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Former Supervisor and State Senator Janet Nguyen, shown here in happier times, has crashed the AD-72 party!

The big news is that (1) Janet Nguyen is in (the 72nd AD race), (2) Jordan Brandman filed on the last possible day for is out (of the 4th District BOE race) because he’s EVER SO CLEVER (for example, assuring himself that that no one will notice that this ensures that charter-school-loving Tim Shaw will win), (3) pretty much everyone I was getting palpitations about not making it onto the ballot by the end of the last day (like you, Josh Newman!) made it by the time Saturday’s afternoon’s revised ballot came out, (4) Tom Daly does have a Republican opponent in AD-69, and (5) filing in the judicial race to replace Judge Clayton Biggs, which I was told by a wake-up call early Thursday morning would NOT be extended, does appear to have been extended until 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday.

This  means that the piece I wrote about that was unnecessary and incorrect (as well as making me late for work), and someone can still file to run against Tony Ferrentino — who I have not been able to research as to whether he was an ADA involved in the evidence scandal and other misdeeds in the Criminal Division of the DA’s office and the Sheriff’s office, or someone not in a position to know about it, or someone who bravely stood up against it.

UPDATE: No one ran against Ferrentino, so congratulations to the Judge-Elect.

(I honestly do not know which it is, but I do know that it would be damned irresponsible not to ask!)

Let’s go to the final scores: 

UPDATED THROUGH 12/22!

It’s that time of the quadrennium again: not only are people about to lock themselves into running for federal and state offices, but also into running to run for the elected seats on the parties’ Central Committees (OC’s main ones being the DPOC and the recently rechristened RPOC.)  We’ll focus only on the former today.  [Note that the San Bernardino Registrar of Voters page seems to have taken a turn for the worse, so I don’t know if there are any additional candidates from Chino Hills in CA-39, SD-29, or AD-55 — but generally there aren’t, and if there are they aren’t likely to be competitive.]

Katie Porter, Cottie Petrie-Norris, and Thu-Ha Nguyen lookin’ good for March 3!

Before getting down to business: if you’re a good progressive Dem who can stand up to the political establishment, you already have a lot of good people to vote for [IN THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE RACES – Vern.]  Without naming them, here’s my count to help you decide whether to run yourself, with the deadline to turn in signatures at the Registrar’s office in Santa Ana being this Friday at 5:00:

For those unfamiliar with our procedures here, we color-code day-to-day changes to help people keep track of new developments.  Monday’s new developments are posted in red, Tuesday’s are in amber, Wednesday’s are in green, Thursday’s are in blue, and Friday’s are in purple.  (This, while appearing on Sunday, is filling the role of Friday.)  I think that late filings when eligible incumbents don’t run are in magenta, with the Secretary of State’s final additions in brown,  but there aren’t many of those so it’s won’t be too confusing.)

CONGRESS!

CA-38

Democratic incumbent (and dark horse Vice-Presidential nominee) Linda Sanchez has one competitor for this seat, a Democratic Whitter resident named Michael Tolar.  This will be extremely unexciting!

Linda has filed in Los Angeles, so she’s on the ballot. A Republican and a Democrat have taken out papers in LA, but neither has filed.  So unless anyone wants to close it off, she’ll probably face one or more write-in candidates in March and whoever finishes second to her faces her in November.

Any resident in the state of California can file a write-in campaign to run against her. It will not likely matter.  We may not cover this one much.

CA-39

FINAL: Gil Cisneros and Young Kim are joined by Chino NPP Steve Cox in what (in November will be) a 1-on-1 rematch.  Cox is from out of the district, unless he is in Chino Hills, but that won’t be his biggest difficulty.

(earlier)

Young Kim is running for Congress again — and Gil Cisneros, the incumbent, has finally taken out papers.  If you appreciate his running you can give him a little money to thank him for trying to hold a difficult seat.

