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Politics & Government

Beall Honored in a Wild Night for County GOP

Mayor Tony Beall and wife Jennifer are recognized for their contributions to the Orange County Republican Party, but they stir it up at the OCGOP reorganization meeting.

IRVINE—The Monday meeting of the Orange County Republican Party (OCGOP) was a hotbed of local news for Rancho Santa Margarita residents.

Mayor Tony Beall, who was recognized for his contributions to the party, delivered a harsh description of a new central committee member who was part of the contentious Capistrano Unified School District recall election.

Additionally, a Dove Canyon front-runner got turned back by voters.

Find out what's happening in Rancho Santa Margaritawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The big story was expected to be the battle between the existing chairman, Scott Baugh, and challenger Tim Whitacre and members of the tea party movement looking for a change. However, Baugh was re-elected by a wide margin.

The big surprise of the night centered around Dove Canyon resident and political blogger Jon Fleischman of the "Flash Report…on California’s most significant political news." Fleischman was the front-runner and was the top vote-getter in a three-way race for first vice chair. However, he failed to win the majority required to win the post. With a runoff pitting the top two vote-getters against each other, Debra Pauly of Villa Park picked up enough votes to upset Fleischman and leave him on the outside.

Find out what's happening in Rancho Santa Margaritawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“Elections happen," Fleischman said. "I ran a positive campaign, and Deb will do a great job.”

Beall, recently re-elected to the OCGOP central committee, handed out information to attendees on newly elected central committee member John Alpay of San Clemente. After the successful Capistrano Unified School District recall election in November, Alpay took over the seat on the CUSD board of trustees previously held by recall victim Mike Winsten, who was endorsed by the GOP.

Although Alpay is a Republican, his campaign for school board aligned him with Democrats and union members against the OCGOP's endorsed candidates and the party’s opposition to Measure H, which would restrict the electorate to voting for a single member of the board by district in future elections. Measure H passed. Beall's literature stated that in his opinion, Alpay is "a dangerous, dishonest, unprincipled and unstable political opportunist" and should be "publicly censured for his wrongful actions."

Beall's opinion was formed by Alpay's political alliances and probably a couple of other things: During the campaign, Alpay accused Beall's wife,  Jennifer, of trespassing, burglary and assault associated with a process server serving court papers to Alpay's wife at their home. According to the Bealls, that process server was not Jennifer Beall. Tony Beall said Alpay filed "a bogus police report"; the officer who took the report said that Alpay had tried to intimidate him through a relationship with the police lieutenant and the City Council.

Near the end of the meeting, the Bealls were honored as the OCGOP Volunteer of the Year for their individual and joint efforts during the 2010 elections. They said they are committed to continuing their efforts within the party, and Jennifer Beall said that with the elections behind them, she was "setting my sights on family-related issues."

In addition to recognition by the OCGOP, the Bealls also received recognition from the California Assembly and Senate, and the city of Rancho Santa Margarita. Newly elected RSM Councilman Steve Baric presented the award.

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