Politics, politics, politics …
Barack Obama makes a rare OC appearance Sunday at the Balboa Bay Club with a $1 million fundraising goal. General admission is $2,300. The VIP ticket is $28,500 …
John Clarey helped former eBay CEO Meg Whitman test the gubernatorial waters recently. He introduced her to Lincoln Club members at his Clarey Capital office in Newport Beach and hosted a dinner for her at his Shady Canyon home. Whitman, John McCain’s campaign co-chairwoman, also has been mentioned as a long-shot veep possibility …
Actor Erik Estrada says he’s arranging a McCain fundraiser at the Laguna Beach home of an “associate” …
Irvine Congressman John Campbell seems to have answered the question of whether he is more of a small-government libertarian or a big-military hawk. A staunch supporter of President Bush’s antiterrorism efforts, Campbell nonetheless was one of only four Republicans to dissent in the House vote authorizing another $162 billion for the war in Iraq. (Texas’ Ron Paul was another GOP defector.) Campbell unaccustomedly found himself in the same camp as Dennis Kucinich, Nancy Pelosi and the Sanchez sisters. A sizeable minority of 80 Democrats joined 188 Republicans to pass the measure. Campbell’s latest idea: a federal tax deduction for gas used to commute to and from work …
KOCE-TV’s 35th anniversary gala at the Island Hotel netted $400,000 …
Retired Irvine Company spokesman Larry Thomas reports that after “eight months of scans, surgery, chemo and radiation” his head and neck cancer is in remission. His oncologist told him, “I came through this as well or better than any patient he has had.” But Thomas won’t be issuing any more inspirational e-mails, “unless I get tempted to send a message in a couple of months from the south of Spain saying I never thought paella tasted so good” …
New UCI law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky speaks at an OC Biz Council breakfast July 22 at the Center Club …
Guess who took the first dive into Chapman U’s new Zee Allred Olympic Pool? Prez Jim Doti, natch, wearing only a Speedo (action photo at www.chapman.edu/pubrel/photogallery). He was fully dressed next morning at the Costa Mesa Hilton, where he and Essie Adibi described for 750 attendees the plunge they see the economy taking …
Jody Powell, press secretary under Jimmy Carter, was in OC recently with wife Nan, Irene Ziebarth’s partner in the Big Canyon guest-member golf tourney … Working Mother magazine named Laguna Beach entrepreneur Nancy Meyer’s Buttoned Up Inc. as one of the 25 Best Women Owned Companies …
Former OC Register reporter Jeff Rowe has left his creative brainchild, KDOC-TV’s “Daybreak OC,” to join San Diego’s North County Times as an editor. News Director Craig Hume now is in charge of content at the station …
Another Register alum, L.A. Times Editor Russ Stanton, keynotes the OC Press Club’s July 17 gala at the Island Hotel. Info at www.ocpressclub.com.