Young Kim is already on the ballot.  Gil has his papers, but still hasn’t filed them.  (In DC, I’d guess.)  He needs to submit his ballot designation worksheet — this should not be hard for an incumbent! — and he hasn’t filed the nomination papers that were issued (which is not the path most candidates for Congress take.)  He also hasn’t filed a candidate statement — which was giving me flashbacks to Joe Dunn’s failure to do so in his race against Lou Correa based on some crackpot theory his adviser had — but then I realized that Gil doesn’t actually need a candidate statement in March, as he’ll make the runoff regardless.  Let Young Kim spent all of her money on one in each of the three counties!  And if the March results aren’t good for him, he can blame that on the omitted statement, a defect that he’ll fix by June.  However, if he doesn’t file by Friday after all, I’ve figured out at least one person who could file next week, run here, and beat Young Kim — and it’s not one of the names I have crossed out below.  Stay tuned.

Gil seems to have done everything necessary to get onto the ballot, though he’s not listed as such.  Steve Cox, an NPP, filed in LA and has filed a candidate statement here in OC.  Gil did finally file a candidate statement in OC.

CA-45

Finale: Democratic incumbent Katie Porter will face SIX! [6!] Republicans — four serious (Mayor of Mission Viejo) Greg Raths, “Deputy Attorney General” Peggy Huang, Laguna Hills Mayor Don Sedgwick, and OCBOE member Lisa Sparks , as well as Christopher Gonzales and Rhonda Furin.

Katie Porter — who by my calculations is the best Vice-Presidential candidate for either Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren — is running for re-election here.  Two other Democrats in the race, Aditya Pai and Mark Schuk, took out papers but didn’t file.

Porter will be fighting against six [6] [SIX!] Republicans for the seat: Greg Raths, Peggy Huang, Don Sedgwick, Lisa Sparks, Christopher Gonzales, and Rhonda Furin.  You can read their titles (and the questionable nature of Huang’s — which one call to the State Attorney General’s office should resolve) below — as well as my suggestion that the Democrats run a second viable-seeming Democrat to close off the race in March and save the money that would otherwise be spent to elect Katie for other races.  Perhaps AD-68 is too contentious for that.  Bad move, regardless.

OLD STUFF: Any of three Republicans could give her a good fight, though: “Retired Marine Colonel” (and Mayor of Mission Viejo) Greg Raths, “Deputy Attorney General” Peggy Huang, Laguna Hills Mayor Don Sedgwick.  A fourth, OCBOE member Lisa Sparks could as well — but she hasn’t yet qualified. I doubted here that Raths’s original ballot designation of “Decorated Combat Marine” was permissible, unless he is currently making money from being decorated in combat — and whether he was clued in here or elsewhere, Raths apparently agreed.  I was shocked to see Huang listed as a Deputy Attorney General (at least within California, under AG Xavier Becerra.)  All I can say is that I searched the AG’s website just now and could not find any reference to a Peggy, or to any Huang as a Deputy AG.  I’ll try again, but if she but that on there under oath and it’s wrong, well….

Two other Republicans, Christopher Gonzales and Rhonda Furin, probably could not give Katie a good fight, but while they are on the ballot they won’t likely make it to November.

WED. UPDATE: Huang, Raths , Pai, and Gonzalez are on the ballot.  Sedgwick and Furin are almost on the ballot.  Sparks paid her fee and then nothing; Schuck hasn’t even done that.  You know who isn’t on the ballot?  Katie Porter, who has paid her fee and done nothing else.  I know that she’s been busy in DC, and I presume that she’ll be back here on Friday, but there’s just no excuse for leaving this until this late.  If Katie locks herself out of the race, we need two and only two serious Democrats running, who,against four or five Republicans can probably lock the GOP out of the race.  (Someone would need to find out whether Pai can run a viable campaign.)

THURS. UPDATE:  Katie still hasn’t completed her filing, so unless she does so by Friday at 5 she is barred from the race.  In that event filing extends until next Wednesday at 5 (and will surely attract some Democrats.)  But that would be immensely weird.   For Democrats not to have two strong candidates on the ballot against four strong Republicans — so that the party wins the election in March — is nuts.  If Katie’s NOT on the ballot and they don’t do it, it’s doubly nuts.

