[Note, 8/17, 11:40: I made all the updates in the non-City races. I expect that the ROV will have its final report tonight, at which point all of those races will be locked and loaded. As for cities: I’ve updated all of what’s there to be updated. Some cities don’t have their information online at all, or at least not updated, which means that I have to call their clerk and have it emailed to me or read out loud to me — and where they don’t indicate which incumbents are up for reelection and whether the race has gone into extension (which I call “overtime” — the absence of that information aggravates the need to do much more research. But cities that are in overtime won’t likely post their final information after hours, so we’d expect that tomorrow — unless they haven’t received eligibility verification from the OCROV, in which event it could be Friday. Or Monday, who knows? Then at that point, it’s all over except the litigation!]

PREFACE: The OC Registrar of Voters Candidate Log now contains all of the non-city races that will be on the autumn ballot, including those from the spring primary.] Note that it says that “*” denotes that an office goes into extension, but they also use “*” to denote at least some offices from the primary (I think it may be ones that cross county lines), which obviously don’t do so. (I’d like to suggest that in the future they use “+” to designate extensions.) Also: LOTS of candidates filed their candidate statements last Friday, 8/12. We’ll get to those in due time. Or not.]

UPDATES

• Sal Tinajero (good) and the Jose Solorio (bad) joined Valerie Amezcua and the Kid in the Santa Ana Mayoral race.
• Natalie Meeks has qualified in Anaheim’s District 6
• Annie S. Warne swooped the last day to qualify for Magnolia School District Area 5 — the ROV’s only last-day filer
• No one ran against Dean Grose — but there may be another way for the Board to reject him. I’ll have to research.
• Kevin Rhee joined the race in Buena Park’s District 1.
• Myoung Soo “Michael” Han did qualify in Buena Park’s District 2.

INTRODUCTION

I’ll start by explaining some terminology. There are basically four levels of interest candidates can express in running for office. at least through the county races (which cover everything but city council and occasionally executive offices.

(1) PINGING. They can express interest through submitting what’s called an online application — which allows them to order forms but does not itself move them along the road towards running.

(2) PULLING. They can pull the papers that they would need to fill out in order to run. Sometimes not all papers are marked as pulled.

(3) FILING. They can file the papers that they will need to file to be able to run. This step is not “all or nothing” — some papers are not mandatory, and mandatory ones may not be turned in all at once.

(4) QUALIFYING. This is where the Registrar of Voters (or the city equivalent) determines that they have completed all of the steps required for them to be on the ballot.

Other terms to know: NOT ON THE SCOREBOARD: has taken no action at all towards filing, usually referrng to incumbents. WALTZING IN is getting elected without opposition, used especially for new, unvetted candidates; for incumbents I try to remember to day “waltz back in.” (And note that cities have some control over whether to allow this; and that write-in campaigns are a thing, although rarely successful.) OVERTIME is the “extension” that begins Friday at 5:01 p.m. through next Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. (or a little later for some cities), during which period interested people can still apply for races where an eligible incumbent did not file for the office. Once we’re in overtime, I may get serious and use the technical term “extension,” which is less fun.

Got all that? Well, then here we go!

OK, let’s start with the OC Registrar of Voters update — school boards, water boards, and special districts — and then move to what we can find of the cities.

Here is the list on Non-City races that the OC ROV declares are in extension:

CONTESTS THAT HAVE HAD THE CANDIDATE FILING EXTENDED:

• Capistrano Unified School District, Trustee Area 4
• Irvine Unified School District, Trustee Area 2
• Laguna Beach Unified School District
• Newport-Mesa Unified School District, Trustee Area 2
• Newport-Mesa Unified School District, Trustee Area 4
• Anaheim Union High School District, Trustee Area 1
• Cypress School District, Trustee Area B
• Fountain Valley School District
• Fullerton School District, Trustee Area 4
• Magnolia School District, Trustee Area 1
• Magnolia School District, Trustee Area 5
• Rossmoor Community Services District
• Silverado-Modjeska Recreation and Park District
• Surfside Colony Storm Water Protection District
• Santa Margarita Water District
• Rossmoor/Los Alamitos Area Sewer District, Full Term
• Rossmoor/Los Alamitos Area Sewer District, Short Term
• Santiago Geologic Hazard Abatement District 

Sadly, no such similar list exists for City races.

EDUCATION

Community College Districts

North Orange County Community College District

Trustee Area 1

Incumbent Barbara Dunsheath and Blaze Bhence have both qualified.

Trustee Area 3

Incumbent Stephen Blount waltzes in.

Trustee Area 6

Incumbent Jeffrey P. Brown and Jessica Rutan have both qualified.

Coast Community College District

Trustee Area 1

Incumbent Jim Moreno and Russel A. Neal II have both qualified.

Trustee Area 5

Appointed incumbent Elizabeth “Liz” Dorn Parker waltzes in — great!

Rancho Santiago Community College District

Trustee Area 2

Incumbent John Hanna and Steve Rocco have both qualified. (Wasted your shot, Steve!)

Trustee Area 4

Eligible incumbent Larry Labrado did not file, Daisy Xuanha Tong has qualified, but this one does go into overtime!

Trustee Area 6

Incumbent Phillip E. “Phil” Yarbrough waltzes in.

South Orange County Community College District

Trustee Area 2

Incumbent Thomas “T.J.” Prendergast, III waltzes in.

Trustee Area 4

Incumbent Terri Whitt Rydell and Derek Reeve have both qualified.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Marcia Milchiker waltzes in.

Trustee Area 6, Short Term

No incumbent, so it goes into overtime. Ryan Dack and Pramod Kunju have both qualified.

Unified School Districts

Brea Olinda Unified School District

Trustee Area 1

Two Board incumbents, Nicole Colon and Carrie Flanders were drawn into the same district; both have qualified and filing has closed.

Trustee Area 4

No incumbent, so this goes into overtime. Chris Becerra and Andrea Dibsy have both qualified for this vacant seat.

Capistrano Unified School District

Trustee Area 2, Short Term

No incumbent, so this goes into overtime. Michael Parham, Jessica Hubbard and Kira Davis have all qualified.

