Orange County Register

Charles Puma, 50, of Orange doesn’t want games from the next 72nd District Assembly member, just someone who won’t increase pensions for government employees.

Puma voted for Republican Chris Norby because he believes that the state can’t continue to fund pensions during this recession and that Norby also holds that belief, he said.

“The pensions fund is going south and now we have to bail them out,” Puma said after voting Tuesday night at the Community Garden Tower, 3919 W. Garden Grove Blvd., in Orange.

Norby strikes a good balance between being one of the crowd of politicians that goes with the flow and being so far out on the fringes that nothing will be accomplished, Puma said.

“(We need) somebody that knows how to play the game a little bit but isn’t going to game us,” he said.

Puma also does not think that Norby’s closest GOP opponent, Linda Ackerman, was really a resident of the 72nd District, he said. Ackerman has been an Irvine resident since 2000 but lived within the district in Fullerton for 30 years prior to that.

“That’s gaming the system,” Puma said. “We don’t need any more of that.”

Puma also contrasted Norby’s experience as a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors to Ackerman’s name recognition from being married to former assemblyman Dick Ackerman.

“She’s Dick Ackerman’s wife, that’s her only claim to fame,” Puma said.

– Daniel Langhorne

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