Watergate Revisited

This article focuses on the Watergate Scandal of 1972

Smoller: Orange County Supervisors Should Support the Voter’s Choice Act

On Tuesday, Orange County Supervisors will consider the Voter’s Choice Act. The proposal will save the County’s voters millions of dollars, make voting easier and more convenient, and improve engagement in the political process

Smoller: Phasing in The Voter’s Choice Act

Right now, 61% of Orange County voters are permanent absentee voters. With each passing election, this percentage increases as more and more people discover the ease and convenience of voting by mail. As part of legislation signed by the Governor (SB 450), 14 counties, including Orange, have been invited to participate in a pilot program known as the Voter’s Choice Act... Yet, Orange County has decided not to participate in this pilot program

Smoller and King: California Should Have its Own Solar Decathlon

While the Federal Government has pulled back on the reins, California is vigorously going green. California’s legislature has passed ambitious climate change legislation while governors of both parties have made tackling climate change a priority. Last month, the City of Los Angeles released its own ambitious Green New Deal. To increase its impact, the California competition could be expanded to include a sustainability exposition which would include professional development and consumer workshops, as well as K-12 education events. Sustainability vendors would display and explain their products, services and new technologies. As many as 100,000 visitors per day could visit the competition houses as well as the exposition

Mainero and Smoller: The GOP is Self-Destructing

The Republican Party is self destructing. Donald Trump is proudly marching the national and local GOP off a cliff by exploiting America’s racial divide and by rejecting science. The failure of virtually all GOP office holders–Mitt Romney is a notable exception–to challenge the president, emboldens him and deprives the country of needed true two-party balance. We come to this conclusion from much different political perspectives: one of us (Mainero) is a conservative law professor who was Chief of Staff for Senator John Moorlach (R) when Moorlach was a County Supervisor and the other (Smoller) is a progressive political science professor. Both of us believe a viable two-party system is essential to good governance

Smoller/Grindle: Time is Now for an Ethics Commission

Orange County is the only major metropolitan jurisdiction in California that does not have an Ethics Commission… For these reasons, a group of citizens have written an ordinance to establish an independent, non-partisan Ethics Commission tasked with overseeing ethics and campaign law violations by county elected and appointed officials and county employees

Mainero and Smoller: Response to Wagner

Supervisor Don Wagner quibbles with typos and minor details, but fails to acknowledge the big picture about race relations and the Covid-19 crisis

Smoller and Moodian: It’s Time to Rename John Wayne Airport

As Confederate statues and odes to Christopher Columbus are taken down across the country, Orange County must come to grips with its own tribute to a racially polarizing figure: John Wayne. The time has come to rename our airport and remove Wayne’s statue

Smoller and Moodian: Four Takeaways From the 2020 General Election

Here are four takeaways pertaining to Orange County from the historic 2020 general election

Smoller and Moodian: Issues Matter in Supervisor’s Race

Moorlach’s defeats need to be viewed in the context of a changing Orange County. OC has a long reputation of being the land of John Wayne, the Save Our State initiative, and the John Birch Society. However, Orange County today is diverse both culturally and politically