As we continue to watch the still unresolved special election to replace Lou Correa on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, here are some questions that we progressives should be thinking about:

– Which Nguyen is more of a win (for us)? My friend Mike Lawson, of The Liberal OC, weighs in on which Nguyen would be the less wingnutty of the two.

– Where’s the new center of political power in OC? Frank Mickadeit raises some interesting questions over at The Register.

– Why didn’t we see it coming??!! Someone made a great point this morning about Van Tran’s absentee ballot operation among Vietnamese Republicans. We should have taken heed from Team Tran’s operation for Lynn Daucher in SD 34 last year.

– Why did we let them get away with it??!! Now, the WINGNUTS on the OC Board of Supervisors are ready to wage all-out war on immigrants and tackle an issue that they have no jurisdiction over!

– And why are we acting so damn petty? Already, the blame game is taking hold. However, my friend Claudio at Orange Juice is right that we shouldn’t return to the divisive infighting that led us into so much trouble in the first place.

– So can we just get over it and learn our lesson? Huntington Beach small business owner and progressive activist Joe Shaw sums it up perfectly for us:

Maybe I’m naive. I’m definitely a newbie to OC politics, but it seems to me Democrats in OC at the grassroots level spend a lot of time working on the high profile campaigns that don’t stand a chance in hell, but little time working on the lower profile campaigns they can win. This one was winnable, but the candidate was not the right choice. Democrats should concentrate on developing strong leaders at the local level. Candidates with strong records of accomplishment locally can win these bigger races.

Right on, Joe! You said it much better than any of us could. I hope we get over our squabbling soon and take your advice. : )