CA-46

The race here is between two Democrats: incumbent Lou Correa and newcomer Pablo Mendiolea, who has been picking up a lot of support among the reform sectors of the party.  Pablo’s first task is to get by one Republican, James Waters, and two NPP candidates:  Will Johnson and Ed Rushman.  Pablo has a decent shot at making the runoff against Correa, who — lest we forget — was censured by the Democratic Party last year for endorsing the Republican candidates for Sheriff and District Attorney.  Pablo does not have a candidate statement — while Waters and Rushman do — but should have a lot of nice endorsements from the Democratic wing of … you know.

OLD STUFF:  WED. UPDATE: God give me strength.  Lou Correa isn’t yet on the ballot, which is fine with me, but Democrat Pablo Mendiolea hasn’t made any moves towards getting his name on.  Anyone who knows whether he’s going through with his challenge, let me know.  In fact, NO ONE is on this race’s ballot yet, although Waters, Johnson, and Rushman are close.  (UPDATE TO UPDATE: Pablo says that he will be filing today or tomorrow.  He seems to want people to donate to his campaign, so there you go!)

THURS. UPDATE: Lou is now on the ballot.  Pablo filed a bunch of papers today, but will have to tie the ribbon on the box tomorrow.  From the looks of his filing status, he’s trying to figure out how much of a candidate statement he can afford.  An e-statement is not too pricey, and will get picked up by the newspapers, but it’s nice to be in the booklet sent out to voters.  Nice, but in this situation not absolutely essential.  If you want to make Pablo’s decision easier, he has a campaign website and you can figure out how to reach him with a big check!  Republican Waters and NPP Rushman have now both qualified for the ballot as well.)

CA-47

Worthy incumbent Alan Lowenthal is from the Los Angeles half of this district.  (He’s not listed as being on the OC ballot, but as I recall he automatically is.)  A second Dem, Peter Mathews, is also running, as is a third, Jalen Dupree McLeod, AND a fourth, Julian Soto.  (Soto is listed as being from Lake Elsinore, which is not in LA County, so his filing may be challenged.)   So are three OC Republicans: John Briscoe, Sou Moua, and Amy Phan West.  That’s a lot of people.

OLD STUFF: WED. UPDATE:  Moua is on the vallot, Briscoe is on the verge, and I’m going to presume that Lowenthal is ok on the LA side, though I hope he buys a candidate statement here in OC.  West and Mathews look moribund for now.

THURS. UPDATE: Lowenthal, Mathews, and Democrat Jalen Dupree McLeod, are all on the ballor from Los Angeles; Republicans Moua and Phan West are both on the ballot through OC; 

CA-48

Incumbent Harley Rouda will face five challengers, none of them a Democrat.  Richard Mata is an American Independent; the four Republicans are Michelle Steel, Brian Burley, Christopher Engels, James Brian Griffin, and John Thomas Schuesler.  All have normal candidate statements except for Griffin and Mata, who have e-statements.  Rouda will make the runoff; as the only woman, Steel could hardly ask for a better draw among the competitors.

OLD STUFF: Incumbent Harley Rouda has filed for reelection in a race against fellow Democrat Gary Sanchez, the AIP’s Richard Mata and seven Republicans, the headliner among whom is Michelle Steel.  Also from the GOP: Brian Burley, Christopher Engels, James Brian Griffin, Tami Le Murillo, Shastina Sandman, and John Thomas Schuesler.  Hey, if they can split the vote far enough to put Steel behind Sanchez or Mata for the second ticket to the general election, more power to them!

WED. UPDATE:  Harley is on the ballot, along with Steel. Griffin, and Schuesler.  If the latter two were Steel’s equal it would be worth running a second Democrat to lock Republicans out of the race — but they aren’t.  Mata has almost made it, Burley is closing in, Engels has done almost nothing, and Murillo, Sanchez, and Sandman have done literally nothing at the ROV since they filed.

