🍊 🇺🇸 OC Conservative Brief - 3.3.23

Good morning and happy sunny (finally) Friday!

This is your weekly edition of the OC Conservative Brief, your run down of Orange County's local politics from a conservative perspective. If you like what you read, please make sure to subscribe and forward to your friends.

This week, we have an alarming warning from our District Attorney about liberal pro-crime policies, a moment in the spotlight for Michelle Steel, and some interesting revelations about what's happening to OC's empty malls. Pour a second cup of coffee and let's dive in!

LIBERAL CRIME AGENDA COMING TO OC? The Orange County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted this week to approve a $4 million grant from Sacramento for the county's Public Defender office...a grant which, according to OC's Republican District Attorney Todd Spitzer, plays into Governor Gavin Newsom's plans to close more prisons by releasing criminals back onto the streets.

Spitzer warned the county Board this week that increasing funding for the PD's office is dangerous given that the number of cases to reduce sentences or overturn prior convictions - usually handled by the PD - are already "off the charts for the courts" and that the DA office can barely keep up.

• CASE IN POINT... Spitzer cited the recent case of Thomas Maniscalco, a terminally-ill 78-year-old convicted in 1994 of three execution-style murders, who was released last month under California's compassionate release system. Spitzer said the DA's office only had 10 days to try to stop it...after they received a letter in the mail!

In short, Spitzer is warning the Board of Supervisors that increased funding for the Public Defender without a corresponding increase in funding for the District Attorney will result in potentially more dangerous criminals released back back onto Orange County streets...all so that Sacramento can shut down more prisons.

Newsom has been on a roll closing prisons. He's already closed two, with a third on the way, and is looking to cut funding for six more. This is only possible by emptying out the prison population, which a constellation of liberal DAs, lawmakers, and activist groups motivated by "criminal justice" have worked hard over the years to achieve:

• Prop 47, passed in 2014, turned property theft valued at less than $950 into a misdemeanor, making it easier for thieves to avoid jail time. Prop 57, passed in 2016, allowed for the early release of "non-violent felons" which misleadingly includes anyone with a sexual assault or domestic violence conviction.

• LA's liberal District Attorney George Gascon is an outrageous case study in the Left's push to keep criminals out of prison. He has ended cash bail (meaning criminals walk the streets while awaiting trial), reduced dozens of crimes to simple misdemeanors, and cut back lengthy sentencing mandates for even brutally homicidal crimes, among other policies.

In my opinion... We're living in a state with skyrocketing crime and outrageous policies designed to let criminals, violent or otherwise, walk. Todd Spitzer won re-election in a massive landslide last year as an opponent of these types of crime policies (he even ran on the slogan #NoLAinOC). The five members of the Orange County Board of Supervisors who all unanimously voted for this grant - and at least the two Republicans sitting on it, Andrew Do and Don Wagner - should listen to him.

STEEL'S CHINA DEBUT... Last month we discussed Orange County Congresswoman Michelle Steel's (R-CA45) high profile appointment by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to the new bipartisan House Select Committee on China tasked with investigating how the U.S. can more effectively counter the Chinese Communist Party.

That Committee, which will address a range of topics from Chinese intellectual property theft to trade, spying balloons and Chinese-owned farmland, met for the first time this week. Four witnesses - two former Trump national security advisers, a Chinese human rights activist, and U.S. manufacturing leader - spoke about the unique threat China poses in economics, human rights, and national security, and Steel had a chance to question them as well as deliver her own opening statement.

You can watch part of Steel's opening statement in the tweet below. As we noted last month, Steel's seat on this Committee provides her with a pivotal front-row seat to take on some of the most contentious issues between the U.S. and China.

OC GETTING MALLED? Orange County's sprawling, aged and mostly vacant malls of yore are about to get major facelifts, according to the Los Angeles Times, part of a trend pioneered by developer Rick Caruso that's taken hold in Los Angeles

Malls like the Westminster Mall, the Village at Orange, Santa Ana's Mainplace Mall, and the Laguna Hills Mall, which were once major commercial hubs but now occupy hundreds of thousands of square feet of vacant space, are being targeted by both city councils and developers to be turned into combinations of apartments, hotels, shops, and entertainment with residential, commercial, and social elements.

• In the case of the Westminster Mall, the new development would contain at least 600,000 square feet of retail space, up to 3,000 residential units, up to 425 hotel rooms, and a park with 17 acres of green space.

It's an especially appealing option for OC cities that are looking for ways to meet their mandatory "Regional Housing Needs Allocation" from Sacramento and zone new housing. As of 2020, Orange County's cities need to make room for 183,000 new units (cities like Huntington Beach are fighting those mandates).

But, with the malls, city councils can collaborate with developers on plans that increase housing and satisfy all parties, a stark contrast to so-called "builders remedy" developments that local officials are mostly powerless to stop.

Not all residents are happy. Some have complained about increased traffic and noise. But, in the opinion of this millennial, converting outdated and empty commercial spaces into successful developments that the next generation (and current generations!) can use and live in isn't the worst idea.

WAIT, THERE'S MORE...

🐘 A new poll finds Ron DeSantis beating President Trump with California Republican primary voters 37% to 29%. DeSantis is visiting Orange County this weekend for a blockbuster fundraiser with the OC GOP.

🤣 70% of California voters, including 54% of Democrats, do NOT want Gavin Newsom to run for President in 2024, according to a new poll released by Quinnipiac, which described the results as a "a resounding thumbs down from the home team."

🚛 Border Patrol seized 252 pounds of fentanyl at a traffic stop in San Clemente on Monday, worth $3 million and enough to kill 50 million people. According to Fox News, it was the third largest fentanyl bust between ports of entry in February, meaning that the drugs were either snuck past CBP in a vehicle at a port of entry or were trafficked by mules over the border.

💉 Governor Newsom finally ended California's COVID "state of emergency" this week, nearly three years to the day after he first announced it.

⚓️ Shipping companies agreed to pay nearly $97 million this week in a settlement over the 2021 oil spill off of Huntington Beach after the company that operates the pipeline accused the shipping companies of dragging anchors in the water and striking the pipeline.

❌ Laguna Niguel Mayor Sandy Raines abruptly resigned her position this week after her colleagues on the city council called for her removal over her treatment of the city manager.

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Have a tip on a news item in Orange County conservatives should know about? Drop me a line at [email protected]