Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Tuesday, Oct. 18. I’m Gabriel San Román, an Orange County Metro reporter for the Los Angeles Times. I also may be the tallest Mexican in O.C. (6-foot-6) , which is great since it means that no matter where I stand, I can see almost everything!
Including what’s going on at Anaheim City Hall.
That’s where, months before a secret recording upended L.A. politics, the FBI’s intercepts of conversations among a self-described “cabal” of Anaheim power brokers unleashed a scandal of their own.
In May, the FBI alleged that then-Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu had obstructed an Orange County grand jury investigation into the sale of Angel Stadium, leaked confidential information to team officials and expected $1 million in campaign spending from the Angels in return for his political efforts.
A week later, in the aftermath of the explosive allegations, Sidhu resigned. Remaining councilmembers terminated the $320-million saleof Angel Stadium. Former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce President Todd Ament pleaded guilty to several white-collar crimes as part of the sprawling investigation.
Since then, the probe has been about as hushed as Angel Stadium every October.
“The FBI has no further information to be made public at this time,” a spokesperson told The Times.
What is known is fueling an election season like no other in Anaheim.
“The FBI is watching Anaheim City Hall,” declared one mailer, with a depiction of an agent looking through binoculars. Ashleigh Aitken, a former federal prosecutor who is pledging to restore trust in city government, paid for the ad through her mayoral campaign. It blasts Trevor O’Neil, her opponent and current City Council member, as a “close political ally” of Sidhu.
Before running for mayor, O’Neil said publicly that he’d attended a December 2020 retreat organized by power brokers in the alleged cabal, as outlined in the investigation. He has tried to distance himself from the former mayor while framing the probe as one focused on a few bad actors.
Each campaign has slung mud at the other through mailers that reference the FBI.
City Council candidates have already returned contributions received from the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce.
But not Disney dollars.
The Times reported that Carrie Nocella, Disneyland Resort’s director of external affairs, was referred to as a ringleader “to some extent” in an FBI affidavit, but neither Nocella nor Disney have been accused of wrongdoing.
Before the probe became public, the Disneyland Resort poured $1.3 million into the Support Our Anaheim Resort political action committee.
Whether SOAR would bow out of the election, like the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce has, didn’t become clear until campaign finance forms started rolling in.
As of Friday, SOAR had spent $535,000 in support of three City Council candidates: Gloria Sahagún Ma’ae, Natalie Rubalcava and Natalie Meeks.
Some of that money funded Spanish-language ads for Sahagún Ma’ae and Rubalcava, complete with a narrator who sounds like the voice that tells us “permanecer sentados” before the Matterhorn bobsleds bruise our tailbones!
Unions that represent Disneyland Resort workers have set up two independent expenditure committees to support their own preferred candidates, including Aitken for mayor.
So far, those committees have spent $64,000 — a fraction of SOAR’s tally — with half of that sum in support of Aitken.
With election day just weeks away — and no new developments on the FBI front — it looks as if it will be up to Anaheim voters to decide if the scandal leads to further political shakeups.
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