Back Story on AD Race
by Larry Gilbert

Knowing Republicans lost the "checks and balances" in our state Assembly, I would like to reflect back on the 65th Assembly District race between incumbent Member Chris Norby and his challenger, Fullerton Mayor Sharon Quirk-Silva. Let me share a few observations starting with the Democratic Central Committee's big-time commitment for winning this race by funneling $292,000 to Assemblyman Norby's challenger in the last weeks before the election. News source. John Hrabe: Firms: Blue Shield, Disney, AEG, Aecom, Tom Daly, CSEA, AFSCME Local 685, UDW, CAHP, CDF Firefighters, SW Regional Council of Carpenters.

As pointed out by Mr. Hrabe, "Individuals and businesses are limited each election to a maximum contribution of $3,900 per candidate." He reports that in addition to the OC Democratic Party, money supporting Quirk-Silva came from Del Norte, LA County, and Marin County's Democratic Parties.

Peeling the onion back, I see that AEG contributed money to a group who later transferred money to Sharon's campaign. What the average reader may not be aware of is Chris's high profile in the fight to shut down our state's abusive redevelopment agencies. He stepped on a lot of toes in that process. One of those agencies being located in the city of the Angels, aka Los Angeles, where AEG, owners of the Staples Center, has or had plans to build a NFL stadium in Farmers Field in that same proximity. I guess we call this payback time.

We have more questions than answers. Did his capturing 58.8% of the votes cast in the Primary lead the GOP to take Chris's seat for granted? Prior to the General Election, I attended the Republican Party Central Committee meeting where Chris made a plea for financial support pointing out that his was in a highly competitive race. I did not sense much enthusiasm from the attendees that evening.

We heard of how close we were to losing to a Democratic supermajority in the Assembly, but did the GOP make any significant efforts to support Chris's campaign? There surely were some automatic victories on Nov. 6 such as my new Assembly Member Diane Harkey who breezed to her re-election. Did the likes of Fullerton power broker, and former Senate Leader Dick Ackerman offer any of his/their influential contacts to secure any financial support for Chris in this newly created 65th AD? Sadly we will have to wait until after the first of the year to see the 460s to see who financed Chris's bid to block the Democratic Party's supermajority. My fellow Republican politicos need to look in the mirror and ask themselves the question. Did we do enough to give Chris a shot at securing this key seat?

Final thoughts. Didn't the GOP monitor these huge reported cash infusions and get their act together or simply leave Chris under a bus?