THURS. UPDATE: Still Democrat Rouda against Republicans Steel, Griffin, Schuesler, and now American Independent Mata.  Harley’s definite for November and Steel very likely.

CA-49

Not-as-bad-as-expected Democratic incumbent Mike Levin is facing a challenge from, so far, only Republican Brian Maryott.  Someone named Nadia Smalley seems to be in the process of filing in San Diego.

OLD STUFF: WED. UPDATE:  Levin and Maryott are both on the ballot.  I don’t feel like looking up San Diego.

THURS. UPDATE: See Wednesday update.

LEGISLATURE!

Senate District 29

Should-be incumbent Josh Newman is joined on the ballot by fellow Dem Joseph Cho. Usurper incumbent Ling-Ling Chang is not only not currently listed on the OC ballot, she is also not currently listed on the LA ballot as well!  (My current guess is that Ling-Ling filed late in the day in LA and that LA, unlike OC, has not yet update its final candidate listing.  If Ling-Ling’s really out and not replaced by a Republican, this becomes a major story.)  Cho has a candidate statement and Josh does not, but Josh has a bear suit, a blimp, cutout figures, top-flight endorsements, and gobs of good will.  Making Cho pay that much more for his own statement might just be a good move.

OLD STUFF:  Serial liar Ling-Ling Chang, who took over Josh Newman’s seat in Carl DeMaio’s recall, has not yet filed for re-election, but probably will not yet paid her fees. If she doesn’t complete filing, filing the seat opens for three more workdays.  Newman has already filed and paid his fees — and will do far better in an election with a full (and active) electorate than in a paltry populated recall election.  Joseph Cho was one of two Democrats (there may have been more) who ran to replace Newman in the recall, thus helping to confuse things enough for it to pass, and he is on everyone’s shit list and just doesn’t know it yet.  If he scores in more than double-figures it will be a shame.  (The other such Democrat, Stanton’s Kevin Carr, is now a Republican.)  A fourth candidate — George Shen, of the City of Industry — has also taken out papers in LA.

WED. UPDATE:  Newman is not yet on the ballot.  Cho has paid his fees but hasn’t done anything else.  Chang has … done absolutely nothing.  (Maybe she remembered that she’s a serial liar.)  Newman had better hope that someone else does file against him so he doesn’t have to face some weird write-in.

THURS. UPDATE: Newman may be making up his mind about a candidate statement.  Not having one means that Chang and Cho, who both filed in LA on Wednesday, have to pay more for their statements.  I presume that Josh will be finishing his filing tomorrow.

Senate District 37

Incumbent Republican John Moorlach will be joined on the ballot by Katrina Foley and Dave Min, who are described below.  Even if Moorlach gets 50% in the primary, one of the other two still makes it to the runoff, with its even more Democratic-leaning turnout.

OLD STUFF:  John Moorlach, Vern’s humorous libertarian buddy, is running for reelection.  Democrats have a nasty race evolving between former Katie Porter nemesis Dave Min and former (probably continuing, but I haven’t been following Costa Mesa’s City Council) Sandy Genis nemesis Katrina Foley.  I’ll give Min the chance to answer the accusations made against him that led me to call for no endorsement at the CDP convention last year, when now-disgraced then-Chair Eric Bauman pretended not to hear me, and I’ll give Foley the chance to rebut my complaints that she drove Genis away from the Democrat-dominated majority coalition.  I’ll probably ask Moorlach whether we really need two Republican State Senators with beachfront districts.  (On the other hand, we only have one Democratic State Senator on the State’s Eastern Border.)

WED. UPDATE:  Moorlach’s just about on the ballot.  Min has paid his fees and not done anything else.  Foley has … not even paid her fees.  WTF?  Why are so many people who we know are running waiting until the last day to file their papers?  Why are these people trying to kill me?

THURS. UPDATE: Moorlach is now on the ballot.  Foley and Min are both not quite, though I can’t actually figure out what Foley is missing.  No one is filing a candidate statement so far, which is sort of interesting.

