Red-faced Bloggers Take a Swing

Councilman Frank Ury alternately supports and opposes Councilman Lance MacLean, depending on his usefulness. When MacLean ran for reelection in 2006, Ury campaigned for candidates who tried to unseat all three incumbents (Lance MacLean, Trish Kelley and John Paul Ledesma). Ury now wants MacLean to remain on the council, and Ury’s friends who write a county blog made an odd prediction that the recall won’t qualify for the ballot.

During his first two years in office (2004-2006), Ury sat at one end or the other on the dais and couldn’t get a second for his motions. That changed after his slate of candidates lost in 2006. Behind the scenes, Ury evidently persuaded both Lance MacLean and Trish Kelley to get over his attempt to destroy them. A strange alliance developed, forming the current majority of MacLean, Ury and Kelley (MUK). Ury, who pretends to be a far-right Republican and fiscal conservative, has become a big spender, voting with two social engineers who also tried to raise city taxes with Measure K. Do the ignoramuses in the county GOP not know that Ury has no discernable ideology other than self-advancement? A politician who understands Ury emailed this blog, “It would be hilarious to watch Ury throw McLean overboard as the recall moves forward.”

A central figure among Ury’s political ties is his longtime friend, John Lewis, a lobbyist from Orange. Lewis pulled strings to funnel out-of-town money into Ury’s 2004 campaign. Lewis is tied to a county blog, Red County, which presents itself as a conservative Republican operation. The organization is a front for lobbyists and hacks who are currently promoting a Democrat, Tom Daly, for County Supervisor Chris Norby’s seat. After a series of publicly noticed gaffes revealing its true nature, the discredited Red County organization became known as Red-faced County.

Red-faced County bloggers are lately taking shots at those who organized the effort to recall Lance MacLean. Why would lobbyists who don’t live in Mission Viejo care who serves on a city council? As a couple examples, McLean sold out Mission Viejo’s interests (resulting in inadequate compensation for future traffic solutions) to the ranch and pushed for completion of the 241 toll road. Many Mission Viejo residents realize that extending the toll road as planned would neither alleviate the city’s current traffic problems nor would it provide adequate relief as communities to the east are built out.

Developers and their lobbyists are entitled to make a living – no argument there. However, Mission Viejo residents are entitled to representation on their city council, and that’s not what they’re getting from Lance MacLean. Instead of representing Mission Viejo to outsiders, MacLean represents developers, lobbyists and other special interests to his constituents. If Red-faced County bloggers are so enamored with MacLean, they can have him. Hire him as a lobbyist, help him move and put him into office in THEIR cities. MacLean has been representing them for years, and they can start paying him up front instead of buying his votes from afar.