Trustee Area 4

No incumbent, so this goes into overtime. James (Jim) Glantz, Gary Pritchard, and Darin Patel have all qualified.

Trustee Area 6

Incumbent Gila Jones waltzes in.

Trustee Area 7

Incumbent Judy Bullockus and Jeannette Contreres have both qualified.

Garden Grove Unified School District

Trustee Area 2

Incumbent Lan Quoc Nguyen has qualified, as have Mark Anthony Paredes and Nicole James.

Trustee Area 4

Incumbent Bob Harden waltzes in.

Irvine Unified School District

Trustee Area 2

This was formerly Sharon Wallin’s district; it will go into overtime. Debra Hilton Kamm, Katie McEwen, and Marlene Bronson have all qualified.

Trustee Area 4

Ira Glasky was the incumbent here; it will go into overtime. Jeff Kim has qualified and is currently unopposed.

Laguna Beach Unified School District

This will go into overtime. Incumbents James Kelly and Dee Perry both qualified, but Carol Normandin didn’t run. Joan Malczewski has also qualified.

Los Alamitos Unified School District

Trustee Area 1

Incumbent Marlys Davidson and Colin Edwards have both qualified.

Trustee Area 3

Incumbent Diana Hill and Rona Goldberg have both qualified.

Newport-Mesa Unified School District

Trustee Area 2

This goes into overtime because eligible incumbent Charlene Metoyer didn’t run. Danielle Mills and Michelle Murphy have both already qualified.

Trustee Area 4

This goes into overtime because eligible incumbent Karen Yelsey‘s didn’t run. Lisa Pearson, Barbara George, and Kristen Valle have all qualified.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Michelle Barto and Reina Shebesta have both qualified.

Trustee Area 7

Incumbent Ashley Anderson, Vicky Rodriguez, and Kristen Seaburn have all qualified.

Orange Unified School District

Trustee Area 1

Incumbent Andrea Yamasaki and Angela Williams have both qualified.

Trustee Area 4

Incumbent Kathy Moffat and Madison Klovstad Miner have both qualified.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Kris Erickson and Timothy Surridge have both qualified.

Trustee Area 7

Incumbent Rick Ledesma, Mike (My) Nguyen, and Sean Griffin have all qualified.

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District

Trustee Area 4

Incumbent Karin Freeman, Todd Frazier, and Steve Slawson have all qualified.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Carrie Buck and Richard Ingle have both qualified.

Rowland Unified School District

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Donna Freedman has qualified and will waltz in.

Saddleback Valley Unified School District

Trustee Area 1

Incumbent Greg Kunath and Dan Walsh have both qualified.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Barbara Schulman and Jennifer Richter have both qualified.

Santa Ana Unified School District

Trustee Area 4

New lines, no incumbent — but in this case it says no overtime. Katelyn Brazer Aceves, Andrew Linares, and Sylvia Iglesias have all qualified.

Trustee Area 5

New lines, no incumbent — but no overtime. Hector Bustos has qualified and will waltz in.

Tustin Unified School District

Trustee Area 3

Incumbent Lynn Davis and Kelly Felton have both qualified.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Jonathan Abelove has qualified and will waltz in.

Union High School Districts

Anaheim Union High School District

Trustee Area 1

Al Jabbar is the eligible incumbent here but is running for Council instead, so this goes into overtime. Jessica Guerrero, Billie Joe Wright, and Linda Martinez qualified have all already qualified.

Trustee Area 2

Incumbent Annemarie Randle-Trejo has qualified and will waltz in.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Anna L. Piercy has qualified and will waltz in.

Fullerton Joint Union High School District

Trustee Area 1

Incumbent Chester Jeng has qualified and will waltz in.

Trustee Area 4

Incumbent Lauren Klatzker and Matthew Van Hook have both qualified.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Marilyn Buchi has qualified and will waltz in.

Huntington Beach Union High School District

Eight people have qualified in a race for three at-large seats. Incumbents Diana Lee Carey, Bonnie Castrey, and Duane Dishno have all qualified. So have Christine Hernandez, Saul Lankster, Scott Rogers, Matthew Harper, and Angela Salinardi.

Elementary School Districts

Anaheim Elementary School District

Trustee Area 2

Incumbent Juan Gabriel Alvarez has qualified and will waltz in.

Trustee Area 4

Incumbent Mark A. Lopez qualified and will waltz in.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Ryan Ruelas has qualified and will waltz in.

Buena Park School District

Trustee Area 1

Incumbent Rhodia Shead has qualified and will waltz in.

Trustee Area 2

Incumbent Jason Chong has qualified and will waltz in.

Trustee Area 4, Short Term

No incumbent, so this goes into overtime. Brenda Estrada and Ralph Lefeber have both qualified.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Jerry Frutos has qualified and will waltz in.

Centralia School District

Trustee Area 1

Incumbent Henry Charoen, Adan Guzman and Robert Alexander have all qualified.

Trustee Area 2

Incumbent Art Montez has qualified and will waltz in.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Luis “Jerry” Flores has qualified and will waltz in.

Cypress School District

Trustee Area B

Eligible incumbent Bonnie Peat did not run, so this goes into overtime. Jon Peat and Troy Tanaka have already qualified.

Trustee Area C

Incumbent Sandra Lee and Kyle Chang have both qualified.

Trustee Area D

Incumbent Lydia Sondhi has qualified and will waltz in.

Fountain Valley School District

Six candidates have qualified for three seats. This going into overtime, as Sandra Crandall was the only incumbent who even filed to run for re-election in July. (Jim Cunneen and Lisa Schultz are the departing eligible incumbents.) Crandall, Megan Irvine, Eileen Maeda, Trisha Rintoul, Dennis Cole, and our old friend Phu Nguyen have all qualified so far.

Fullerton School District

Trustee Area 1

Incumbent Aaruni Thakur gets to waltz in. Congratulations!

Trustee Area 3

Incumbent Beverly Berryman will waltz in.

Trustee Area 4

Eligible incumbent Janny Mayer did not file, so this will go into overtime. Ruthi Hanchett, Rudy Garcia, and Lisa Wozab have all qualified so far.

