Martin, Schindler Set Up Shop; Private Golf Course on Tap

A couple of prominent OC execs have linked up, at least spatially, and are said to be looking for deals to do. VCer Chuck Martin, dba VentureLab LLC, and lawyer Walt Schindler, dba Odyssey Internet Group, are sharing a suite on Newport Center Drive by Fashion Island The Insider hears that the Irvine Co.’s next golf course, being designed by Tom Fazio at the planned 400-home Shady Canyon development in Irvine, is likely to be private The Washington Post says George Washington University political scientists Lee Sigelman and Paul J. Wahlbeck have designed a statistical model that would have predicted the correct vice-presidential choices in nearly 70% of the past 15 campaigns. Their model pegs New York Gov. George Pataki as the likeliest running mate for George W. Bush and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein as the favorite to be Al Gore’s pick. Their runner-up GOP veep choice? OC congressman Chris Cox A few alert readers have noted that in the same OCBJ issue announcing Editor RR’s plan to become the part-time executive editor, Orange Coast publisher Ruth Ko announced she was ceding day-to-day operation to new executive publisher Skip Johnson. While there is no truth to these readers’ mischievous deduction that these developments indicate RR and the ravishing Ko will be spending more time together, the Insider notes that RR is not discouraging the idle speculation At a recent OC appearance, State Board of Equalization Chairman Dean Andal recounted how his stance against no new Internet taxes rankled a couple of state governors serving with him on a federal advisory commission. Washington’s Gary Locke, Utah’s Mike Leavitt and their aides copped a “who-are-you?” attitude toward him, recounted Andal, a relatively obscure official whose elective district stretches from the Central Coast to the Inland Empire. “They told me that they represented a lot of people. I said I represented 8 million people, which is more than they have in either of their states. I also told them that I got 1.1 million votes in my last election, which is more than they ever got.” The commission saw it Andal’s way on the tax issue, voting 10-8 Name-dropping, dot-com style: Newport Beach-based GoPublicNow.com (which did just that recently) put out a press release announcing the hiring of Jeffrey M. Diamond as chief technical officer. The release quoted company CEO Bruce Berman as saying that he attracted Diamond by using pointers he got from Broadcom boss Henry Nicholas “while in my backyard smoking cigars.” Broadcom was even worked into the headline of the release.