Waldo\u2019s easy. He\u2019s at the bottom right of the page wearing his red-and-white shirt and eating an ice-cream cone while looking at a dancing poodle. A more difficult question is where\u2019s Long Beach Assemblyman Patrick O\u2019Donnell?<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t real breaking news, but we\u2019re all in the darkest days of a pandemic and we\u2019re all asked to make sometimes heartbreaking sacrifices, like not eating inside restaurants, not drinking inside bars, wearing masks all the time, relegating your friends and relatives to Zoom video screens.<\/p>\n
Many of us are cloistered in our homes reading old New Yorkers or playing golf on our smartphones, our spice cabinets having long ago been ordered by a sort of culinary Dewey Decimal System and arranged by region of origin.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, though, when it comes to sacrifice, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, as we\u2019ve seen recently when Gov. Gavin Newsom ignored his own guidance<\/a> in order to attend a birthday party at the French Laundry. I\u2019m not mad at him. A man\u2019s gotta weigh a course of sunny side up quail egg with wild Oregon Chanterelle mushroom, a Marsh Hen Mill polenta and \u201cCr\u00e8me de Champignons<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 against the health of himself and his loved ones.<\/p>\n Similarly, it\u2019s a good guess that Assemblyman O\u2019Donnell is in Maui, which ranks high on the list of places I\u2019d rather be right now.<\/p>\n Maui is the site of the annual four-day Independent Voter Project<\/a>\u2019s policy conference, an event that O\u2019Donnell has attended the past two COVID-free years, and his attendance at what can ungenerously be described as a junket and an opportunity to frolic by the pool and beach while occasionally chatting with a lobbyist over a round of Da Kine Monkey Paws is likely the explanation for his apparent disappearance.<\/p>\n Even so, O\u2019Donnell could attend with no remorse or sense of guilt, because who\u2019s going to fault a state lawmaker for taking a break from the grueling job of doing whatever it is he does on the mainland for a few days at Wailea Beach?<\/p>\n I have no proof that O\u2019Donnell traveled to Maui for the conference other than the fact that I can\u2019t find him. Neither can Politico<\/a> and the Sacramento Bee<\/a> who teamed up to find out who went to Maui for the conference and who didn\u2019t\u2014and who couldn\u2019t be found for a response one way or the other, a camp that O\u2019Donnell is in.<\/p>\n Why the secrecy? It\u2019s the obvious matter of optics. Should he run for, say, mayor of Long Beach, his opponents will likely refer to him as Pineapple Pat or Aloha O’Donnell. Some lawmakers have rationalized the trip as a necessity to learn about how best to reopen businesses, something they want to do in spite of the potential health dangers of lazing on the lanai between workshop sessions. Maybe they\u2019d maintain they would\u2019ve gone to Waco, Texas if it meant helping their constituents, although I haven\u2019t heard anyone saying so.<\/p>\n And all we’ve heard from O\u2019Donnell is dial tones and a profound silence.<\/p>\n Did you call his personal cell number? Yes. No answer. Left a message.<\/p>\n Did you call his office in Sacramento? Yes. \u201cWe don\u2019t comment on the assemblyman\u2019s schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n Did you call his field office in Long Beach? Yes. Was told my info would be passed to the assemblyman and his communications director, and can she ask what the call is about, and she was told I\u2019m just trying to find out where he\u2019s at.<\/p>\n Did you send him a message? Yes. No answer.<\/p>\n