Huntington Beach City School District

Trustee Area 2

Eligible incumbent Shari Kowalke did not file, so this goes into overtime. Meghan Willis has qualified and Quinn Stahl has pulled papers only, so Willis may yet waltz into office Wednesday evening.

Trustee Area 4

Incumbent Diana Marks qualified in July and will face Autumn DiGiovanni.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Paul Morrow qualified in July and will face Julie Norton.

La Habra City School District

Two incumbents for three spots; five are running, four have qualified.

Incumbents Adam Rogers, Emily Pruitt, and Cynthia Aguirre (who was mistakenly not listed as one earlier) all qualified in July. Their challengers are Joshua Atwater and late-charging Rocio Carmona.

Lowell Joint School District

Trustee Area 2

William Hinz had been the incumbent, though it is now listed as Vacant, and whether from his inaction or the vacancy this will go into overtime. Kathi Lundstrom and Christine Berg have both already qualified.

Trustee Area 4

Incumbent Karen Shaw and Esther Evangelista have both qualified.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Anastasia Shackelford has qualified and will waltz in.

Magnolia School District

Trustee Area 1

This is on the list of upcoming elections, but doesn’t appear on the Candidate Log. Presuming that it was indeed open for filing this year, it will presumably be filled by the other Board members.

Trustee Area 2

Incumbent Connie Martin qualified and will waltz in.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Gary Shields did not file. This is not marked as going into overtime, but it is listed as going into overtime — and nurse Annie S. Warne became the only candidate to file for a non-city race on the last day!

Ocean View School District

Three at-large seats are open, five candidates qualified.

Incumbents are Jack Souders, Patricia Singer, and John Briscoe have qualified. Briscoe qualified in July; Sounders and Singer both qualified on Wednesday. Dan Pierce and Morgan Westmoreland, have as well.

Savanna School District

Trustee Area 1

Appointed incumbent Gay Zambrano will waltz into elected status.

Trustee Area 2

No incumbent listed is listed, so the race remains open. Joyce Burdette and Elizabeth Winkler have both already qualified.

Trustee Area 3

Incumbent John Shook qualified and will waltz in.

Westminster School District

Trustee Area 2

Appointed incumbent Tina Gustin-Gurney will waltz into elected status.

Trustee Area 3

Incumbent Khanh Nguyen qualified and will waltz in.

Trustee Area 5

Incumbent Jeremy Khalaf qualified and will waltz in.

SPECIAL DISTRICT CONTESTS

Community Services Districts

Capistrano Bay Community Services District

Three seats. Incumbents Felicia Lurner, Ross Misher and Patrick Mc Nulty will all waltz back into office..

Emerald Bay Service District

Three seats. Incumbents John A McDermott, Susan R Thomas and Jim Flynn will all waltz back into office.

Rossmoor Community Services District

Two seats, four qualified. This race in Jeffrey “I’ll just shoot the coronavirus” Barke’s long-suffering district went into overtime. Incumbent Jeffrey Rips qualified, but Mark Nitikman did not file. And now … I smell slates! But I don’t know who is where. The challengers are Carol Churchill, Michael Maynard, and Jo Shade.

Surfside Colony Community Services District

Four seats. Incumbents Linda Garofalo, Paul Mesmer, Gayle Winnen, and Tara Amundson all qualified — and no one else did! So we may see some synchronized waltzing here!

Three Arch Bay Community Services District

Two seats. Incumbents Tim Hamchuk and Peter Barker have qualified and will waltz in.

Serrano Water District

Why is the Serrano Water District classified with Community Services Districts rather than other water districts? It’s because … I don’t know.

Division 1

Incumbent Brad Reese has qualified and will waltz back in.

Division 4

Incumbent Frank Bryant and challenger Diana Fascenelli have qualified.

Silverado-Modjeska Recreation and Park District

Three at-large seats. Incumbent Jessie Bullis qualified but incumbents Kevin Topp and Isabell Mayer Kerins did not file. Five challengers qualified: Brittney Kuhn, John Nelson, Ted Wright , Andrew Ward and Laurie Martz. I remember when this Board went begging for candidates; I suspect something’s simmering in Silverado.

Costa Mesa Sanitary District

Speaking of smelling some slates:

Division 1

Incumbent (and not the Board of Equalization candidate) Mike Scheafer will face Michael Andrew Seiden.

Division 3

Incumbent Bob Ooten will face John Mourani.

Division 5

Incumbent Arlene Schaefer will face Dean Howard.

Midway City Sanitary District

Three available seats. Incumbents Mark Nguyen, Andrew Nguyen, and Sergio Contreras all qualified, but this is still listed as going into overtime, for reasons I don’t understand. They’ll face two challengers: Ashton Kauwe and Jason Gray. (Amy Phan West filed too, but withdrew!)

Sunset Beach Sanitary District

Incumbent Bernard Hartmann has qualified and will waltz in.

Surfside Colony Storm Water Protection District

Incumbent Henry Viets has qualified, but incumbent Don Karich did not file. Challenger Eric Springer was his only opponent, so both will waltz in.

Water Districts

El Toro Water District

Two open seats. Incumbents Karen Freshley and Michael Gaskins will waltz back in..

Irvine Ranch Water District

Division 2

Incumbent Steve Lamar will waltz back in.

Division 3

Incumbent Doug Reinhart has qualified, but has two challengers: Andrew Han and Soha Vazirnia (who may be there to split the challenger vote.)

Division 5

Incumbent Peer Swan will waltz back in.

Moulton Niguel Water District

Three seats. Incumbents Bill Moorhead, Donald Froelich, and Diane Rifkin have all qualified; challenger Lily McGill has as well. Filing is closed.

Santa Margarita Water District

Two seats: Incumbent Saundra Frances Jacobs has qualified but other incumbent, Justin McCusker did not. This went into overtime — and Laura Freese has now qualified, while John Alpay has pulled papers.

East Orange County Water District

This looks like new districting. Two incumbents, Douglass Davert and John Sears, are listed for Division 2, none for the other two.

