By Pat Orr
Apple Valley Review
I have a friend who is incensed that Republicans aren’t smart enough to sit together and choose one single candidate in each race to support. She is not happy that there are now four GOP’ers trying to win Tim Donnelly’s 33rd Assembly seat.
“They will just split the vote and allow some liberal to sneak in the top two and make it through to the general election in November,” she says.
Call it ego or regional jealousy if you will, but the race this year comes down to the mountain versus the valley. Three local candidates — Apple Valley Mayor Art Bishop, former Councilman Rick Roelle and part-time college instructor Brett Savage — go against Arrowhead insurance broker Michelle Ambrozic and Rim of the World School Board Member Scott Markovich. The only wrinkle about this race between novices and experienced local leaders is that Gregg Imus is helping Ambrozic’s campaign.
Imus, you’ll recall worked for Donnelly early on and then lost to Paul Cook in a subsequent Congressional race. Most insiders know the Donnelly/Imus BFF status ended some time ago. Mr. Donnelly hasn’t endorsed anyone for his Assembly seat and won’t until he gets through his own Gubernatorial primary. No reason to make any more enemies this early in the political year.
What the Imus factor can mean is that Ambrozic can win on the mountain. The question remains: Can the mountain communities with lower voter counts carry the district?
Donnelly as a political Titanic?
The new theme among California Democrats is to proclaim that Tim Donnelly will take the whole GOP down with him if he is their nominee for Governor.
Even the Daily Press inexplicably ran an Los Angeles Times piece carrying the same carefully crafted scare tactic message.
It seems odd that Dems are so concerned with the GOP’s terrible down ballot performance if Donnelly gets the nod. Is this a narrative they hope to sell through repetition because some internal poll indicates Donnelly is getting unexpected traction? The “train to nowhere” and lack of real jobs and water may just prompt enough voters to at least consider a different path.
We can only hope.
Another pioneer lost
Gene “Pinky” Pilkinton slipped the bonds of this world on New Year’s Eve 2013. The timing seems appropriate, because Pinky always liked a good party.
Pinky was one of the salesmen the Ranchos brought to Apple Valley who sold some dirt and stayed to make a life. Pinky was only five months short of 89 when he passed which is 154 in salesman years.
I think I first met Pinky out on the golf course at the then-Country Club where he was a fixture for many years. I would see him often in the club bar swapping lies with a few other old real estate buddies. I have to assume he picked up his nickname because someone, probably in the Navy, was making a play on his last name. But to me he always was Pinky because, well, he was always pink.
He had a permanent “flush” about him and was as open and friendly as a pink rose. There was never a problem remembering Pinky. Like many of his generation he worked at many different things, the key word being work. Whatever he was doing, he was an able ambassador for that enterprise whether it was a charity, the Chamber of Commerce or a business.
We don’t seem to make too many “characters” anymore like Pinky and Tex Meeken and some of the others who have left us behind to enjoy the Town they helped create out of a wide spot in the road and a dream. Pinky was a character who helped shape our character as a town.
Remember him — he’s worth it.
Pat Orr is a local business owner, community volunteer and political junkie.