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 55

The uppermost of OC’s seven Assembly Districts, it’s only tri-county one, is represented by Republican Phillip Chen, who will be challenged by Walnut Mayor Andrew Rodriguez, a Democrat.  Michelle Hamilton — a DPOC member appointed to replace me on that august body — also filed in LA on the last day.  All I can say is that if Hamilton resides in OC (as would have had to be the case if she got a DPOC appointment), then as I understand it she had to file in OC rather than LA, so she may not be on the ballot for long.  (Contact a lawyer before you do something this clever, folks.)

OLD STUFF:  WED. UPDATE:  Chen is on the ballot.  I believe that Rodriguez is on the ballot in LA County — or at least will be.

THURS. UPDATE: Incumbent Phillip Chen is on the ballot from OC.  Andrew Rodriguez is on the ballot in LA,  They’re joined by Margaret  Hamilton (who I believe is a Democrat) in OC, who paid her fees Thursday but has not filed all of her papers.

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 65

Incumbent Sharon Quirk-Silva is up against Cynthia Thacker.  Neither of them bought a candidate statement, which was the right move, but favors the better-known incumbent.  I don’t recall whether Sharon has ever won a primary, though she’s only lost once in November, but she should win this one.

OLD NEWS: Incumbent Democrat Sharon Quirk-Silva’s only opponent on the board right now is a fellow Democrat, Param Brar.  Presumably, she’ll have a Republican opponent next fall, and — given the large Democratic turnout expected for President in this suburban district — she will presumably win.  [Update 12/2: As things stand, that Republican will be Republican will be Cynthia Thacker, and Sharon will still win.]

WED. UPDATE:  Sharon is on the ballot.  Brar as done nothing.  Thacker has paid her fee, filed one form — and done nothing more.

THURS. UPDATE: Sharon is on the ballot.  Thacker is not as yet, though she looks to be on course.  Brar does not appear likely to file.

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 68

Fox, Yu, Fields, and Choi have all made the ballot: Yu on Friday and Fields and Choi in Saturday’s overtime.  Interestingly, Fox was the only one not to file a candidate statement.

OLD STUFF: This one sets up two Democrats against two Republicans, with one officeholder and one non-officeholder in each party.  The officeholders are Republican incumbent (and former Irvine Mayor) Steven Choi and current Democratic Irvine Councilwoman Melissa Fox.  The newcomers are Republican Benjamin Yu and Democrat Eugene Fields.

WED. UPDATE:  Melissa Fox is on the ballot.  Choi is almost on.  Yu is maybe a step behind.  Fields has paid his fees and filed nothing.

THURS. UPDATE: Only Fox is on the ballot, but incumbent Choi seems certain to finish.  Yu filed a bunch on Tuesday and Fields did so on Wednesday, but neither are as yet qualified.

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 69

This is the most liberal Assembly District in Orange County, currently held by the most conservative Democratic Assembly member in the state, Tom Daly.  Like Lou Correa in the overlapping Congressional seat, he was also censured by the DPOC last year.  One Republican, Jon Paul White, is also in the race.  I expect these numbers to grow, at least on the blue side.

But … they did not.  Daly has the perfect situation — only one opponent, an unknown Republican without even a ballot designation — which means that not even a Democratic write-in candidate can make the runoff and possibly dislodge him.  Is White a Daly plant?  Either way, well-played, Daly.

WED. UPDATE:  Daly has paid his fee and filed nothing.  Same for White.  Chavez has done nothing.

THURS. UPDATE: Incumbent Daly has done almost everything he needs to qualify.  The second Democrat, Chavez, has still done nothing.  White, the Republican, has paid his fee but not filed anything else.  Daly could be the only one to have filed tomorrow afternoon.