Division 2

Incumbent Mary Tatum Thomas qualified and will waltz in.

Division 3

Incumbent George Murdoch qualified and will waltz in.

Division 4

No incumbent is listed. John Nielsen has qualified. This is not listed as going into overtime; sometimes, this year, a vacant office seems to go into overtime and sometimes it doesn’t. The rule is unclear to me.

Rossmoor/Los Alamitos Area Sewer District

Full Term

Two seats. The header lists Linda Habermehl as an elected incumbent and David Boyer as incumbent. Boyer qualified; Habernehl did not. So far, so good. But John Stea has also qualified, with the ballot designation “appointed incumbent. It’s listed as going into overtime, so the only question is about Stea’s ballot designation. Claiming to be an incumbent when one isn’t one would be a bad practice; but if Stea should have been listed as one instead of Habermehl that error should (still) be rectified — and in that case it shouldn’t go into overtime. I’ll try to clarify with the ROV.

Short Term

OH NO! DISGUSTING DEAN GROSE HAS SUDDENLY QUALIFIED FOR THE SHORT TERM SEAT! RECRUIT SOMEONE ELSE NOW!!! HERE’S THE MAP TO SEE WHETHER YOU (OR ANYONE ELSE) IS ELIGIBLE TO RUN!

(Update: no one ran against him. The district map has been deleted. At least we tried!)

Mesa Water District

Division 4

Incumbent Jim Atkinson has qualified, as has challenger Russell Baldwin.

Division 5

Incumbent and shameless Poseidon shill Shawn Dewane has qualified. Fortunately, Engineer Shayanne Wright will be opposing him.

Orange County Water District

District 1

Never-competent incumbent Dina Nguyen has qualified. But so has Water Quality Professional Ray Hiemstra!

District 5

Egregious and avaricious incumbent Stephen Sheldon snuck in on the last day to qualify. Professional Water Research Chemist Lee Yoo has qualified. Also on the last day of filing, businesswoman Tyna Nguyen emerged from Sheldon’s bag of dirty tricks to try to split Yoo’s Asian vote! But Sheldon forgot about the “competent and honest” vote! To the ramparts! (Note: this kind of bullshit is exactly why people file on Friday at 4:59 p.m.!)

