Wendy Bucknum Campaign Update
Part 16, GOP rejected RINO on May 5

Wendy Bucknum, a professional lobbyist in the housing industry, is running for a Mission Viejo council seat in November. Previous articles in this series document Bucknum’s lobbying activities, her special-interest financiers, how she gets endorsements from elected officials and the payoffs elected officials expect in return for supporting a lobbyist.

During her campaign for a council seat in November 2012, Bucknum aggressively pursued – and didn’t get – an endorsement from the Orange County Republican Party.

In the 2012 showdown at the OC GOP’s endorsing meeting, both Frank Ury and Wendy Bucknum failed to get endorsements. They simply didn’t have the majority of votes needed to pull it off. It was primarily the Tea Party members on the Central Committee who stopped RINO candidates like Ury and Bucknum. Several unprincipled Central Committee members who were supporting Ury and Bucknum saw rejection was coming, and they didn’t press for a vote.

During the 2012 OC GOP meeting, MV city watchdog Larry Gilbert exposed Ury and Bucknum for campaigning for Democrats. Bucknum also had supported a labor union by placing a union sign in her yard. Photographs abounded, including the sign in Bucknum’s yard and Bucknum and Ury on street corners holding a Democrat’s campaign signs.

In 2012, despite all the evidence presented against Ury and Bucknum, several Republican Central Committee members made fools of themselves trying to cover for such obvious anti-Republican behavior.

Frank Ury is pursuing the OC GOP endorsement in his current campaign for a seat on the OC Board of Supervisors. Two weeks ago, he ditched a Mission Viejo council meeting to attend the OC GOP’s endorsing meeting on the same night. He presented his case to the endorsing committee members, and opponents gave evidence he had campaigned for Democrats. Instead of brushing aside Ury’s record or making excuses for him, the committee voted for his opponent, Robert Ming. They are recommending Ming for the full OC GOP Central Committee’s official endorsement. The meeting will be held on May 19.

The May 5 GOP endorsing committee’s reaction to Ury does not bode well for Bucknum, who is currently lobbying GOP Central Committee members for an endorsement for her 2014 council campaign.