I hate this.

Esther Kim Varet's CA-40 run is increasingly mean, and exhausting, and nonsensical. And I'm over it.

[A prologue to this post: I have no horses in any local political races. I work for no campaigns, align myself with no candidates. I am a sports writer trying to fill the gap caused by mainstream media’s sad demise, and I have committed myself to being honest and truthful, and to use this space to cover local politics and—when I consider it important—present my viewpoint. I don’t care if anyone in local politics likes me or not. I do care about being real.]

So, despite what readers here might think, I hate politics.

I hate the slime, I hate the grotesqueness, I hate the canned statements, I hate the phony concern, I hate the egos. My two favorite local political figures—Tiffany Ackley and Krista Castellanos—are, in fact, my two favorite local political figures because they don’t actually wanna be political figures. They do their jobs for they believe in something. They have values that align with regionality. Or, put different: They’re from here, and they care enough to hold positions that bring neither glory nor financial reward because they aspire to make a difference.

That is what makes them special.

•••

In case you missed this, the Orange County Register ran an article yesterday headlined, INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT LINKED TO NONPROFIT CHANGED TO A CA-40 CANDIDATE’S CAMPAIGN PAGE, SPURS FEC COMPLAINT. In short, it appears Perry Meade’s CA-40 congressional operation foolishly took an old Instagram account (with about 60,000 followers) dedicated to “March For Our Lives California” and repurposed it into his campaign feed. As a result, Esther Kim Varet’s campaign has officially filed a complaint to the Federal Elections Commission, and yesterday issued a press release that read thusly …

When contacted by the Register, Meade’s campaign responded with this …

And I want to reiterate—I hate this shit. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate it. I hate that Ajay Mohan, Kim Varet’s campaign manager, is only “appalled by Meade’s blatant theft for March for Our Lives property” because this is politics, and politics are as predictable as Ralph’s vanilla ice cream, and someone on the rival side (generally a paid employee) is always “appalled” by something because he needs to be “appalled” to make a point that the opponent is so “appalling” that he’s “appalling” the masses who are universally “appalled.” I hate that Mohan left me a voice message yesterday, expressing his giddiness to share the “fun details” of a complaint he never would have issued were he not working for the person who benefits from it.

Hell, I hate that Meade—26, eager, but wet behind the ears—doesn’t have someone on his campaign who knows better; who would have been wise enough to say from jump, “Perry, start your Instagram feed from scratch. This is a bad fucking idea.” I hate that Lukas Walczak’s statement is as politically predictable and about as lame as Mohan’s.

God, I hate this shit.

•••

But, since I’m being blunt and spitting like Tupac at the House of Blues, I’ll tell you what—sitting here in mid-August—I have come to hate the most …

Esther Kim Varet’s campaign.

Lord, I wanted to like it. Esther and I met for coffee, and I genuinely enjoyed the experience. But, eh … um … argh … like, why are you running for a seat in CA-40? A place where you just relocated from 60 miles away, oh, a handful of months ago? Why are you running to represent people you don’t know and couldn’t name and don’t actually seem remotely interested in? What, exactly, are you offering besides, “I have a shitload of wealthy friends who are giving me tons of money so I can hire an Ajay Mohan to issue “I am so appalled” statements to the three remaining local news outlets (one of which is a lowly l’il Substack blog run by a sports journalist doing a Tupac Shakur book)? Do you really believe we’re foolish enough to hear, “I’m the only candidate to own a local business and send my kids to local public schools?” and think, “Wow, she’s one of us”?

Seriously, this shit has been gnawing on me and gnawing on me—and, today, agitated by this amateur-hour, take-a-spear-to-a fellow Democrat, I’m letting it out. Please tell me one time (just one) when Esther Kim Varet has explained why, precisely, she’s qualified to represent CA-40? Besides being wealthy. Besides wanting to beat Young Kim. Besides finding (hiring?) a bunch of people to hold her signs at events. Show me the clip. Show me the moment. Show me Esther Kim Varet explaining local schools, local commerce, past policy conundrums, local fire hazards, local policing needs. Fuck, show me Esther Kim Varet actually speaking cohesively and in detail about Young Kim’s history as a representative. Show me Esther Kim Varet going beyond, “Young Kim is awful” and “Young Kim loves Trump” and “Young Kim is for protecting the Epstein list.”

I dare you. I double dog dare you.

For that matter, show me Esther Kim Varet offering even slight evidence that she could competently debate (a regrettably personable) Young Kim on issues. Show me her breaking down—in detail—anything related to Orange County. Anything.

For Christ’s sake, this is one of the pinned images on Esther’s Instagram feed …

And it’s like, how did you “always” know Young Kim would betray us? You didn’t know who Young Kim was before last November. And you weren’t “us” until you decided you wanted to spend wads of cash to land in Congress.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and right now—if I had my druthers—the CA-40 Democrat to take on Kim would be Ackley, Aliso Viejo’s mayor and a woman with genuine civic pride. Or, if not Tiffany, Richard Hurt, her fellow Aliso City Council member. Or, if not Richard Hurt, Stephanie Oddo of Laguna Niguel’s City Council. Or, if not Stephanie Oddo, Cynthia Vasquez of Mission Viejo’s City Council. All excellent people, all regionally appropriate, all older than Sabrina Carpenter, none of whom ever tried to buy a political position.

The problem, unfortunately, is serving in Congress these days is slightly less appealing than an acid enema. It’s a two-year gig where, a week after winning one election, you’re already fundraising for the next. It’s a job that lacks actual oomph; an increasingly show-pony position that promises an occasional MSNBC soundbite and a sweet office inside the Capitol. Seriously, it blows, and neither Ackley, Hurt, Oddo or Vasquez have shown the least bit of interest in submerging into the Washington, DC hellscape.

Esther Kim Varet, however, has. And that’s why, yesterday morning, she chose to take out Perry Meade’s knees. She went after his reputation with a sledgehammer; a rich art dealer vagabond here from Los Angeles whose stated goal (“Help save democracy by defeating Young Kim”) is now mixed with the unstated goal of vanquishing her Democratic rivals by any means necessary. I actually reached out to a bunch of political operatives and insiders to ask about Meade’s Instagram moronity, and the general take was: Not even close to the worst thing ever, but stupid AF and really lazy. Which is true, and certainly calls into question the quality of his operation. But his other crime—the one that resulted in the press release—is having the gall to emerge as Kim Varet’s main challenger.

Because, deep down, I’m quite certain Esther Kim Varet believes this is her seat to win.

Only hers.

•••

I think what I hate most about politics is I, mostly, get politics. It’s sort of like when I was covering the Major Leagues for Sports Illustrated, and the game started to really s-l-o-w down for me. I could tell whether Pedro Martinez was throwing a fastball or slider. I could read Gary Sheffield’s bat angle. I knew why Chipper Jones played three steps off the bag at third. Weirdly, though, such insight made the game far less fun. Because I could read between the lines. Because the innocence vanished.

In the case of CA-40, everything has started to s-l-o-w down for me. In particular, Esther Kim Varet has slowed down for me. Will she wind up the nominee? Maybe. Will she have the most dough? Almost certainly. Is she tone deaf and ill-suited for this job? Yeah, I believe she is.

Ultimately, though, it will come down to voters. In 2025, have we reached a point where an outsider can purchase a congressional seat while knowing the bare minimum of the people she’s vying to represent? Has the rise of Donald Trump’s wickedness mutated us so profoundly that this is who we are, and this is what we need, and this is the best we can do?

Maybe.

But if so, I mourn for what used to be.

And what we’ve sadly become.