District 7

Brilliant, fearless, and honest Incumbent Kelly Rowe has qualified — and will be challenged by sellout racist chowderhead from Mesa Water Jim Fisler! TO THE RAMPARTS!

~~~~~ THIS MEANS WATER WAR!!! ~~~~~

South Coast Water District

Division 1

Incumbent Wayne Rayfield did not run — so it goes into overtime. Joseph Muller has qualified and is so far unopposed.

Division 3

Incumbent William “Bill” Green has qualified waltzes back into office.

Trabuco Canyon Water District

Three seats. Incumbents Ed Mandich, Mike Safranski, and Glenn Acosta have all qualified and will waltz in together.

Yorba Linda Water District

Three seats; six qualified to run — must be something in the water! Incumbents Tom Lindsey, Brooke Jones, and Phillip Hawkins have all qualified. So have Environmental Engineer Kim-Anh Le, Environmental Engineer/Realtor Sean Phayakapong, and and public money sponge Brett Barbre. Barbre was, as I recall, made the Executive Director of this district at one point — and apparently is no now. What slate forms — with him or without him — will certainly be interesting! The Republican Party endorsed Barbre, Lindsey and Hawkins after someone wrongly informed them that Jones was not going to run. Do Yorba Lindans prefer their water pure — or with scum?

Municipal Water District of Orange County

Division 1

Incumbent Al Nederhood was qualified will waltz back in.

Division 2

Incumbent Larry Dick has qualified and will face Joe Dovinh. Say it ain’t so, Joe! (Note: because Dovinh is also running for a separate office, this might just be an attempt to double his spending there.)

Division 5

Incumbent and my former unrequited nemesis Satoru “Sat” Tamaribuchi has qualified and will face “Water Management Professor” Randall Crane. Professor? We’ll certainly look into that!

Library Districts

These positions can include decisions about purchasing, retaining, or banning books. Got your attention? Check out these candidates carefully.

Buena Park Library District

Trustee Area 2

None of the incumbents — Irene Castaneda, L. Carole Jensen, Patricia Ganer — are seeking reelection to this position, and it is in fact listed as vacant. Brenda Estrada has filed.

Trustee Area 3

Richard Rams — who describes himself as an incumbent while the position is listed as “Vacant,” and I’m guessing he’d know — qualified will waltz back in.

Placentia Library District

Full Term

Two open seats. Incumbents Jo-Anne W Martin and Scott Nelson has pinged. (Al Shkoler was previously listed as an incumbent but is no longer.)

Short Term

Stephanie Beverage, listed as the incumbent, switched to run for this short-term position. So everybody’s happy!

Santiago Geologic Hazard Abatement District

Three seats. Appointed incumbents Hillard Kaplan and Hari Lal has qualified. Appointed incumbent Marc Schweing has not, so this race goes into overtime. Yaacov Haas has also applied, so absent future action all three will waltz in together as electeds.

CITY CONTESTS!

*ALISO VIEJO

AV’s receptionist at 949-425-2505 tells me that they posted last week that their City Council race is in extension! But I can’t find it on the website. I was transferred to the City Clerk: unavailable.) Luckily as you’ll see in comments, we have an inside source!

Incumbent Tiffany Ackley has apparently qualified; Dave Harrington did not, so it’s gone into overtime. Payal Avellan joins Ackley as having the DPOC endorsement. She characterizes two other candidates, Max Duncan and Tara Lea Ricksen, as big Trumpers. (They are welcome to write us to clarify.) The late-arriving fifth candidate is Arthur Osorio.

ANAHEIM

Four way battle for Mayor, each Council race has been reduced to a one-one-one faceoff!

MAYOR

Name	Ballot Designation	Candidate Statement	Nomination Papers (Status)
Aitken, Ashleigh	Consumer Advocate/Businesswoman	Statement	Qualified
Galloway, Lorri	Non-Profit Executive Director	Statement	Qualified
Lopez, Dick	Water Systems Operator	Statement	Qualified
O’Neil, Trevor	Mayor Pro Tem	Statement	Qualified

CITY COUNCIL MEMBER (District 2)

Name	Ballot Designation	Candidate Statement	Nomination Papers (Status)
Leon, Carlos A.	Business Development Manager	Statement	Qualified
Ma’ae, Gloria Sahagún*	Appointed City of Anaheim Councilmember	Statement	Qualified

CITY COUNCIL MEMBER (District 3)

Name	Ballot Designation	Candidate Statement	Nomination Papers (Status)
Jabbar, Al	Governing Board Member, Anaheim Union High School District	Statement	Qualified
Rubalcava, Natalie	Anaheim Commissioner/Businesswoman	Statement	Qualified

*CITY COUNCIL MEMBER (District 6)

Trevor O’Neil didn’t file, so filing for this race went into overtime.

CITY COUNCIL MEMBER (District 6)

Name	Ballot Designation	Candidate Statement
Natalie Meeks	Anaheim City Commissioner	Statement
Hari Shankar Lal	Consumer Advocate Lawyer	Statement

BREA (can call City Clerk at (714) 990-7757 for info)

Incumbent Glenn Parker apparently didn’t file, so this is in overtime.

At-large, three seats. The PDF I was emailed says that three candidates have qualified from among those who have submitted papers. They are:

• Incumbent Steven Vargas (pulled 7/18, filed 8/8, qualified 8/9)
• Andrew Herrera (pulled 7/20, filed 8/5, qualified 8/5)
• Kari Windes (pulled 7/21, filed 8/9, qualified 8/10)
• Cecilia Hupp (pulled 7/20, filed 7/20, qualified circa 8/15)
• Rodney “Blair” Stewart (pulled 7/18, filed 7/18, qualified circa 8/15)

I’m sure that there’s a perfectly rational reason why some people qualify within 0-1 days and others have to wait 7-24 days (and counting.) Knowing who else has qualified is a significant part of campaign strategy. It may just be that something is wrong with this information

Brea’s candidate filing information is was finally posted online on the 17th. It’s at the link above.

BUENA PARK

District 1: Joyce Ahn and John Siebert had qualified, and Kevin Rhee did so on the last day.. Incumbent Sunny Park did not run, being in the Supervisor runoff, so this had gone to overtime.

District 2: This was Beth Swift’s seat, but she was termed out. Jose Trinidad Castaneda and Carlos Franco, have qualified. Myoung Soo “Michael” Han did qualify.

District 5: Connor Traut is waltzing back into office.

That we can’t get this information from the website and have to call the City Clerk to determine its status is a good example of why I’m quite irked about the lack of online posting.

COSTA MESA

CANDIDATES LIST — warning, contains contact information not published here.

The only thing I don’t like about Costa Mesa’s generally good site — beyond that in today’s environment I would not publish contact information — is that one must go to the City Council page to figure out whether a race is going into overtime. None are; field is set!

MAYOR

John Stephens [incumbent, qualified on 8/11/22]

John M.W. Moorlach [qualified on 8/13/2022]

COUNCIL

DISTRICT 3

Andrea Marr [incumbent, qualified on 8/12/2022]

Jorge Miron [qualified on 8/12/2022]

John Thomas Patton [qualified on 8/12/2022]

DISTRICT 4

