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Is incumbent a carpetbagger? Challenger sics DA on the case
September 30th, 2008, 7:00 am · 34 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
It is rare that we can report a knock-down, drag-out fight for a water district seat, but here we go.
Challenger Glenn Acosta (left) wants the seat now held by incumbent Ergun Bakall (below, right) on the Municipal Water District of Orange County. (We’ll ignore, for now, the fact that MWDOC is in many ways embroiled in a fight for its life).
Acosta has written to the District Attorney and the Registrar of Voters, asking them to investigate 
Bakall’s primary residence and disqualify him from the race because:
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While Bakall lists an address on Arcata in Irvine as his residence,
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his state civil engineering license lists an address in Riverside.
If Bakall’s primary residence isn’t in Orange County, he can’t run for office here, Acosta says.
“I request that your offices make a final determination before the November ballots and voter pamphlets are printed,” challenger Acosta wrote to the DA and Registrar (copying the Secretary of State for good measure). “Otherwise, I would have to spend personal monies to file a suit in Orange County Superior Court when an administrative resolution could have been achieved.”
Bakall says this is much ado about nothing. Reached by telephone in Riverside Monday morning, Bakall was still shaking off jet lag after visiting his parents in Turkey.
“My opponent is using all sorts of tricks,” Bakall said. “I have a vacation home here in La Quinta. I’ve had it since 1987. For 21 years. In the meantime, I have lived in Irvine, I moved to San Diego, back to Tustin, sold our house in Tustin at the top of market, and since then have been renting in Irvine.”
Bakall’s wife, a retired teacher, lives at the La Quinta house full-time. He spends weekends there, but is at the Irvine rental during the week, he said. “I still do a little bit of consulting work, and all my clients are in LA and OC,” Bakall said.
Bakall has spent nearly eight years on MWDOC’s board. What the heck, you may ask, is MWDOC?
It’s one of the main reasons you can turn on the tap and get a drink in many parts of the county (particularly, south county). It’s the water importer, the middle-man, which buys water from the giant Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and re-sells the water (at what it calls a very small mark-up) to some 28 water agencies in Orange County, which then sell it to you.
Some of the south county agencies most heavily dependent on MWDOC are the most unhappy with it. The renegade six - Santa Margarita, Irvine Ranch, El Toro, Trabuco Canyon, South Coast and Moulton Niguel water districts - have demand that MWDOC’s operating budget and reserves shrink considerably, or they would pull out, taking about half of MWDOC’s budget with them.
We’ll get into that more in coming days. What you need to know now is that Acosta is on the board of the Trabuco Canyon Water District, one of the potential defectors, calling for tighter purse strings at MWDOC. Acosta promises to bring fiscal restraint to the district. “They need to show more fiscal responsibility,” Acosta said.
The Registrar of Voters has passed Acosta’s complaint on to the D.A.’s office, and the D.A. is looking into it. As they say, whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over. Stay tuned.
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Carpetbagger Andrew Do with his name plastered big all over Garden Grove is not from GG. He doesn’t know GG; he knows Janet, who used our city to carpetbag our county. His name is an eyesore and a nuisance to the people of Garden Grove.
Shouldn’t residency be permanent residency and not a temporary or transient place to stay a few days a week?
What would his driver’s license or vehicle registration have for his address? Is he retired? Where does his retirement checks go?
Why didn’t his engineering license have Irvine as an address if that is his primary residency? Isn’t the license supposed to have his primary residence by law?
Hmmmm.
I’m not voting for any incumbent. As far as I’m concerned, they are all self-serving. None of them really care about the voters. Why is this MWDOC fighting for its life? Maybe somebody finally woke up and saw another public agency that isn’t doing its job or forgot who it is serving. Somebody tell the incumbent to stay in Riverside. Maybe there’s an agency closer to his “vacation home” that he can tinker with.
I think Mr. Bakall can resolve this pretty easily. He can fax his credit card statements for the past year to the OC Register. If he really spends most of his time in Irvine, his credit card activities would reflect that. How about it, Mr. Bakall? Help a voter that doesn’t believe in politicians believe again.
Oh please. Does Mr. Bakall really think we’re that stupid?
At what point do you become a career politician feeding off the public trough? 8 years in office and going for 12? Politicians never cease to amaze me.
Whatever happened to guys like George Washington, serving just ONE term then going back home - his real home.
Tell you what, Mr. Bakall, I’d gladly pay for a GPS tracking device if you promise to wear it for the next 4 years and let us voters keep track of you.
Acosta is wasting his time and money. Hard to prove and can’t unseat an incumbent. Might as well just take down the campaign signs now.
Methinks the turkey is Bakall.
