Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Agran's corruption: Arnold Forde and Tom Fuentes

Butcher & Forde
     If you’ve been paying attention to Larry Agran’s slowly unfolding Orange County Great Park” scandal, you’ll know that among the prime beneficiaries of this boondoggle was the firm of Forde and Mollrich. The “Forde” in question is Arnold Forde, a fellow who figured prominently, along with the late Tom Fuentes, in the severe coarsification of OC politics, starting c. 1970.
     See OC's "win at any cost" political ethic: Butcher-Forde, Tom Fuentes, & James Lacy
* * * 
Young Tom
     “Some of these consultants [Butcher and Forde, Fuentes, et al.] regard a campaign as the equivalent of warfare, in which anything goes, short of overt violations of the law. Deceptions and misrepresentations, especially unleashed at the last minute through computerized mailings, seem to have become, for some, a standard campaign technique.” 
—Orange County Citizens' Direction
Finding Commission report, 1978
     "When Butcher and Forde brought professional management and a fierce competitive drive to Orange County campaigning, they were challenging decades of friendly, folksy clannishness. They have been called amoral and their campaign tactics deceptive. And the accusations have not been hurled exclusively by their candidates’ opponents."
 — "Butcher and Forde, wizards of the computer letter," California Journal, May 1979.
     SEE Great Park Timeline - in 1994, Forde and Mollrich worked for the pro El Toro Airport forces (i.e., big money Orange Countians); later (in the new millennium), the firm supported efforts to block the airport.
     You'll recall that Tom Fuentes, seeing a political opportunity (for his far-right wing of the local GOP), early on decided to support anti-Airport forces (thereby joining "liberal" Agran's anti-airport movement), one reason that the Fat Wallet crowd forced Tom out of the OC Republican chairmanship in 2004.
     Agran and Forde
c. 1982

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