THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:Turkeys for troops and soup kitchen

State Sen. Tom Harman of Newport-Mesa distributed 120 turkeys to families at Costa Mesa’s Someone Cares Soup Kitchen and the American Legion Newport Harbor Post 291 in Newport Beach for Thanksgiving.

Harman along with his staff distributed a large number of turkeys from Monday through Wednesday. Legion members will distribute turkeys to veterans’ families including from Camp Pendleton’s 1st Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, which was adopted by Newport Beach.

Thanksgiving is that time of the year when families and friends come together to feast and reflect on things they are grateful for, Harman said. It “is also a time that brings great stress and hardship to others who are less fortunate.”

Harman also distributed turkeys to families with the Precious Life Shelter in Los Alamitos.

The Someone Cares Soup Kitchen serves about 300 meals every day and provides tutoring for children. The American Legion Newport Harbor Post 291 is the largest American Legion Post in California and was founded in 1924 by 30 World War I veterans and Newport Harbor residents.

DAMAGE CONTROL AT OCC

According to Orange Coast College’s student trustees, they never imagined that their Nov. 6 decision to stop reciting the pledge of allegiance would lead to a nationwide media frenzy. Still, a Google search for the words “Orange Coast College pledge” turns up articles from dozens of sources, including Yahoo News, Reuters, Inside Higher Ed and, somewhat predictably, the Conservative Voice.

Now, with the board having voted on Monday to put the pledge back on its agendas — albeit as an “opportunity” rather than a requirement — OCC Foundation director Doug Bennett is attempting damage control.

Over the last weekend, he said, he received more than 100 e-mails from furious people around the country, and he’s prepared a message of response to calm them down.

“I had some people that said they were considering sending their kids to OCC and they wouldn’t let them go now,” he told the Daily Pilot. “Some people said we were unpatriotic. There was one guy who suggested we change the name of our college to Our Communist College.”

Bennett’s message notes that the student government plans to conduct an opinion poll to measure support for the flag salute around campus. It also outlines the different backgrounds of the student trustees: Michelle Schneider, the lone member who voted against removing the pledge from the agenda, is South African and trying to become an American citizen, while Regis Jues is a recently returned Iraq war veteran.

“Hopefully, we can all be thankful that we live in a country where we are free to debate issues such as this,” the message concludes.

RELOCATION PACKAGE APPROVED

Costa Mesa City Council members approved a relocation package for mobile-home owners at Tropic Trailer Ports Park despite several homeowners protesting that the settlement agreement wasn’t fair.

Council members voted, 5-0, to approve the package. The park on West Bay Street, near the Costa Mesa Freeway, is set to close next year. The park was recently bought by Richard Dick, a Newport Beach developer.

The developer has provided more than reasonable costs of relocation as mandated by state law, Mayor Allan Mansoor said.

Several residents spoke against losing their investment in their mobile homes, and said relocation within a 125-mile radius would mean having to move out of the area.

“What’s happening here is that the rug has been jerked from right under our feet,” said Lily Rhoads, a mobile-home owner who lives in the park.

One resident talked about matching the package to that of Huntington Beach, where a city law protects mobile-home owners if the park were to be closed or converted to other uses. That city’s 2004 ordinance makes park owners pay mobile-home owners for relocation costs within a 20-mile radius.

The settlement offered by Dick to the park tenants includes paying moving and relocation costs as well as free rent if they leave by July 31. The developer agreed to extend the deadline by 15 days. About nine tenants out of 14 have accepted the offer.

O.C. DEMS SEEK FIELD DIRECTOR

The Orange County Democrats are ramping up for 2008 elections after sweeping both houses of Congress this month. The Democratic Party of Orange County has created a new position, director of field operations and strategy, to develop and manage a volunteer field program.

“If you look at the demographics of Orange County, they are changing, and we gained 15,000 new Democrats since the beginning of 2006,” said Mike Levin, executive director. “We want to be going out in the community and make our presence felt, and we haven’t done that in a long time.”

The position involves building up and sustaining a program of paid workers and volunteers for campaigning.

The position, which pays about $3,000 to $4,000 per month, also entails organizing special events, building relationships with donors and maintaining databases and financial management.

Levin said he has received about a dozen resumes and will start interviewing next week. “A variety of skills in field organizing, political strategy, advertising and fundraising is ideal,” says the ad posting for the job.

The application deadline is Wednesday. Call executive director Mike Levin at (714) 835-2122 or e-mail him at mike@ocdemocrats.net for more information.

CAMPBELL ON FRIEDMAN

Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman’s death on Nov. 16 of heart failure in San Francisco prompted eulogies about his work and accomplishments from all over the country.

Newport Beach Rep. John Campbell said in a news release that with Friedman’s death, “our nation and the world lost a great mind and an individual dedicated to the advancement of personal freedom.”

Friedman’s writings and works had a “tremendous” effect on him, Campbell said, and helped “shape my understanding of public policy as an economics major.”

Milton Friedman once said, “The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both.”

“For the whole world to know and understand what it means to be free, we need more leaders, teachers and economists like Milton Freedman,” Campbell said.