Fake MAGA Candidate Arrested in Fullerton
for all the (D)s talk of democracy they sure do like to subvert is
I may have helped get a fake MAGA candidate arrested so let’s talk about it since the story of the arrest broke today.
While most of my videos focus on Statewide or National issues, I’ve been heavily invested in local politics for many years now because we can have more impact closer to home and this is one of those stories.
In this instance it came to my attention that a local City Council candidate, one Scott Markowitz, a Data Analyst with Wescom Credit Union, was running for a District seat as an "America First Patriot" according to his ballot statement.
Since I’d never heard of the guy, and his social media was non-existent, I shot off a records request to the City Clerk to see if they had any real contact with him and it came back that one Ajay Mohan, a local Democratic operative, campaign strategist and former Executive Director of the Orange County Democratic Party had arranged for Markowitz to pick up his campaign paperwork.
For context, Mohan runs Rocket Science Strategies LLC with another member of the OC Democratic Party - Lyndsey Lefebvre and they've only done campaign work - according to financial filings - for Democrats such as Congressman Gil Cisneros.
That sent me down a rabbit hole because there’s no ethical reason why a pair of DNC operatives would be helping, and by the look of things running, a campaign for what appeared to be a MAGA candidate against their party’s own endorsed candidate.
Part of that rabbit hole entailed going and looking at Markowitz’ nomination forms because to run for office people have to endorse you and that's when things got worse.
The first person to sign Markowtiz’ paperwork was a Karlo Marcello who sits on the OC Democratic Party’s Central Committee and towards the end of the list was a lady named Diane Vena who had already publicly endorsed the most left-learning Democrat in that same race - one Vivian “Kitty” Jaramillo.
I then went down to the County Registrars Office where I learned that Markowitz had changed his party affiliation back to Republican - despite being a Democrat since 2021 - the same day that Mohan emailed the clerk on his behalf.
It seemed a little odd that an “America First” candidate would have stopped being a Republican during the America First era.
Furthermore, adding to that problem was the fact that several of the people who signed Markowitz’ paperwork were also donors to left cleaning causes or candidates on ActBlue. It seemed unlikely that they were truly supporting a self-proclaimed “Real Conservative” candidate.
I forwarded my findings on to a few people and it landed on a local blog as well as in the hands of the Orange County District Attorney.
Once the story broke locally on the Friends for Fullerton’s Future blog - a site I used to write for - Sharon Kennedy whose family owns the local newspaper, the Fullerton Observer - started making public claims that Diane Vena had been asked by a friend to sign Markowitz’ paperwork in a clear effort to clear one of her own contributors of the fraud being perpetuated upon the voters. To date the Observer has, otherwise, ignored the story.
Skip ahead a few weeks and this morning the Orange County District Attorney arrested Markowitz on two felony counts, one for perjury and the other for falsifying records.
We're still waiting to see if conspiracy charges will be filed against Mohan or the others involved in this scheme.
So just know, you may not always be able to effect change on a national level but a little due diligence can ruin the day of local scoundrels and I can tell you from personal experience, that's quite rewarding.
Cheers.