Manuel Chavez [incumbent, qualified on 8/8/2022]

(Chavez gets to waltz in)

DISTRICT 5

Arlis Reynolds [incumbent, qualified on 8/12/2022]

Robert Dickson [qualified on 8/13/2022]

CYPRESS

Seven candidates have qualified to run for three seats. They are (sounds like “appointed”) incumbent Scott Minikus, David Burke, Carrie Hayashida, Terry Miller, Rachel Strong, Helen Le, and School Board member (trying to switch roles with her husband Jon) Bonnie Peat. It is is not clear is whether any other candidates are only partway through the process and may still qualify. Again, I smell slates — but candidate statements are not offered online.

This will not go into overtime, despite Mayor Paulo Morales and Jon Peat not running for re-election — because Cypress’s charter imposes lifetime eight year limits on service. So both Morales and John Peat are ineligible, meaning that the field is set. (This is a terrible rule, by the way; it essentially hands over control to City Staff and outside vested interests.) I had to do quite a bit of research to discover this; it’s preposterous that the website doesn’t provide it!

DANA POINT

The races in Districts 1 and 2 races were in extension; no one new filed.

COUNCIL

District 1

Incumbent Joe Muller is not on the scoreboard. John Garrard qualified on Tuesday and is unopposed.

District 2

Incumbent Richard Viczorak is not on the scoreboard. Matthew Pagano qualified on Wednesday and is unopposed.

District 3

Incumbent Jamey Federico qualified on Wednesday and is unopposed.

FOUNTAIN VALLEY (City Clerk 714-593-4445)

3 seats open. The terms of Mayor Patrick Harper, Mayor Pro Tem Kim Constantine, and Michael Vo are expiring this year. YOU don’t DESERVE to know MORE! Clerk was not available by phone.

Once filing was over, I found this PDF. I note that Michael Vo, while he is still listed as an incumbent, did not file (uness he changed his surname to Mau, which I doubt.) So either Vo is ineligible to file for a different reason or this list should NOT be called “FINAL” because filing should have been extended.

I’m tired of not getting through to this number. Someone else can figure this out. The number’s up there.

OK, here’s what appeared on Thursday. 13 candidates qualified for the three seats.

FINAL LIST OF QUALIFIED CANDIDATES FOR THE NOVEMBER 8, 2022 ELECTION
Candidate Name Pulled Papers Returned Papers Date Qualified

1. Jim Cunneen 7/18/2022 8/1/2022 8/4/2022
2. Patrick Harper 7/18/2022 8/5/2022 8/5/2022
3. Nancy Dugay 7/19/2022 8/8/2022 8/9/2022
4. Michael Mau 7/19/2022 8/8/2022 8/9/2022
5. Rudy Huebner 7/20/2022 8/9/2022 8/10/2022
6. Dwight Shackelford 7/25/2022 8/11/2022 8/12/2022
7. Steve Nagel 7/26/2022 8/11/2022 8/12/2022
8. Darrel Mymon-Brown 7/26/2022 8/3/2022 8/4/2022
9. Shaun Diamond 7/26/2022 8/4/2022 8/5/2022
10. Eugene Murray 8/2/2022 8/11/2022 8/12/2022
11. Kim Constantine 8/3/2022 8/8/2022 8/8/2022
12. Cindy Cao 8/5/2022 8/8/2022 8/9/2022
13. Glenn Bleiweis 8/10/2022 8/11/2022 8/12/2022

By this point, of course, information that insiders had had readily available was of no use to potential challengers.

FULLERTON

Because some chicanery appears to be occurring, I’m including all of the pulled/filed/qualified qualified dates here.

District 3

This was Jesus Silva’s district, but he was drawn out of it in redistricting and thus is not an “eligible” incumbent, so this field is set: Dr. Shana Charles (pulled 7/18, filed and qualified 8/11), Arnel Dino (pulled 7/21, filed 8/11, qualified 8/12), and John Lewis Ybarra (pulled 8/8, filed and qualified 8/11).

District 5

Incumbent Ahmad Zahra (7/20; 8/4; 8/8) is and will face Oscar Valadez (8/3; 8/11; 8/11) and Tony Castro (8/4; 8/12; 8/12). Oscar appears to be the legitimate challenger.

GARDEN GROVE (Clerk: 714-741-5040)

Well, after more than a week with the August 8 list being the only one, they have updated to 8/15 — so this may not be final.

MAYOR

As of 4:00 on 8/16, the last info posted in the website is still from 8/8.

Incumbent Steve Jones is the only person who filed for Mayor; he qualified on 8/9, and will waltz back in.

COUNCIL

District 1

Incumbent George Breitgam will face Allen Rodriguez.

District 3

This district went into extension — improperly, from what I can tell! This is Mayor Pro Tem Dierdre Thu-Ha Nguyen’s seat — but she’s not eligible to run because she’s running for an the incompatible office of Assembly member (against Tri Ta.) So some candidate might be able to file to kick the only person who qualified in overtime (8/15), Gia Le Nguyen, off of the ballot. (She may not deserve it, but the city does.) As we already knew, James Webb (qualified 7/27), Laurie Merrick (qualified 8/2), and Asia Nguyen Cunningham (8/11) all qualified. Cindy Tran qualified on 8/12). So that’s five candidates for this seat.

District 4

This has been Patrick Phat Bui’s (now with extra “Patrick”!) district. He has served two terms, but I don’t know if GG has term limits. If not, it’s not clear why he’s not an eligible incumbent — in which event this is the race that should be in extension! Joe Dovinh (7/28), Trung Van Ta (8/4), and Duy Nguyen (8/11) have qualified.

HUNTINGTON BEACH

SUCH a beautiful website! The Supervisors or the legislature (or the Supreme Court) should decree that every other city should copy the code and pay HB a royalty for it! It’s a little hidden under “Candidate Contact List,” but the link in the city name will take you right to it.

Is filing over, though? Let’s see: the people with terms up this year are Mayor Barbara Delglieze, Mike Posey, and Kim Carr. Huntington Beach limits people to two consecutive terms. So if each of these have served from 2014-2022, then they’re ineligible and the field is set. (Carr would be ineligible anyway — I think! — due to running for incompatible office — in this case for State Senate against Janet Nguyen.) If not, then unless they are otherwise ineligible we are headed to overtime. The elections page — and so far as I can tell the entire website! — does not say. This would not be too difficult to add, right?

COUNCIL

Four seats open. Stragglers McKeon and William O’Connell both qualified, so — presuming that there is no extension — the final field is set at 18.

Qualified: Bobby Britton, Brian Burley, Patrick Burns, Gina Clayton-Tarvin, David Clifford, Vera Fair, Jeffrey Hansler, Amory Hanson, Jill Hardy, Kenneth Inouye, Casey McKeon, William O’Connell, Robert Reider, Oscar Rodriguez, Tony Strickland, Gabrielle Samiy, Gracey Van Der Mark, Mike Vogler

Filled, not yet qualified (presumably waiting on ROV): Emil “Jinx” Varona. If he qualifies, that increases the field to 19.

City Attorney

Qualified: Incumbent Michael Gates, challenger Scott Field.

IRVINE

Mayor

Incumbent Farrah Khan has qualified, as have challengers Tom Chomyn, Katherine Daigle, Branda Lin (of “Irvine Watchdog”) and Simon Moon. Their candidate statements are at the above link. Rumored candidate Christina Shea did not file.

Council

