King David Ellis of the Orange County Fair Part II

So on last week, Newport Beach Uber-Consultant David Ellis was appointed to the Orange County Fair Board of Directors and on Saturday as I was running around, I posted something really quickly on it and didn't think much more about it. Originally, I had caught the press release on the OC Register's Buzz, and then as I was poking around in the Bible, I saw this buried at the bottom of the page, from the 30th of March. And the only reason I wanted to read that article was because of the potential Newport Mesa STUDENT walkout over Cesar Chavez's Birthday, which I found funny. Anyway, back to David Ellis. I saw this LA Times article about the Governator's appointments and it got me thinking, if this Gubernatorial appointment was made during the last election cycle, I think all hell would have broke loose. Not that Governor Arnold owes anything to Dave Ellis that he would get this "juicy" appointment, but for those who forgot (not Freenewport.com, they'd never forget), Dave Ellis got re-famous last fall for his political consultant business. He was the guy responsible for the victorious campaigns of Keith Curry, Michael Henn and Leslie Daigle this time around, and Tod Ridgeway, Steve Bromberg and Steve Rosansky, among others, in the past. Last fall, the Daily Pilot, and much of Newport Beach, went especially hard after David Ellis for his role in Leslie Daigle's campaign against Barbara Venezia, but Leslie still won and last week, his name and story was buried. How eager the Daily Pilot wanted to find out who officially "hired" Dave as their consultant. But how soon time heals all wounds...until the next election. David Ellis is the best example of how us Newporters consider ourselves so different, especially in the local politics game. Here, his tactics are considered "horrible" and "dirty" but guess what, they are effective. Name the last Dave Ellis represented candidate who lost (other than Bernie)? But in EVERY OTHER CITY/COUNTY/STATE OR FEDERAL political campaign, Dave Ellis' tactics are right on and part of the status quo. Just wait until this Presidential campaign and all the mud being thrown around. In Orange there are lawsuits, in Irvine, lawsuits. Who can forget the "fun" mail we all received in the 2004 Cristi Cristich/Chuck DeVore Assembly battle? Just in 2006, Newporters missed all out war in the Cassie DeYoung v. Pat Bates Supervisorial race, but we got a small taste with the Sheriff Carona saga. Keith Curry promised us in the Daily Pilot that he was going to stay clean, but perhaps after seeing the latest poll results, and after Dave Ellis asked him if he'd do what it take to win, he sent out a negative hit piece ONE WEEK LATER(using Dolores Otting's own words, I know, but it was still negative). Going dirty in politics is Rule #1 (maybe rule #2) in an effective political campaign. David Ellis knows this, the current City Council knows this, and future City Council hopefuls know this. And before everyone says that Newport Beach is above this, is better than this, doesn't like Dirty Politics, it isn't, and it doesn't. Why else would David Ellis bat 100% last fall, every fall? If Newport Beach doesn't like negative campaigning, negative politics, I think someone forgot to tell it's voters.