Introducing the new OC Politics blog

Yes its true – I launched a new Orange County political blog on New Year’s Day.  I am calling it the “Orange County Politics Blog.”

As many of you may know, I started Orange County’s first political blog, the Orange Juice, back in 2003.  It became Orange County’s top political blog and I believe that one of the reasons for that was our dedication to being an alternative to the red and blue blogs in the O.C.  

Since I turned over the Orange Juice to Vern Nelson, in 2010, it has steadily veered to the left.  I had hoped that Vern would continue to steer the OJ down the middle, but that simply has not happened, particularly since Vern added DPOC member Greg Diamond to his blog team.

There is still a need for an independent alternative political blog and I believe I can do that again – but this time I am going it alone.  I tried to expand the OJ’s reach back in the day by adding a who’s who of local political bloggers, but it backfired time and again.  Partisans simply can’t help being partisans.

I am also going back to the Libertarian Party.  That may seem nuts since the new open primary system will shut third parties out of our general elections, but I am hoping the courts will overturn the open primary.  If not, oh well.  I just can’t stand the Democrats any more than I can stomach the Republicans.  I quit the OC GOP back in 2007 after having had enough of their attacks on immigrants and gays, but really the Democrats aren’t much better when it comes to these folks.  President Obama doubled deportations and it is still illegal for gays to marry, under both federal and state laws.

Have I learned a few lessons over the past couple of years?  You bet.  My new blog will be informative and I am sure my sense of humor will pop up, but I am going to try to present OC politics in an informed and entertaining way – and we’ll steer clear of the nuttiness that was the old OJ blog.

Thanks to our readers who made the New Santa Ana such a hit in 2011.  We had over 340,000 visits to our New Santa Ana blog last year.

The good Lord blessed me with the ability to write – and to do so quickly and well.  I look forward to doing so in 2012, here and on the new OC Politics blog.

Art Pedroza Editor
Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.
Art Pedroza

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

View Comments

  • Gee another blog geared at furthering the pulido machine. Nice! Personally the best thing to happen to the oj is chez vern at least he doesn't alter comments.

    • That would be rather limiting as far as vision goes Jose. I will still be writing about Santa Ana politics here - and will broaden my reach into Countywide politics on my new blog.

      It should be interesting though covering the Santa Ana City Council races this year. Pulido won't have the Santa Ana firemen on his side this time, I don't think. And many Council seats will be open or otherwise challenged. I am looking forward to covering those races here on the New Santa Ana blog.

  • "the best thing to happen to the oj is chez vern at least he doesn’t alter comments"...... Hmmmmmmm

    How do you know that?

    I think that censure ship is grave comments alteration?

    Any one who change is name to Chez is living some sort of sick child abuse phantasy aka Gröfaz.

  • I should add that there is not a better time launch a successful new venture as is the New Year -- Kudos.

  • Welcome home. The Libertarian party welcomes you with open arms. I've been a Libertarian for the past 4few years for the same reasons you've stated. Now, I'm looking at the Americans Elect (non?)Party. Can one ever be truly happy in politics?

  • Pedroza changes his political parties like I change my f-ing socks. Regardless of what you blog about it will all be favorable to the unfit swine we now have in there. So go ahead and continue to be played by pulido it suits you well. And fiala, your Comments are deleted because of the racist overtones and because you're crazier than a sh** house rat.

    • That's because I don't value parties much. Certainly the red and blue parties aren't worth bothering with.

      The Santa Ana City Council was duly elected by the voters in our city. If you don't like it you have a few options. You can run for the Council yourself - as I did in 2008, or you can help another candidate. Crying about the Council on blogs will net you nothing of value.

      I opposed Pulido for years, as you know, but when he ended up heading up an all-Latino City Council - one that finally rid our city of Dave Ream - and he supported a number of decent causes, such as opposing Arizona's SB 1070, and supporting Harvey Milk Day, it was obvious to me that the new Pulido was not the enemy.

      The enemy in our city remains the GOP-dominated Usual Suspects and the fake Democrats who are allied with them. So whose side are you on Jose?

  • "Is that something new Stanley?".... Well I have mentioned it to you way back when you still believed that I was crazy and you were smart.

    Concept is very simple Art. Instead of electing people we will recall them instantly.

    For that we would have to maintain required membership count.

    The only duty of a Recall Party member is to unconditionally recall.

    After that a member has no obligation to the Recall Party and if he wants he can reelect same candidate he just recalled.

    It is nonpartisan organization and any one can join.

    I thing the time is right for such party.

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