Written by Our President, Art Pedroza, launched his new blog, OC Politics Blog, on January 1, of this New Year, taking the entire Orange County blogosphere by surprise.
The OC Weekly quickly jumped on the story, as their lead investigative reporter, R. Scott Moxley, welcomed Pedroza back into countywide political blogging:
For seven years up to 2010, Libertarian-leaning Art Pedroza often dominated Orange County’s political blogosphere by breaking news and offering biting commentary on area politicians, journalists and activists.
Along the way, Pedroza picked up plenty of readers, fans and, of course, enemies–none more bitter than the folks at TheLiberalOC.com.
Pedroza handed his Orange Juice blog over to Vern Nelson–a humorless, knee-jerk Democratic Party loyalist–who turned the once exciting website into a mind-numbingly boring, frothy fellatio party for liberal elected officials. Pedroza went on to create the New Santa Ana Blog that seemed to lessen his controversial impact on countywide politics as it touted stained, establishment players like Mayor Miguel Pulido.
But on Jan. 1, Pedroza emerged with his new, sure-to-be-entertaining enterprise:OCPoliticsBlog.com.
John Seiler, an investigative reporter at CalWatchdog, also welcomed Pedroza back to O.C. political blogging:
Art Pedroza Starts Great New Blog
John Seiler, CalWatchdog
Our old friend Art Pedroza has started a great new blog,OCPoliticsBlog.com. I’ve known Art for something like 15-20 years. Back when I was at the Orange County Register in the 1990s, he wrote great letters to the editor on the shenanigans in Santa Ana city and school politics.
When blogs came around in 2003, he started the Orange Juice blog, which quickly became the top local blog in Orange County. He gave that to others about two years ago. He then started the New Santa Ana blog about the city where he lives.
Art wrote, “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.”
Even if you’re not in Orange County, its politics affect all of California, and America.
So check out OCPoliticsBlog.com.
Pedroza published this introductory welcome on his new blog’s “About our Blog” page:
I started Orange County’s first political blog, the Orange Juice, back in 2003. Over time it became the dominant political blog in Orange County. I stepped away from it in November of 2010 – and turned the Orange Juice over to Vern Nelson. I had started a new civic blog in Santa Ana, called the New Santa Ana blog, and wanted to focus on growing its readership. Mission accomplished. The New Santa Ana blog racked up 340,000 visits in 2011.
I took a hard look at the Orange County political blog landscape recently and found that while the left and the right are well-served, there is a hole now in the middle, that the Orange Juice used to serve while it was under my watch. Nelson has added a member of the Democratic Party of Orange County’s (DPOC) Central Committee, Greg Diamond, to his blog team and the result has been that the Orange Juice is now not all that different from the Liberal OC. It is a bit nuttier but they both tack to the left and cater to the DPOC machine, such as it is.
The Red County is still doing their Republican thing, and they will probably do well in 2012, with the nation seemingly poised to elect a Republican to replace President Obama. But while Republicans still dominate Orange County, this is now a majority-minority community. Long-term trends don’t favor the GOP – although it is hard to imagine the dysfunctional DPOC ever being able to outpace the OC GOP.
I was a lifetime Republican when I was elected to the OC GOP’s Central Committee in 2006. At the time I was the only Latino elected to that body. I quit the party and the Central Committee in 2007, having at last had enough of the GOP’s attacks on immigrants and civil rights in general. I eventually joined the Libertarian Party, and then switched to the Democratic Party in July of 2011, but I have had my fill of the blue party too. They aren’t much better than the GOP, in fact Pres. Obama doubled deportations, as compared to Pres. George W. Bush. And the Democrats here in California seem hellbent on raising our taxes and passing one job-killer bill after another. So I am starting the New Year by leaving the Democrats behind and returning to the Libertarian Party. We may not win much, but how will we win if we don’t take a stand for what we believe in?
The mission of this blog will be to serve as a clearing house for Orange County politics. You will find RSS feeds and links to all the popular O.C. political blogs and media here. I won’t write as much as I used to at the Orange Juice, but I will attempt to touch on the political issues and candidates that matter to the people of Orange County.
If you are a candidate or would like to let my readers know about a political event, please email me by clicking here.
Thanks for reading this blog!
