Irvine’s Colorful City Council Election

Irvine‘s first election in two decades with neither Larry Agran nor Beth Krom on the ballot has made the city more colorful, but expect the results to be Irvine boring.

Be glad you're not this slate's graphic artist

Be glad you’re not this slate’s graphic artist

Twelve Candidates are running for two spots on the city council

Christine Shea Incumbent and front runner
Melissa Fox Beth Krom’s Agranista replacement
Dale Cheema Independent. Strong base in Woodbridge
Anthony Kuo Running with Shea
Shiva Farivar one-third of last spot on Agran slate.
Farrah Kahn one-third of last spot on Agran slate.
Anila Ali one-third of last spot on Agran slate.
Matthew Ehorn Gang Chen slate
Ian Daelucian Gang Chen slate
Genii Ahn Korean tutor, like Stephen Choi was
Evan Chemers one issue candidate: Traffic!
Courtney Santos Who?

 

Colorful weirdness abounds.

  1. All twelve candidates have yard signs everywhere.  Culver Drive has become a kaleidoscopic environmental art installation of colorful 2′ x 3′ quadroids.
  2. The two usual “Republican” and “Democratic” slates have formed up, but neither slate is publicly together running as a slate thus far. Weird.
  3. The Agranistas have endorsed four candidates for two city council seats. Weirder.
  4. The only slate running as a slate is three first time dudes that don’t seem to have much in common beyond being dudes running for the first time. Weirdos
  5. I have only received one slate mailer thus far. Truly Strange.
  6. Larry Agran’s fake newspaper continues to make its reliable weekly trip directly to Irvine’s recycle bins. There must somebody, somewhere, who finds it informative, but I haven’t been able to find them. Then again, nothing weird about Larry wasting money.

Despite the large field and lack of evident coordination amongst the usual suspects, it’s not really much of race.  Past election results suggest the two winning candidates will each need about 28,000 votes. Christina Shea got 31,776 votes in her last run, and 35,481 votes when she ran for mayor in 2008.  She’s had no major political setback since then, so Christina presumably already has the votes to retain her council seat. Likewise, Melissa Fox only lost by 210 votes in 2014 and is the obvious successor to the still-popular Beth Krom, so Melissa has to be considered the other front runner.

Some pollster seems to agree.  Last week I received an automated poll for Irvine City Council which only gave four choices:  Anthony Kuo, Christina Shea, Dale Cheema, and Melissa Fox.  Dale Cheema is an interesting addition. He started with high name recognition from being a prominent Central Irvine realtor, has served on the board for Irvine’s largest village for years,  nd has been running for over a year now.

Irvine’s council race may seem to be a multi-spectral free-for-all, don’t expect the unexpected:  Christina Shea will retain her seat while Beth Krom passes the “Progressive” mantle to Melissa Fox.

 


About Tyler in Irvine

Twenty Year Irvine Resident. Native Texan and proud Longhorn. Pro-Choice Ron Paul supporter. "Do I contradict myself? ... then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." - Walt Whitman