Reposted from last month for your convenience, this is your complete COMPREHENSIVE guide to the candidates and measures on everyone’s ballot in Orange County this October/November. For more details, you can wade through these two links (good luck!)

https://ocvote.gov/fileadmin/user_upload/data/candlog/GEN2024/candlog.pdf

https://ocvote.gov/candidates/candidate-filing-log-with-statements

PRESIDENT (& VP)

Should be an easy choice – if you are an American, and care about Democracy, Equality and Liberty, as well as doing our part to keep the world’s tyrants at bay AND keep a livable planet, your obvious choice is KAMALA D. HARRIS, and her running mate Tim Walz – the Democrats.

On the other hand, if your tastes run more toward Apocalypse, Black Humor, and the Death of Reality and Truth, you should definitely pick DONALD J. TRUMP and his sidekick J. D. Vance – the Republicans.

(I don’t think I’ve told this story yet – there was a long-haired, somewhat wacky sobriety counselor at the Salvation Army, who told us once: “Yeah I’m voting for Donald Trump, because I HATE AMERICA. I know he’s an asshole – America DESERVES an asshole. What’s America ever done for me, except throw me in prison so I can get beat up by blacks and Mexicans?” So there’s that argument, which seems compelling.)

Of course, you could say there’s no way Kamala loses California, so it kind of doesn’t matter if you vote for her or not, which is sort of true. Greg and I still favor (since Trump and his movement are on the ballot) doing our bit to add to her POPULAR MAJORITY. But this is no swing state, and you do have the freedom to “vote your conscience,” so here are the other candidates which may be more or less perfect to your taste, in the order of seriousness I’d take ’em:

• Jill Stein, Green
• Claudia De La Cruz, Peace & Freedom
• Chase Oliver, Libertarian
• Robert F Kennedy Jr, Brainworm.

Greg says: A note on the strange coloring of Jill Stein’s name above. That’s as close as I can get to using the “watermelon” colors of the Palestinian flag here, as white-on-white is not that legible. I use it to connote that I think that Palestinian and Muslim voters who believe that the Israeli attacks on Gaza, the West Bank, and more recently Lebanon are the overriding issue in this race are entirely justified in voting for Jill Stein in California — a much better tack that voting for Trump (dangerous and ambiguous) or skipping the race (no one notices or cares — and it’s also ambiguous) because votes for Jill Stein are tallied and the other options are not. I have learned that pro-Palestinian voters do not give a farthing about what I think, because I think that Kamala is a poor target for this protest, because I do not believe that the solution that needs to be imposed today is to roll back the borders in Palestine to before 1947, and because taking such a view is bad for Palestinian activists themselves because it is being a terrible ally to other groups that they have been allied with in the past and will want to be allied with in the future — and their helping elect Trump, should that happen, will never be forgiven. But while I hope that such a protest should not happen in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — THERE IS A REASON THAT NETANYAHU IS SUPPORTING TRUMP SO STRONGLY, FOLKS, AND HE HAS A BETTER IDEA OF THE POLITICAL EFFECTS OF THIS ELECTION THAN ANYONE! — I also that such a protect needs to happen somewhere — and blueprint-blue California is the obvious place. Hopefully such a protest here will make it easier for Muslims on Midwest swing states and others feeling betrayed to cast their much more important vote for Kamala there, knowing that the point is being made elsewhere. Personally, I won’t do it because I want to vote for a deserving woman of color candidate so badly and I’m not going to deny that to myself. I consider myself an ally to more than only one group — no matter what members of each of those groups feel about me. This is about being right, not popular.

As Jill Stein has made it clear this year that her political victory inures entirely on blocking Kamala from office, and thus electing Trump, because [complex series of calculations omitted] that leads to the Democratic Party withering away, and the Green Party inheriting their voters, and — do I really even need to say the rest?], I don’t think that I will ever support her again. This crosses the line that Ralph Nader never crossed: he was not running in 2000 to elect Bush; he was running to bring out voters who would otherwise sit home, and who were never going to vote for Al Gore under any circumstances anyway. That is a respectable view. Stein just wants to see the world burn if she can’t run it — and to hell with her. Come back with a better candidate in 2028, Green Party; I can always vote Peace & Freedom if I want to make an ineffectual, symbolic, and otherwise not dangerous protest from here.