Sure. And I have a bridge in La Quinta I want to sell you.
What is this - kindergarten? Everybody go back to your seats, no matter where it is.
This really insults tax payers intelligence. Relatively easy to find out. Mr. Bakall may be looking for another job.
So let me get this straight - he owns a home in La Quinta , his wife lives there full time, and he answered the phone on a Monday morning from La Quinta even though he says he is only there on weekends. Daaaaaaaa.
Basically the Registrar of Voters takes what people put down at face value. No wonder this happens. Nobody is checking anything, not even to see if the candidate’s driver’s license matches his candidate statement. What a system.
Billy Joel said it best - honesty is such a lonely word ….
Mr. Ergun Bakall,
I’m a veteran that lost a limb and have a grandson in Iraq to preserve freedom, not so that you can abuse it.
Terry
For those of us that are stupid, you make sense.
Since Mr. Bakall is away from his wife all week, maybe he’d rather stay with me in Irvine. I like old Middle Eastern men.
How many turkeys does it take to fool a few hundred thousand voters, the DA’s office, and the Registrar of Voters? 1 apparently.
What’s the DA doing about this? Is Rackauckas asleep at the wheel or just doesn’t want to remove a fellow politician???
Why do taxpayers pay for a system that doesn’t work?
I don’t see any lipstick on incumbent Bakall, so what is the difference between a carpetbagger and Ergun?
Has anybody on Arcata in Irvine ever seen Ergun Bakall and is he really there Monday thru Friday and week after week like the rest of us residents?
Hey Gumper, the Registrar’s office doesn’t write the laws. I’d go back to the drawing board on that one.
Since when is staying a few days a week in a rental a primary residence? Come on, district attorney, are you buying this weak argument?
So if I own a house in Irvine and spend a few days in La Quinta, does that make me a La Quinta resident? Please. Somebody stop this nonsense!
If the District Attorney has completed his investigation by now, why hasn’t he intervened yet? What Mr. Acosta is asking for seems very reasonable. There should be a fair and even playing field. Candidates should not be allowed to circumvent the system. Isn’t it the DA’s responsibility to enforce or uphold the law? It’s a basic responsibility. Why have a DA if he’s unwilling to do his job? Election fraud is a crime. Don’t you think?
I applaud Glenn Acosta for calling him on it. And for doing it out in the open. Most politicians operate in the shadows, never wanting to be seen or having someone else do the dirty work.
I just got the voter pamphlet and saw incumbent Bakall’s name in it. Isn’t too late for the District Attorney to act? I presume the ballots have already been printed.
Either the DA doesn’t care about this race or he’s just waiting to see who wins and then deal with it. Either way looks like Acosta is screwed. No wonder incumbents always win.
I own a house in Oceanside but I’m thinking about renting in Irvine so I can get $4,000 a month too.
I went to Acosta’s website. Who cares where Bakall’s primary residence is? Acosta is a really great, civic-minded person, a civil engineer who has modern thinking about equating sound economics with environmental preservation, and he’s done it in his district. Wow. He’s exceptional and worth voting for.
Is taking signs against the law?
I’ve been noticing Glenn Acosta’s signs and banners going up, but they’re gone within a day or two. Hope someone is letting Glenn know that his signs are being stolen.
I have not seen any incumbent Bakall signs, only Acosta and Ritze. At every location Acosta has put up a sign so has Ritze. Except Acosta’s signs are disappearing and Ritze’s signs are staying. Is there no civility anymore?
Good luck, Glenn. Hope substance prevails over cheating.
Someone ask Ritze which office he’s running for. In his website, he’s asking for support in running for Director of Orange County Water District. That’s a different agency entirely than Municipal Water District of OC.
A better question for Donald Ritze is why is this your 2nd political race this year (2008)? You ran for County Supervisor earlier this year against Bill Campbell. Now you’re running for Municipal Water District. What’s up?
Are you just a runner? Are you bored? Are you just trying to get into any political office you can? How does being a contractor qualify you for County Supervisor or Director of a water agency? Come on, get real. Is Joe the Plumber now qualified to be Governor or President because he asked Obama some questions?
I cannot believe that Donald Ritze is running for another political office just a few months after running for County Supervisor. He’s a contractor. Does he even have 1 second of local government experience?
Yep, Donald Ritze couldn’t sit still with the primaries. Now, just a few months later, he’s in another race, completely unrelated to running for County Supervisor:
June 3, 2008 Primary Results
County Supervisor 3rd District - Non-Partisan
Completed Precincts: 485 of 485
Vote Count Percentage
BILL CAMPBELL 50858 79.6%
DONALD RITZE 12997 20.4%