In her defense for not writing about the fortune being spent by special interests to reelect incumbent Mary Peipho, Vorderbrueggen says:

- she was going to get to it
- she has written hundreds of stories about Independent Expenditures
- her deadline kept her from getting necessary documents
- “professional journalists” don’t work weekends before an important local election
- “I’m just one person”

Well, why wait to report on the fortune special interests are spending on a single Supervisor race? Should it wait until after the election as a pointless wrapup exercise the Times is so known for?

Hundreds of stories on IEs? Whether or not this factoid is true (which I believe it isn’t), it’s not the point. For even if she had written all of those stories, then why, on her blog’s May 21 post, did she so blithely gloss over mention of the East Bay Business Coalition (see comment #1)— the elephant in the living room of Contra Costa politics—as if she knew nothing about them? Does it have anything to do with a close relationship with one of its directors?

Maybe Lisa chose not to report about the corrupting influence of $219,798 on a single race because, instead, her cohort of Democrat girl friend supporters of Mary Piepho (Bielle Moore, Tomi Vanderbrook, Mary Jo Rossi) had her ear. Why on earth write about the bigger picture when you can instead lead readers on a merry chase into the minutiae of “he- said she-said” tit-for-tat in the mailers without ever thinking to ask who is paying for them. Lisa made damn sure her readers knew the Sheriff spent $12,500 of his own money, but she didn’t report on the $219,798! What’s wrong with that picture? Yet, Vorderbrueggen insists that it is “absurd” to suggest that she “missed” the story.

As for the deadlines, Vorderbrueggen is at least disingenuous if not misleading when she says the Independent Expenditure documents were unavailable or buried in an 8-inch deep heap. The documents I used to show the originally posted amount of $215,000, were faxed to the County elections office starting May 17, on May 23, and May 28. A form 496 showing an additional $4,500 showed up 5/31 and another $23M was faxed after the 5:00 p.m. Friday deadline from Sacramento on behalf of Quality Government (read Chevron/Tesoro). But this last amount could be easily deduced from the previous forms and the very public knowledge that there were three mailings showing up in voters’ mailboxes, not the two whose expense had already been reported.

A professional reporter knows that one does not have to go through the stacks of candidate filings but go directly to the Independent Expenditure filing forms in the much smaller stack THAT ARE UPDATED CONTSTANTLY. Vorderbrueggen is trying to pull the wool over the public’s eye to make it sound so complex and daunting. It is an outright falsehood that these documents weren’t available. Vorderbrueggen could have easily had all the documents needed to write about the big-money corruption on Thursday in plenty of time for her deadline. But we got girl friend inspired “he-said she-said,” instead.

I don’t know. Maybe a Times reporter was getting hand fed “he-said she-said” from her gal pals or some tasty “wait…I will get you something quick from Bickert to counter the Sheriff’s piece.” Maybe not. Doesn’t matter. What matters is, after all the excuses, Vorderbrueggen consciously decided to report on the twigs instead of the forest burning.

I’m just one person, too. And here’s the story.

To date, BIG OIL, Developers and Realtors have contributed $219,798 to smear Guy Houston and support incumbent District 3 Supervisor, Mary Nejedly Piepho, via campaign mailers, 4×8 signs, internet sites, and e-mail blasts. This does not include monies and phone-banking from public employee unions. All of these special interests have critical business before the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors (BOS). No wonder they are going all out to make sure they continue to have Piepho’s support. Taxpayers be damned as special interests protect a BOS that will treat Chevron with kid gloves, help Tom Koch build New Farm and entertain dozens of other developer inspired Urban Limit Line loopholes, not to mention rolling over during public employee union contract negotiations.

Could it be that this huge amount of money is probably more important to our polity than the distraction Vorderbrueggen has whipped up over dissecting each campaign mailer. This money will effect the future of Contra Costa County in so many ways: the Urban Limit Line, Prop 90, negotiations with the refineries concerning taxes, jobs, safety, and pollution, fiscal solvency, not to mention upcoming union negotiations, to name just a few critical items the Board of Supervisors must manage in the interest of taxpayers not the interests of campaign contributors.

Unfortunately, Lisa Vorderbrueggen doesn’t want you to know this number which is available at the County. She made damn sure Contra Costa Times readers knew Sheriff Rupf spent $12,500 of his own money on his mailer denouncing Piepho. But she chose not to spill the beans about the outrageous money being spent to defeat Guy Houston by her girl friends who not only have her ear but direct hundreds of thousands of dollars of PAC money and Independent Expenditures to keep a pliant Mary Nejedly Pieho in office.

Shame on Lisa Vorderbrueggen who has squandered the public’s trust.

Shame on the Contra Costa Times for allowing such unchecked bias.

Contra Costans deserve the truth. Not just what a bent reporter decides is in the best interest of her gal pals.

Time for full disclosure, Lisa!

Here Let me help.

CLICK HERE FOR INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURE DOCUMENTS LISA VORDERBRUEGGEN AND THE CONTRA COSTA TIMES FAILED TO REPORT

SEE PRESS RELEASE

UPDATE

Total as of 5.31.08
Realtors 40808.60
EB 103990.04
Big Oil 75000
Total 219,798.64

This is what it costs to buy Mary Piepho. Not a cheap date!

