I stopped by Sup. Chris Norby's office a few days ago, and had a chance to talk some politics with him.

I brought up his political future as an elected official seeing the light at the end of the term limit tunnel, and asked what his plans were.

Clerk-Recorder, Assessor or Superintendent?
Chris listed the three offices normally raised in conjunction with those plans: Clerk-Recorder, Assessor and OC Superintendent of Schools. Chris said he liked elected office and believed he brought a needed perspective to it. He cited aspect to each of the three posts he thought matched his experience, talents and interests: the county assessor, for example, possesses the legal power to proactively lower assessments amidst declining property values, rather than passively await a property owner's request. That's something I can't imagine Webster Guillory doing, but it's a power I see Chris wielding with gusto.

However, Sup. Norby made it clear he'd prefer to run for an open seat, which would mean Clerk-Recorder, since Tony Daly is running to succeed Norby and neither Guillory nor Superintendent Bill Habermehl have indicated plans to go anywhere.
[Note to Webster Guillory: nix the Web 0.5 site. It's 2009, not 1995.]

Chris also opined on the possibility of leaving the Board without running for another county office, and instead running for state Assembly in 2012 if re-districting created a friendly, open seat. Some readers may recall Chris lost to then-fellow Fullerton Councilman Dick Ackerman in a 1995 Assembly special election.

Daly or Nelson?
While I had Chris' ear, I had to ask: who are you going to endorse to succeed you, Tom Daly or Shawn Nelson, telling him both camps seemed confident of getting the Norby nod.

It was clear Chris felt torn on the subject: in fact. he said as much. He pointed out when he first ran for supervisor, not a single local elected official in the 4th Supervisor District endorsed -- except Daly. "My four colleagues on the Fullerton City Council endorsed [Sup. Cynthia] Coad." Norby dismissed the criticism that Daly only swtiched from Coad to him two weeks before the election in order to back the winner, saying it was by no means clear he was going to win, and Daly had nothing to gain by backing the challenger waging an uphill battle.

Chris also had good things to say about Fullerton Councilman Shawn Nelson, saying he had resigned his Fullerton council seat after the June 2002 primary so that a special election could be held in conjunction with the November election and prevent his colleagues, instead of voters,  from filling his seat. "As you know, Shawn won that election," said Norby, also pointing to Neslon's leadership role in spiking the recent pension spiking attempt.

Chris also corrected my unintentional exclusion of Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhufrom the oriignal question, citing him as another firend and supporter who has his hat in the 4th District ring.

In the end, I didn't pin Chris down, but I didn't really mount an aggressive effort to do so. I'm sure Chris will announce his intentions when he's ready to do so. My money is on a duel endorsement of Daly and Nelson.