Q & A With Gustavo Arellano Of The OC Weekly

Since Gustavo didn't print what I emailed back to him after his questions from last week, I will post my responses to him here on Powder Blue Report.

Allan,

It's Gustavo Arellano from OC Weekly. I'm doing a story on the Republican Party's war against Jim Gilchrist and wanted to quote you since I enjoy your articulate defense of Gilchrist and attack on John Campbell in the local blogosphere. If you are interested, can you answer these questions?

*Why do you think Republicans are scared of a Gilchrist candidacy as opposed to Gilchrist, the private citizen behind the Minuteman project?

Gustavo, a better question would have been....why do
you think the Republican intelligencia/hierarchy/party
bosses are scared of Jim Gilchrist, because when you
say Republicans, it doesn't mean the GOP rank & file.
We love what Jim Gilchrist stands for. The rank &
file aren't concerned with whose turn it is to run
like the bosses are. We aren't concerned that Jim is
not a polished politician. We just want the laws
enforced that are on the books already and we want the
party to get back to its roots of smaller government.
The party bosses are scared of Jim Gilchrist because
they know that their bosses in DC have screwed the
pooch on the issue of illegal immigration by flatly
ignoring the issue while it has continued to fester
unabated. It's the number one issue for Republicans
right now and the face of the party, George Bush, is
pro amnesty so there has been a lot scrambling to try
to innoculate their candidate(Campbell) from looking
weak on illegal immigration which he is. Deep down
the party bosses know that the silent majority of
their members support Jim and what he has done.

*Who do you think support Campbell? Gilchrist?

Campbell has the support of the entire party aparatus
and most local elected and un-elected politicians.
They are afraid to go on record supporting Jim because
they fear the recriminations if they publicly
supported someone like Jim who is not technically a
Republican even though his positions more closely
mirror what the base of the party stands for. I do
not have that fear. I have also come to know that
John does not care much for grassroots support from
local GOTV groups. He ignored them until it was time
to run for Congress. In fact he flew out a bunch of
DC hacks to OC before the primary because he didn't
have much of a local grassroots effort. It all gets
back to Campbell just not exciting the base of the
party. The people who support Jim are people like
myself who are tired of the doublespeak and inaction
on illegal immigration and other conservative issues
near and dear to us. We are not part of the county
party establishment. We are more concerned about
country and principles than party. We recognize that
if Jim gets elected, he goes to DC with a mandate to
put this issue of illegal immigartion front & center
of the national debate. We see what has happened to
once proud cities like Santa Ana and Los Angeles
turned into ghettoes. They are now overrun by illegal
immigrants. We do not want this spread to other
communities in Orange County. We just want the
current laws enforced. We would never send our kids
to school in these neighborhoods where English is a
second language and learning does not happen.

*Do you think Campbell has shifted his position on
illegal immigration due to Gilchrist, or does it remain the same? What is it?

Absolutely he has shifted his position on illegal
immigration. This is man,Campbell, who voted to give
illegals in state tuition benefits, voted for illegals
to be able to use matricular consular cards as IDs to
open bank accounts and get home loans, and told a
Register reporter that they(illegals) are here so we
might as well give them the benefits. Once he
realized that he was on the wrong side of this issue
and now wanted to run for Congress, he had to do
something fast. So he hired Dave Gilliard and
Gilliard came up with a brilliant plan to start a
petition drive for a California Border Police
Initiative. Who was the first person to co-sponsor
this? That's right John Campbell. Amazing how that
works.

Also, what do you do and where do you live? Just a
brief line so I can include with the plug for your blog. If you can send
me back responses to these questions by tomorrow morning, I'd appreciate
it!

I am a full time managed futures specialist/investment
advisor. I raise money for alternative investments
like Commodity Trading Advisors which are similiar to
hedge funds. I have lived in Irvine my entire life
except when I lived up in Long Beach while attending
Long Beach St University. I went to Our Lady Queen of
Angels School in Newport Beach for grade school and I
graduated high school from Mater Dei in 1988. I'm
recently married w/no kids yet and still living in
Irvine to this day.

Respectfully,

Allan Bartlett
Irvine,CA