You think you’re busy? Check out former Irvine Company honcho Gary Hunt. He’s Western finance chair for John McCain, accounting for about 40% of the candidate’s funds. He’s chairman of the California Bay Delta Authority, overseeing the state’s major water supply. He’s interim CEO of embattled commercial real estate broker Grubb & Ellis, holding the fort until he and the rest of the board pick a permanent replacement. He’s director at another OC-based public company suffering from the real estate downturn: William Lyon Homes. He’s senior adviser to Tejon Ranch Co., recently negotiating a landmark deal with environmental groups that clears the way for 26,000 homes and other development north of L.A.; he sits on the nonprofit conservancy board preserving the bulk of the 400-square-mile ranch. He chairs the advisory board of Kennecott Land, which plans 160,000 homes and 40 million square feet of commercial/industrial/retail space on its holdings around Salt Lake County. His California Strategies public affairs consultancy advises developers Lennar, DMB Associates and Lewis Group. And he’s still raising dollars for Gov. Arnold as his finance chair. How does Hunt juggle all of these high-stake balls? “You just make it work.” He adds, “I’m trying not to take on any new business” …
Jet-setting Michaels: They went (separately) from the Olympics in Beijing to the Democratic National Convention in Denver: Irvine developer Michael Ray, a member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and GOP consultant Michael Schroeder, blogging for the OC Register …
Ray found the games “great,” but Chinese society oppressive: “Censorship is real. Getting good info about China is very, very difficult. The new buildings are spectacular but of shoddy workmanship,the toilets in the new stadium already are falling apart. The currency controls are strict,try getting cash from a bank. And if you don’t like it, don’t complain or you just might disappear. Not kidding” …
“The Dr. Phil Show” taped a segment with Chapman U Prez Jim Doti …
In town: GOP strategist Karl Rove, visiting with the New Majority on Sept. 16. Pianist Roger Williams, lunching with KOCE and the OC Forum at the Nixon Library on Sept. 17…
About 250 friends and colleagues said goodbye to Tom Wilck at the Nixon Library. The late public affairs consultant still got in the last word (and last laugh), thanks to a tape of his April acceptance speech for a Boy Scouts award. “I’m losing ground with computers, iPods, nipple rings, Facebook, ‘American Idol.’ I’m becoming more and more irrelevant,” said the Marine who advised Walt Disney, Richard Nixon and Donald Bren. “So I told (wife) Nadine that when I go, I want my headstone to say, ‘I’m out of here just in time.'”
