Aitken: OC's Proud Lefty

​Earlier this week, nationally prominent Santa Ana trial lawyer Wylie Aitken stepped down after 17 years as the leader of the Orange County Democratic Foundation and the group voted Dan Jacobson its new chairman. The ultra well-connected Aitken, who considers assassinated U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy his political hero, played a major role in shaping OC history by orchestrating the startling upset election of Loretta Sanchez over longtime Republican Congressman Robert K. Dornan in 1996. But under Aitken's direction the foundation was never able to recruit a serious candidate to challenge the temperamental goof ball of OC's congressional delegation: Dana Rohrabacher, our self-styled "surfin' congressman," though credible evidence of his ability to ride a wave on a surfboard appears to be nonexistent. Fifty-year-old Jacobson lives in Tustin, works as a lawyer and teaches at Pacific West College. One of his first missions might be to break the GOP stranglehold over all five county Board of Supervisor seats.

--R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly