Lincoln Club Brass Discuss Fuentes; Yet Another Rail Plan
The Lincoln Club, the OC GOP’s loyal business support group, has been conspicuously silent in the battle between local party chairman Tom Fuentes and the executive-led New Majority for control of the central committee. But club members, who are on both sides of the battle, were expected to vent their feelings this past weekend in a closed-door executive session following their annual meeting. The topic was to be Fuentes’ annual request for funds from the club, which have typically ranged from $20,000 to $100,000. Some members, concerned about the effectiveness of Fuentes’ registration and get-out-the-vote efforts in recent years, were expected to push for conditions on any contribution,and possibly to voice some support for the insurgent New Majority Also this past weekend, NBC was planning to do a piece on the fight within OC’s GOP Cruttenden Roth is changing its name. Stay tuned The debate over a high-speed rail from San Diego up to San Francisco and Sacramento will be making news in the coming weeks, predicts Peter Brennan. Irvine is hosting a workshop this week to discuss its implications and whether it could be rerouted from its current path (through Riverside) into Orange County. The train, tentatively priced at $25 billion, is a longshot,Gov. Gray Davis has already signaled opposition to it. Irvine has retained PR consultant Paul Glaab to keep the city in the loop … “It’s not something I can comment on”,Dwight Decker, at Conexant’s annual meeting, when asked by a shareholder about the industry buzz that the company is being courted by Cisco Systems Measure F is looking good. El Toro airport opponents say their polling has the issue running 20 points ahead. But they’ve seen leads like this dwindle before, and the silence from the pro-airport camp suggests a last-minute campaign blitz against the measure. Moreover, Measure F will certainly not be the final word in the debate. Even if it passes, airport backers figure they can circumvent it, either by putting El Toro into a joint powers authority beyond the measure’s reach, or by successfully challenging the legality of F’s two-thirds vote requirement The Pack discovers CPH: The OCBJ isn’t the only one writing about Oceanfront Estates, the 79 multi-million-dollar homes that Hadi Makarechian’s Capital Pacific Homes is putting up in Rancho Palo Verdes. The project was featured last week in Newsweek and on MSNBC, and was set to be on an NBC segment and National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” Among others working on stories are CNN and three London newspapers Arnold Palmer plans to make his first appearance at the Toshiba Senior Classic, at Newport Beach CC Feb. 28 to March 5. (Unfortunately, Jack Nicklaus is booked at the Doral/Ryder Open that week.)