Two seats this time. Six candidates have qualified: Incumbents Larry Agran and Anthony Kuo, along with challengers Scott Hansen, John Park, Navid Sadigh, and impressive Kathleen Treseder. I’ve heard that Kuo will run on a team with Park — who I understand has had a close relationship with James Mai, by the way — and Agran will probably run alone, hoping to outpace Park even if not Kuo.

LA HABRA (City Clerk @ 562-383-4030)

Four candidates will compete in a full term race and two candidates will participate in a short-term race. For the full-term, eligible incumbents Jose Medrano and Jim Gomez will face challengers Michelle Juarez Bernier and Dr. Susan Pritchard. For the short-term race, incumbent Darin Nigsarian will face Guadalupe Lara. The link above will get you to their candidate statements and contact information. But this link will get you to their ballot designations and term of office sought — which is the only way you can learn how many seats are open and which candidates are running against whom. In a county full of bad choices about how to convey information to voters, this choice may be the most mystifying. (La Habra having no incumbent City Clerk is some sort of excuse, but they can still have better policies!)

LA PALMA (City Clerk @ (714) 690-3334)

Somewhat amazingly, La Palma still doesn’t have its candidate list on its site! I had to call the clerk before overtime to find out the following. The incumbents with terms ending are Nitesh Patel, who is running, and Mayor Michele Steggell, who is termed out. (In La Palma, Councilmembers must sit out for one full term before running again.) Because Steggell is not an eligible incumbent, the race is not going into extension.

Two challengers, Jonathan Dinwiddie and Janet Conklin, have qualified. So that’s three candidates for two seats.

LAGUNA BEACH

Three seats are open. Eligible incumbent Incumbent Toni Iseman is not running, so filing is now in extension. Two non-incumbent candidates. listed below, have qualified. One is awaiting signat5ure verification and one has not yet submitted papers, but still can.

Peter Blake (incumbent)
Ruben Flores (awaiting ROV signature verification)
Sue Kempf (incumbent)
Mark Orgill (qualified for ballot)
Jerome Pudwill (not yet submitted papers)
Louis Weil (qualified for ballot)

Here, read this for more.

LAGUNA HILLS

David Wheeler and Erica Pezold are full-term incumbents. This does not actually tell us whether either has qualified as opposed to just filed, but we’ll presume that they have. Don Caskey was appointed to a vacancy and is up for election to a full (or half, whichever) term as well. This is really less informative than they probably think it is.

Three open at-large full-term seats.

Name	Ballot Designation	Candidate Statement
DAVID WHEELER	Mayor/Retired Scientist	Statement
ERICA PEZOLD	Laguna Hills Councilwoman	Statement
JOSHUA SWEENEY	Small Business Owner	Statement
PARSHAN KHOSRAVI	Nonprofit Director/Businessowner	Statement

Two year part-term seat:

DON CASKEY

Appointed Incumbent

Statement

Caskey remains unopposed.

LAGUNA NIGUEL (City Clerk: 949-362-4301)

Two seats are open. Here are the candidates:

Candidate’s Statement of Qualifications

• Melissa Caldwell (PDF)
• Ray Gennawey (PDF)
• Javad Mokhbery (PDF)
• Stephanie Oddo (PDF)
• Jeff von Waldburg (PDF)
• Stephanie Winstead (PDF)

The current Mayor, Elaine Gennawey, is the mother of the Ray Gennawey you see above. (Thanks to Stephanie Oddo for the correction.) She was first elected in 2014, so I think that it’s a safe bet that they have a two-term limit on consecutive service — and that she’s bumped into it so wants her husband there as a placeholder. Fred Minegar was also first elected in 2014, so his not running probably triggers overtime. The other three Councilmembers are not up in 2022.

LAGUNA WOODS (City Clerk: 949-639-0500)

Only two seats up this year — those of Carol Moore and Joe Rainey. Moore will face Annie McCary and Edward H. Tao.

LAKE FOREST

Hey, Lake Forest is doing it right!

COUNCIL

District 2

It’s in overtime. Bob Stuart, Benjamin Yu, and Suzy Betz all qualified.

District 3

Incumbent Scott Voigts will waltz back in.

District 4

Incumbent Mark Tettemer will waltz back in..

LOS ALAMITOS (Clerk @ 562-431-3538)

Interestingly, Los Alamitos says: “The last day of Candidate filing falls on Friday, August 18, 2022, and City Hall is closed. If you would like to file on the last day, an appointment made at least 24 hours in advance is required. Appointments for Friday, August 18, 2022, will be limited to the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.” But: August 18 is a Thursday. I think that this is a typo for the 12th. This seems to be the city’s first election with districts.

Incumbent Shelley Hasselbrink is running unopposed in District 4. District 5 has a face-off between two non-incumbents: Emily Hibard and Randy Hill.

MISSION VIEJO

A judge forced all five Council members to run for re-election after they moved to districts and engaged in some questionable acts. So there ARE NO INCUMBENTS and no chance of overtime!

This Election Information link will also be a good one to keep handy; it has candidate statements and campaign finance info, as well as the filing log.

Because Mission Viejo screwed the pooch so very badly this year, I’m granting myself a little more license than usual in describing these races.

Council

District 1

Bob Reusch (an anti-high-density housing Planning Commissioner); Linda Shepard, who based on her LinkedIn page looks very impressive as a prodigious fund-raiser for good causes such as the Discovery Science Center, and the execrable, shreiking, power-mad, and possessed of limited involvement in city affairs — but, a kids soccer coach and personal friend of Jamie Leigh Curtis! — Deborah Cunningham-Skurnik have all qualified. Incumbent Mayor Pro Tem Ed Sachs did not file here, but in District 3. Gee, I’ll have to mull this one over a bit.

District 2

Councilmember Brian Goodell and impressive (and pointedly critical of Council members spending public funds on self-serving litigation) challenger Stacy Holmes have both qualified.

District 3

Republican Councilmember Greg Raths (whom we’ve supported in the past, but who still stinks of Roger Stone) and Ed Sachs (a more traditionally disgusting establishment Republican with endorsements from the likes of Young Kim) will also face Cynthia Vasquez, a business owner who values fiscal prudence, accountability, and civil discourse — who has a chance given the deeply and viciously split Republican vote.

District 4

Quintessentially right-wing Councilmember Trish Kelly qualified on Tuesday and will face Challenger Terri Aprati, who owns a technology consulting service and favors government openness, accountability, pragmatism, and natural resources; she opposes untrammeled AirBnbs/VRBOs and the arrogance of the high and mighty.

District 5

The Incumbent Mayor, non-strident-seeming Republican Wendy Bucknum, will face supply-chain consultant for VA hospitals Jon Miller. Frankly, reading both of these ballot statements was pretty enjoyable after reading most of the others, but I especially liked this point made in Miller’s website.

