In Orange County, the local Republican Party chairman, Scott Baugh, is headlining a fund-raiser for a supervisorial candidate, Todd Spitzer -- a former Assemblyman, prosecutor and previous board of supervisors member. This is significant because Spitzer, a close ally of the public safety unions, let the charge in 2001 for a retroactive pension increase that dramatically boosted the county's unfunded pension liability.
Baugh is a true warrior in the pension battle. He penned a "manifesto" that declared that no OC Republican would get party support if that candidate took union support. Spitzer has complied as he tries to get back on the board, but his past campaigns were awash in union support. He claims to have seen the light but remains a public-sector union advocate. This means that there is no price to pay for pension hiking -- even in a solid Republican county, with solid conservative leadership. That's too bad.
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