Orange County Register

From Steven Greenhut:

Usually, an outgoing sheriff’s choice of a replacement would carry some weight, but I would think that anyone ex-Sheriff Mike Carona would hand pick would be radioactive in the county. We’ve had enough Caronies in charge of the department. On his way out, Carona appointed Jack Anderson, a close ally and Republican Party central committee member, as the interim sheriff. That means more of the same while the board searches for a permanent replacement. Read TotalBuzz here to see the political nature of the Anderson appointment. That said, I wouldn’t overreact to this choice, given that Anderson — who said he is running in 2010 — will only be there temporarily. Some bloggers have jumped to conclusions, ones that might be warranted but it’s too early to tell. I tend to doubt that John Moorlach and Chris Norby, who have been anything but party stooges and have been persistent critics of Mike Carona, have suddenly caved in to GOP pressure. My guess (and I will ask them when I can reach them) is that they didn’t want to have a big fight over an interim replacement. The rubber really hits the road when it comes to a permanent replacement. Anderson should not even be under consideration for that appointment, given his close ties to the bad old regime and to the party power structure. He’s, of course, free to run to keep the Mike Carona flame alive in 2010.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.