NEWPORT BEACH

Four seats are up We only have their names financial form filing, not their filing status, as no candidate log per se is found on the website.

Council

District 1

[Incumbent Diane Dixon is term limited.] Tom Miller and Joe Stapleton have qualified.

District 3

[Incumbent Duffy Duffield is term limited.] Amy Peters, Erik Weigand, and Jim Mosher have all qualified.

District 4

[Incumbent Kevin Muldoon is term limited.] Robyn Grant has qualified, is unopposed, and gets to waltz in.

District 6

Incumbent Joy Brenner (now shorn of her Clyda) and Lauren Kleiman have both qualified.

ORANGE

Mayor

Incumbent Mark Murphy and Challenger Dan Slater have both qualified.

Council

District 1

Incumbent Arianna Barrios and Jason White have both qualified.

District 3

Appointed incumbent Kathy Tavoularis and John Russo have both qualified.

District 4

Incumbent Chip Monaco did not file. Christopher Horton, Denis Bilodeau, and John Newman have qualified.

District 6

Brian Harrington, Adrienne Gladson, and John Gyllenhammer have all qualified.

PLACENTIA (Clerk #: 714-993-8263)

As of August 20, there is still no candidate filing status page or list of candidates on the City’s website. People should be outraged. If the City Manager had to do it, that’s what should have happened.

District 2

District 4

City Clerk

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA (Clerk #: 949-635-1806)

The four candidates running for ??? open offices are: Ken Dixon, Brad McGirr, Jerry Holloway, and Anne Figueroa.

SAN CLEMENTE (Clerk #: 949-361-8345)

Three at-large seats open — the incumbents being Laura Ferguson, Steve Knoblock, and Kathleen Ward. FINALLY they have posted a list of who has qualified! Knoblock looks like the only incumbent who has, so unless they have term limits or something the other two triggered overtime. Here are the qualified challengers (so far): Aaron Washington Jr., Donna Virdine, Cameron Cosgrove, Dennis Kamp, Zhen Wu,Martina McBurney-Wheeler, Mark Enmeier, and Ashley Williams. The only other person who has filed is Chanel Fetty. Several more pulled.

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO (Clerk #: 949-443-6309)

Three seata. No filing log/list.

District 2

The incumbent is Troy Bourne.

District 3

The incumbent is Mayor Derek Reeve.

District 4

The incumbent is John Taylor.

I have literally nothing else I can tell you — which cuts almost in half the 5-day extension period during which other people can consider running.

SANTA ANA

Hey, Santa Ana has a great election website now!

Mayor

Incumbent Vicente Sarmiento is running for the incompatible office of Supervisor, so I don’t think that this goes into extension. But it turns out that I was wrong — I had noted on Monday that “As of 2:15 p.m. on Monday, Santa Ana has not updated this race” which I thought finished it off — and damn them for not having timely noted it on their website! Prior to overtime this looked like Valerie Amezcua versus Jesse Nestor. But, in overtime the awful Jose Solorio and the estimable Sal Tinajero both qualified. I don’t know from whom the libertarian Nestor pull, but it won’t be enough. I can make a case for any of the other three. (My question is: why did Solorio and Tinajero wait? Were they trying to scare someone off, draw someone in, or what?)

I’m leaving this stuff here, although it’s outdated, just for the historical record: “I’m neither a huge fan or nor a committed detractor of Valerie — mostly, I don’t like some of her playmates — but it does feel sort of cool that a Mayor Amezcua is actually going to happen. Watching her father Al Amezcua getting screwed out of an endorsement based on a supposedly miscast vote by Marti Schrank is was my very first encounter with the Pulido-protecting DPOC while I was coordinating OC for Jerry Brown — and I got an stark introduction into its byzantine treachery! So I’ll hope that she won’t go all Pulido on us and will appreciate what will be a historic achievement — unless Jesse Nestor wins! And that brings us to my doing some actual “interviewing a source” reporting (rather than working from documents and tips) for once: I called and interviewed Jesse Nestor. Check it out.”

Council

Ward 2

Incumbent Nelida Mendoza will face Benjamin Vazquez.

Ward 4

Incumbent Phil Bacerra will face Amalia Mejia.

Ward 6

Incumbent David Penaloza will face Manny Escamilla.

SEAL BEACH

Seal Beach now has a decent website too!

District 1

I looks like Christopher DeSanto has qualified, Gregg Barton has filed, and incumbent Joe Kalmick has only pulled — but now I notice that this is all as of August 5. Huh.

District 3:

Stephanie Wade has qualified and looks ready to waltz in, as Lisa Landau and Fred Macksoud have only pulled papers.

District 5

Mariann Klinger and Michael McGrorty have both qualified. Nathan Steele and Jonathan Rich had only pulled papers — as of a week ago.

I guess someone needs to explain to them — as if they don’t already know — why week-old election information is largely useless.

STANTON

Mayor

Incumbent David John Shawver has qualified.

District 1

Elizabeth Wiktor appears to have filed. Incumbent Rigoberto Ramirez has only pulled, so this could go into overtime.

District 3

Incumbent Gary Taylor has qualified.

TUSTIN

All I can find is financial statements, which say nothing about how far they’ve come towards qualifying. I’ll just presume everyone who filed is running, which would be surprising if true.

Councilmember Beckie Gomez is running for Mayor.

Incumbent Austin Lumbard is running for Mayor.

Kimberly Adams is running for City Council.

Frank Gomez is running for City Council.

______ Schnell is running for City Council.

Barry Cooper’s term is up, and he’s not on the scoreboard, so it looks like something will go into overtime.

Three other councilmembers appear to have been elected in Presidential Election years, so something doesn’t make sense.

(A better website could address that.)

VILLA PARK

Three of the five seats are up. Filing is in extension. So at least one of these incumbents — Mayor Chad Zimmerman, Robert Collacott, and Crystal Miles — did not file/qualify. No list of who did pull, file, or qualify is available online.

WESTMINSTER

Mayor

Moses Castillo and Chi Charlie Nguyen have qualified. Tai Do and Kimberly Ho are pending.

District 1

John Gentile and Amy Phan West have qualified. Tim Hogan is pending.

District 4

Namquan “Nugyen” (which I’m guessing is actually “Nguyen”) has qualified. Van Nguyen is pending with a “supplemental issued.” Teri Vu Nguyen and Jimmy D. Phan are both pending.

Not sure about overtime.

YORBA LINDA (Clerk: 714-961-7150.)

Two seats are up. This is in extension. Incumbents with expiring terms are Mayor Carlos Rodriguez and Peggy Huang, who is running for Judge. (Seems like an incompatible office to me, but apparently they think otherwise.) No online information indicates who has pulled, filed, or qualified.