To say that the OC GOP Ethics Committee process is arcane and unwieldy would be an understatement.  I'm new to the Central Committee this term and I'm still trying to learn all of our procedures and by-laws.  I do however have some real world experience volunteering for and writing about campaigns since 2004 when I started up my own blog. 

 I have seen the rough & tumble of how competitive primary and general election campaigns are waged.  In most cases it's a no holds barred, Katie bar the door process of he said she said, so and so is bad because of X, she is playing fast & loose with facts because of Y, and on and on. Candidates and their consultants will take an issue and twist & bend it to the benefit of their client and the opponent fights back in turn with an equal amount of and a lot of times superior firepower.  The vast majority of this struggle for political viability and survival is through direct mail. 

So this brings us to the battle between the two GOP heavyweights in the 72nd AD.  The candidates are in a battle of political direct mail to see who will become the next Assemblyman/woman.  Both sides have been pushing the envelope(no pun intended) and in the process have drawn the attention of the party Ethics Committee.  It is my opinion from seeing both sides' mail the last few weeks that our Ethics Committee could be stuck in perpetual hearings with the way each side is whining to the referees that they just got hacked or fouled.  Former Laker Vlade Divac made a great living flopping and whining to the refs if they didn't whistle a foul.  This is an old political trick. 

You could also say that Linda's campaign is acting like a soccer player that has been kicked in the shin and OH the agony, please ref where's the yellow or red card.  That Chris Norby guy is mean.  Let's get real here.  They are abusing the process to try and gain a tactical political advantage, but in the process her campaign is looking weak.  

I feel just as strongly against Chris Norby whining to the refs.  Tonight the Ethics Committee is again meeting behind closed doors to take up a complaint by the Supervisor that Linda's sexual harassment mail is unfair.  It may be unfair, but this is a political campaign people.  Then the Committee is again going to meet this Wednesday night to take up another Ackerman complaint.  Stop the insanity!  There are going to be times when things get messy.  Call it the nature of the vetting process or whatever you want to.  This is a tried and true process that eventually arrives at a winner in the race.  I say to both sides....quit your whining and get on with the business of the campaign.  An Ethics Committee should be used for serious cases of misconduct i.e Mike Duvall and Mike Carona.  It shouldn't be allowed to be used for one side to gain an advantage because they don't like what some hard hitting mail is saying.  The voters are smart enough to wade through this stuff themselves.  If they see a candidate going way off the deep end with misleading and distorting fliers, they usually make the offending campaign pay for this by giving the other side their vote. 

 When this campaign is over, I am going to ask the chairman to think about barring the Ethics Committee from playing referee in these political slugfests in the future.  We have enough issues to deal with right now.  There's no need to waste the party's time on any of this anymore.  It's making us look silly.