By a large margin, political insiders today predicted that Anaheim City Councilman Harry Sidhu will take the hotly contested race for the county supervisor seat in North County.
The calls for a Sidhu upset over frontrunner and Fullerton City Councilman Shawn Nelson came during the “political junkies luncheon,” which has been hosted by Iger & Associates for the past two decades.
The traditional Election Day affair is a time and place for the county’s lobbyists, political operatives and elected officials to put down their swords, have a few laughs and issue their predictions.
More than a few were surprised at the consensus for Sidhu, given that Nelson has garnered a lot of Republican attention for his aggressive campaign on public sector pensions. Others made sure to mention that the luncheon popular vote has never been wrong.
One insider told me the vote signals an interesting signal from people who have worked with both Sidhu and Nelson. It is also, perhaps, a comment on the edict by local GOP Chairman Scott Baugh that no Republican candidate take union money.
The other leading contender in the supervisor race is Democratic Anaheim Councilwoman Lorri Galloway.
The group also predicted that Meg Whitman would win the Republican nomination for governor, Carly Fiorina would take the Republican Senate nomination and Tustin City Councilman Jerry Amante would take an assembly seat over Irvine City Councilman Steven Choi.
The lunch serves as a roast of sorts, with politicos lampooning each other and the general ridiculousness of the silly season, most notably all the attack mailers that stuff mailboxes.
Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle – who backs Sidhu – tore into Baugh – who backed Nelson – and had some fun with his edict on Republicans accepting union cash and endorsements.
The next Fatwah coming from Baugh, Pringle said, would include the following:
- No Republican endorsed officials are allowed to take the day off on Labor Day.
- When searching for clothes at Marshalls department store, Republicans are not allowed to search for the union label.
- No Republicans are allowed to travel to the European Union.
- No Republican endorsed women candidates are allowed to go into labor