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 72

Here there is news!  This was looking like famously corrupt Republican incumbent Tyler Diep against Democratic Garden Grove City Council Member “Diedre” Thu-Ha Nguyen.  That was going to be interesting enough.  Now even more famously corrupt former Supervisor and State Senator Janet Nguyen has swooped in at the last moment to enter the race as well.  Nice secret-keeping there!  She’s there either (1) to beat Diep outright or (2) to ensure that the other female Nguyen doesn’t make the runoff, so that Diep will win.  (Anyone who bets on the latter should ask for huge odds.)  If there’s a Diep-Janet runoff, this publication will either (1) try not to think about the race at all or (2) try to ensure that each Republican has to spend as much money as possible — while perhaps taking steps to see if one or both of them can be caught committing voter fraud.  (And anyone who bets on the former should ask for huge odds.)

OLD NEWS: This is where famously corrupt Republican Tyler Diep beat Josh Lowenthal last cycle.  Democrat “Diedre” Thu-Ha Nguyen, currently on the Garden Grove City Council, is running this year, as is Democrat Bijan Mohseni.  No idea here whether Josh will run again this year, for this or something else.

WED. UPDATE:  Diep and Nguyen are on the ballot.  Mohseni has paid the fee, but filed nothing and might as well keep it that way.

THURS. UPDATE: This looks like it will be Tyler Diep against Diedre Nguyen.  Can’t wait!  Take notes on the atrocities so that we can get them to the DA and FPPC!

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 73

Brough and Rhinehart will have a rematch, joined by Duncan, Daies, and Sachs.  With two Mayors in the race against the (disgraced, but still incumbent) Brough, there is a real possibility that two Republicans make the runoff here.

OLD NEWS: Republican and accused serial sexual assault perpetrator Bill Brough is seeking reelection to the southernmost Assembly District, despite his party trying to cut him loose.  Other Republicans on the ballot are Laguna Niguel Mayor Laurie Davies, Melanie Eustace and Mission Viejo Councilman Ed Sachs.  Democrats Chris Duncan, Jeffrey Kitchen, and 2018 runoff nominee Scott Rhinehart, along with NPP Richard Jackson, round out the field for now.

WED. UPDATE:  Brough, Rhinehart, and Davies are on the ballot.  Sachs is so close to being on the ballot — and has been for a week now — that I can’t figure out what the hold-up is.  Kitchen, Eustace, and Jackson have disappeared.  Duncan paid his fee and then disappeared.  Maybe some of them will reappear.

THURS. UPDATE: Looks like Republicans Brough, Davies, and (as of Thursday) Sachs are on the ballot along with Rhinehart.

ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 74

Both Republican challengers ultimately got onto the ballot against Cottie.  So long as she gets 33.4% in the primary, she’s on to the runoff.  She has no candidate statement, so she seems pretty confident about that.

OLD NEWS: Democratic incumbent Cottie Petrie-Norris has already qualified for the ballot, while Republicans Diane Dixon and Kelly Ernby are in process.  Finally, a race that looks somewhat normal!

WED. UPDATE:  Petrie-Norris is on the ballot.  Dixon and Ernby have both paid their fee and filed no other paperwork since.

THURS. UPDATE:   It looks like this will be just Cottie vs. Ernby.

JUDGES

Office #4, replacing Judge Carlton Biggs, is the only one who has a contender — but (despite what I was told in an early Thursday morning wake-up call) the race is reopened for anyone who files by Wednesday at 5;00.  The sole current candidate is ADA Tony Ferrentino, who has lived through some interesting times under Tony Rackauckas’s leadership.  UPDATE: And as noted above, no one filed against Ferrentino, so he’s in.

OLD STUFF: It seems like every year some Superior Judge gets challenged for one of two reasons: either simple bad luck or they’ve done something to deserve it.  It looked like Judge Sherry Honer was going to face bad luck this year, but her opponent withdrew.  Judge Sandy Leal is being challenged by Robert Keenan, and offhand I have no idea why.  None of the names I saw on this year’s list set me off.

10/3: There’s an ADA named Tony Ferrentino running for the spot now held by Judge Carlton Biggs, who has not taken out papers.  Anyone who has information about ADA Ferrentino, please let us know!  Is he a Racky type?  So far as I know, Judge Biggs is alive and eligible to run for re-election, so if he’s retiring this seat will reopen for three workdays after Friday.

