal to pay for the room she was renting in a house, and for sabotaging the sale of said house by harassing the property owner.
She nonetheless eked out a narrow re-election win.
Still, one would think that going berserk and committing assault and battery – on video – against an innocent old man would be a disqualifier. Apparently not in Tustin’s council District 1.
READ: BREAKING: Video Shows Tustin City Council Candidate Lee Fink Shoving, Threatening Elderly Man
OC Independent broke the story, and the Ring video went viral. Fink was completely unprovoked and completely out of control. It’s plain to anyone who watches the video that it was not isolated behavior. And it could have been much worse: the elderly man could have easily lost his balance after Fink shoved him and cracked his head on the concrete patio. That’s how 69-year old Paul Kessler died after being attacked by an anti-Israel protester.
Fink issued a lame, CYA, apology after the incident hit the fan.
And on December 3, Fink will be sworn in as a member of the Tustin City Council.
One is reminded of H.L. Mencken’s biting observation that “democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
