The corruption that gave birth to career politician Tom Daly

This post recapping O.C. Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly’s political roots was submitted anonymously by one of our readers. It should be noted that Daly is currently a Democratic candidate for the 69th Assembly District.

Part One: Birds of a feather, flock together

After college, Tom Daly came back to Orange County and eventually landed a job in 1979 with Orange County Board of Supervisor, Ralph B. Clark.

Supervisor Ralph B. Clark was the unscathed democrat on the Board of Supervisor after the O. C. District Attorney, Cecil Hicks, intiated the toughest, non-partisan, non-discriminatory, corruption fighting, prosecuting-crusade not seen since the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.

If you were an cheater, a crook, or a common criminal, you might as well turn yourself in because the “Boss “, which was one of the popular nicknames for the tough D.A., was going to hunt you down.

But if you were corrupt elected official, a fundraiser, a lobbyist or a staff member who benefitted financially from a government decision that was not in the public interest, your days were numbered.

In the good ole days, prosecutors had ways of finding the truth, maybe it was those far reaching detective efforts that would put Joe Friday to shame. Perhaps, it seemed that most of the bad guys were either morally ignorant or overly arrogant in their misdeeds so it didn’t take much convincing to have them spill the beans.

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