WED. UPDATE:  Nothing has happened with Judges except that Judge Honer has filled out a candidate statement and paid a fee, etc.. which looks like it will probably be unnecessary.

THURS. UPDATE: Carlton Biggs is not running for Office 4, despite being eligible, so this one will remain open until Wednesday at 5 — and if no one challenged Ferrentino than he walks into judicial robes without a scratch.

OCBOE

District 1

Incumbent Beckie Gomez has two opponents this year: Jim Palmer and Steve Rocco.  Given that she’s the incumbent and it’s a “plurality wins” race, Rocco’s being in this race actually helps her, because he’s not taking away votes from the incumbent.

OLD STUFF:  WED. UPDATE:  Palmer is on the ballot.  Rocco has done most of what he’d needed to do to get on the ballot.  Gomez only picked up her papers over the past couple of days.  What’s wrong with this picture?

THURS. UPDATE: Rocco and Palmer are both on the ballot.  Incumbent Gomez looks like she has done everything she needs to do to get on.  If she doesn’t make it, then it reopens and one hopes that someone good will run instead, though not as much as one hopes that she does make it!

District 3

Disgusting incumbent Ken L. Williams is challenged by Democrat Andy Thorburn.  I suspect that even Republicans would like to get rid of Williams as much as Democrats want to elect Thorburn — that is, a lot.

WED. UPDATE:  Williams is on the ballot.  Thorburn is almost on the ballot.  Harrington has not filed anything.

THURS. UPDATE:  Williams and Thorburn are both on the ballot.  Harrington looks unlikely to join them.

District 4

This race will apparently come down to La Habra’s Tim Shaw against Fullerton’s Paulette Chaffee.  Vicki Calhoun is currently listed on the ballot, though Vern has reported that she has withdrawn, and Chaffee might want to go to court to see if she can be removed — because her votes are not coming from Shaw.

OLD STUFF: Reasonable Fullerton Republican Dr. Jack Bedell is retiring from this seat.  One Republican is running, former La Habra Mayor Tim Shaw, and three Democrats will fight it out: perennial candidate Vicki Calhoun, Paulette Chaffee (whose husband beat out Shaw for the Supervisor position), and Jordan Brandman, who failed to get the DPOC endorsement last week.  As I mentioned, this is a plurality wins position, so with this field Shaw probably has it in the bag.  That’s one switch on the Board to supporting charter schools, but the expected switch in District 3 will counter that.

WED. UPDATE:  Shaw and Chaffee are both on the ballot.  Calhoun looks like she’s filed everything that the others have, so should soon join them.  Brandman has had papers issued, but has filed only one optional paper — but all of his activity occurred yesterday, so he’s probably in.

THURS. UPDATE: Republican Shaw will share the ballot with Paulettte Chaffee, at a minimum.  Vicky Calhoun has also qualified, but Vern reports that she’s dropping out due to very sad family circumstances.  The fourth person to take out papers in Jordan Brandman, who was issued papers on Wednesday.  If Vicki is out, then I think he might try it; if not, I suspect that he’ll run for something else.  (I’ll tell Vern my guess.)

SUPERVISOR

District 1

Nothing has changed here: all four of the non-Rocco candidates will be on the ballot.

OLD STUFF: As it stands, Republican incumbent Andrew Do will face Democrats Sergio Contreras, Miguel Pulido, Kim Bernice Nguyen, and Steve Rocco.  As bad of a Supervisor and Do is, and as Rocco would be, Pulido would be even worse.  We’ll see whether Contreras or Nguyen is better able to put up a fight.  One problem I have — and maybe Vern can verify or falsify this — is that Kim Nguyen is the same Kim Nguyen as we covered at the time of Garden Grove Districting, in which event she’s Lou Correa’s catspaw.  If so, nerts to that!

