Inside Scoop

Eron Ben-Yehuda, Marissa Espino and Ellen McCarty

Despite facing long odds, the Democratic candidate running for the

heavily Republican 67th Assembly District seat hasn’t lost his sense of

humor.

Andy Hilbert jokes about all the high-priced consultants hired by his

Republican opponents. Each of these consultants told their candidate,

“You’re the man. Sign on the bottom line,” while they all told Hilbert he

didn’t have a chance, he said.

“The difference between me and the Republicans is that they pay for bad

advice [while] I get it for free,” he said.

Lara Startup has cerebral palsy, but that doesn’t slow down the outgoing

8-year-old Fountain Valley resident. “She knows more people in the

neighborhood than we do,” said her mother, Rebecca, who has a total of 11

children, including Lara’s twin Andru, who also has the disease.

Last Christmas, one of the neighbors dropped off a picture of Lara with a

dog and the message read, “Lara and Bubba Forever,” she said.

“We just laughed and said, ‘Who’s Bubba?’ ” Rebecca said. “I felt like

such a bad mother, but it’s so hard to keep up with her. She’s always

wanted to be independent.”

Fountain Valley resident Sandi Orgill, who is a mother of six children,

was happy to hear about Plavan Elementary School’s new morning- and

afternoon-track kindergarten program. Her daughter, Kalin, does not start

school until 11:20 a.m., which allows Orgill to get five kids ready for

school in the early morning instead of six.

“I absolutely love the change,” Orgill said. “When they are that young,

it’s hard to get them moving.”