In a shameless attempt to boost her own blog’s readership and redact her original outburst with some actual journalism instead of relying on girlfriend gossip, Lisa gravely threatened to update her original post with quotes.

For a minute there I feared Lisa was going to tell on me and ask my mom what she thought or have her big brother stand in front of my house with a baseball bat. But it was worse! Vorderbrueggen asked Lynne Leach what she thought of my writing about having her mug cut and paste onto the same political ad for Mary Piepho that also featured Republican nemesis and Dick Rainey killer, Democrat demi-God, Senator Tom Torlakson.

Anyways, being the seasoned extemporaneous public speaker with or without a mike, Leach harrumphed that this author was a “front for Guy Houston” and that I should admit it.

Boy has Lynne Leach not been paying attention (see… I got there).

Apparently Leach can no longer tell the difference between a Republican and a Democrat. Nor has she read the memo about one of her favorites, Mary Piepho, having gone seriously native in Martinez.

If Lynne Leach had been paying attention, she would know from hundreds of posts and comments on this site, that I consistently OPPOSE those campaigns that benefit from independent expenditures (IEs) from special interests that aim to suborn our electoral system. Maybe if Lynne were paying more attention she would not so happily slip under those silky covers.

If Lynne Leach was paying any attention at all, she would know that this election is about the redevelopment crowd making sure there is no change from the status quo. Thus pliant electeds ready to play fast and loose with the Urban Limit Line in exchange for campaign cash are welcome to the trough, and to hell with Prop 98.

For example, instead of hammering on non-news two weeks in a row in her Sunday column, perhaps Lisa Vorderbrueggen could write a story about something that actually mattered. Maybe she could ask her girlfriends working for Mary some tough questions about how this “pay-to-play money” would no doubt affect some future Piepho votes on projects pushed forward by:

- Craig Andersen, and his East Bay Business Coalition. This is the same bully who threatened Times writer Ryan Huff with bodily harm.

- The Realtors PAC. If Lynne were paying attention, then she’d know that Bielle Moore, executive director of the non-profit, also controls the partisan PAC. Is this not the same conflict of interest she and her cohort whined about to the board of Coco Tax? Talk about those messy double standards.

- Does anyone doubt Tom Koch’s New Farm backers will not be heard from this political hunting season? How much will it cost to keep Mary Piepho in office so the Urban Limit Line can be pried open project by project?

As Luther quipped, “the big thieves hang the smaller thieves,” so don’t forget the little-fish, second-tier endorsements of the usual suspects listed as Piehpo endorsements including but not limited to the entire roster of local Democratic electeds and their sandbox Republican partners co-opted by the California League of Cities; not to mention faux-enviros Ron Brown, Save Mt Diablo, and the Sierra Club. This isn’t “community support.” It’s the get-along-gang that gives pro-(re)development Democratic candidates, hangers-on, and wannabes like Piepho the political cover for the back room deals that transform communities like Tassajara Valley into an LA freeway quicker than you can say Abram Wilson.

Yes I support Guy Houston. D’uh. But only because he is the best candidate with a chance to stand up and help correct the problems this county faces instead of being a sock puppet for special interests and their bid to stop any reform in Contra Costa County despite the findings of the Grand Jury.

Lynne Leach ought to pay more attention. That way, maybe, she could better see Republican from Democrat and the debilitating effect IEs have on our polity.

The City of San Ramon has filed an application with LAFCO, the Local Agency Formation Commission, to bring the Tassajara Valley within their “sphere of influence” with the intent of controlling development.

In 2002, the citizens of San Ramon voted overwhelmingly to require a new city general plan. The plan that was developed placed the Tassajara Valley outside the city’s urban limit line with no housing planned for that area.

In 2006, San Ramon voters again overwhelmingly approved the County’s urban growth boundary, which placed the Tassajara Valley outside the Urban Limit Line.

San Ramon’s LAFCO application was submitted without public review. The neighboring cities of Dublin and Danville, both of which will bear the traffic impacts of Tassajara Valley development, only learned of this action when they read about it in the papers. The Board of the Dublin San Ramon Services District, which San Ramon had listed as a possible water provider for the area, also learned about San Ramon’s intentions from the newspaper article. To make matters even worse, this application was submitted to LAFCO when the Mayor of San Ramon was out of town.

As your State Assemblyman and as a resident of San Ramon, I am here today to tell the City of San Ramon that the way you have proceeded is wrong – this is not how business should be done. I call on the City of San Ramon to withdraw its application for the benefit of all and stop this destructive process.

I call on Contra Costa Supervisor Mary Piepho to join me in asking San Ramon to withdraw its application.

In addition, I call on Supervisor Piepho to go to the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors and rescind any current studies or actions that infringe on the voter-approved Urban Limit Line.

I would also like to take this opportunity to express my support of the voter-approved Urban Limit Line. “Voter-approved” is the key term. As elected officials, we must honor the will of the people.

There was a time when lawsuits among local cities were common. With increased communication and good working relationships, that is a thing of the past. San Ramon is now jeopardizing its standing among its neighbors.

San Ramon is a great city and one I proudly call home. The City Council has many important issues they can be working on; including the City Center project, which I fully support. That project deserves your full attention. Withdraw this rash attempt to compromise the voter-approved Urban Limit Line and focus on the positive goals of the city.