WED. UPDATE:  Do and Pulido — does that strike anyone else as sounding like “Gog and Magog”? — are both on the ballot.  Contreras still needs to file his ballot designation and candidate statement.  Nguyen is lacking only the candidate statement.  Rocco shows no sign of entering this race.

THURS. UPDATE: Do, Pulido, and Nguyen are all on the ballot.  Contreras looks like he will make it, and thank heaven for that.

District 3

It will be Ashleigh Aitken vs. incumbent Don Wagner, which should be quite a nice fight.

OLD NEWS: This is the District that Don Wagner ran to because he apparently wasn’t enjoying life in the minority in Sacramento.  He’s the incumbent and, if you didn’t know, a Republican.  The question is which Democratic woman is going to run against him: Ashleigh Aitken or (once again) Loretta Sanchez.

VERN NOTE: IT’S ASHLEIGH, LORETTA DROPPED OUT!

GREG NOTE: SO TELL ASHLEIGH TO FREAKIN’ FILE ALREADY!

Both have taken out papers but haven’t yet filed a thing.  As I recall, if Wagner (or the sole women running against him) gets a majority in the primary, it’s over.

Ashleigh and Wagner are both in; Loretta, as suggested above, is out.  Barring a write-in campaign or a tie, this will be decided in March.

CENTRAL COMMITTEE DELEGATES

You can skip down to the blue part for now.  I’ll first write only about Democrats, and the section on them will become much more developed later, probably in its own piece.  It will include which Republicans to avoid:

OLD STUFF: After that we have only the Party County Committee delegate positions left.  That’s a whole different kettle of fish, which we’ll get to tomorrow or so.  I may first post something, though, explaining where we need more lefty reformers to run!

The only other person new on the boards today besides Gil and Ms. Thacker is Karina Onofre, who is running for a RPOC seat from the 69th AD.  I think that Democrats were unnecessarily mean to her, so I wish her luck in trying to get her old/new party to be more tolerant — or dare I dream, even supportive? — of Latinos.  That would be a noble cause.

The real question for Friday — I can’t recall whether these go into extensions, but let’s presume that they don’t [UPDATE: CONFIRMED THAT THEY DON’T!] — is whether there are already six viable people worth voting for.  So that’s all I’m going to focus on.  I’m looking only at Democratic races for now.

AD-55:  I don’t know some of the candidates (though I will!), but I think that there’s room for 1 or maybe 2 more, but we could make do with this present lineup.  Only 5 of the 9 have qualified; some of the others had better get on it!  Lourdes Cruz, I’m looking at you!

AD-65: Don’t join this race Friday unless you’re spectacular.  10 of 13 have qualified.  I count at least 9 here that are worthwhile — though Marisol Ramirez hasn’t yet qualified, so get on with that! — and 2-3 that are much to be avoided.  We’ll look at cross-endorsements and slates as a means of whittling it down.

AD-68: No need to add your name; there are at least 9 good ones here and several others to avoid.  11 of the 21 have qualified.  I see 4-6 of those 11 are good.  If Nathaniel Fernandez Epstein qualifies, that will pretty much settle things.  Lots of bad names on this list too, though.

AD-69:  21 people have taken out papers.  Only 2 — 2! — have qualified!  (I don’t know anything about the those two: Thai Viet Phan and Ariana Arestegui,)

AD-72: Only 6 of 13 here have qualified.  At least have of them are decent, but …  Victor, Oscar, Karen — what’s up?

AD-73: 9 of 12 have qualified, and only 4-1/2 of them are good.  The others are very bad.  Let me be blunt: if you live in AS-73 and you are an activist favoring Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, at least 3 of you need to get into this race!

AD-74: 9 of 20 have qualified.  At least 6 of them are good, and Iyad and Samila haven’t yet qualified.  So some good people are going to have to be alternates — if at least four of the good ones are elected!

(By the way: the word “good” in this section does not speak to candidates’ moral character or other similar qualities.  It just means “good” for this position, if you want to reform the Democratic Party locally, statewide, and even beyond.)