U.S. Senator for California

(2 races incl. “partial / unexpired term,” yawn)

• STEVE GARVEY, Republican baseball guy who can’t figure out where he stands on most things, vs.
• ADAM SCHIFF, anointed Democrat, Glendale Congressman & cable TV celebrity

Greg here, typing in my traditional Candidate-Recommendation-related green font.

And I’m here to tell you that, as a protest against his sucking up money he doesn’t need to win, and wants only so he can donate money to other candidates and thus make himself a Senate bigwig who can leverage it into high-status positions, I am NOT voting for Adam Schiff! If Schiff was ever actually worried about his having enough money to beat Steve Garvey, while claiming that he was more electable, he should have just let Katie Porter win. Then he equated his working long and hard to promote Garvey as his opponent (so as to knock Porter out of this very race) with Porter’s (or someone considering supporting her) running a Facebook trials to see if she could do the same by promoting Eric Early — which was like comparing his felony with her parking ticket. And of course Schiff used his media contacts to send that story far and wide. So yes, I AM NOT VOTING FOR ADAM SCHIFF! (In the partial term election, that is. I WILL vote for the dork for the full-term, though! But I hope that there’s a nice big fall-off in voting for him in the partial-term election.) [VERN: Don’t tell anyone but I’m voting for Garvey, Pan & Tardif. Just for the Hell of it. I wouldn’t if I thought they could win, if I thought my vote in these races made a difference. So don’t EVERYBODY do the same, I’m sure you won’t.] UPDATE: The fact that Schiff has continued his fundraising at an accelerating clip since I wrote this a month or so ago — taking away money that could have gone to other candidates without him taking his cut or using them for quid pro quos — has convinced me not to vote for him for either position. If he literally can’t beat Steve Garvey without my vote — or frankly those of all of our readers — then he is an even more complete goober than I think he was. (Note: the word “goober” was selected after my rejecting use of terms for over a dozen different body parts and effluents, because this is a family blog — at least for another few days.)

CONGRESS (US Representative)

NOTE: When you see your Congressional choices (and the other races as well) on the ballot, they are in THIS order, determined by a random drawing, and I’m glad to see that our three most IMPORTANT Congressional races in OC ended up with the Democrat luckily on top – Derek, Dave & Mike Levin. It’s said that can add 5% just being lucky enough to be listed first! (Sad as that is.)

District 38: Eric J. Ching (R) vs. Linda Sanchez (D, I):

GREG: Longtime-incumbent Sanchez lists “mom” in her ballot designation. I presume that we’ll see that image in the little tyke’s own campaign ads someday.

District 46: David Pan, (R for at least several weeks now) vs. Lou Correa, (D, I)

GREG: I’ve long said that the most likely that he clearest way to clear the House’s bad case of Leukorrhea would be a have a Republican defeat him and then pick off that person two years later. For a while I imagined that Pan might be the guy. And … he is definitely not the guy. He’s an acolyte of Charles Murray, the “minorities have a criminal culture” guy from the 70s, and we do not need that in Congress at all. Once Correa is the deciding vote in an evenly split Congress, I’m sure that President Kamala would find a nice job for him far from Congress.

District 40: Young Kim, (R, I) vs. Joe Kerr (D):

GREG: Kim might well have been a moderate equivalent of Lou Correa in the days when the Republican Party would stand for that, but she has been forced to bend the knee to MAGA like the rest of them. Kerr is a firefighter and a firefighters’ union negotiator and a firefighter organization leader and firefighter firefighter. <s>I think Vern endorses him unreservedly,</s> I give him the smoldering embers of an endorsement. Beloved by the public employee-loving DPOC leadership, which I doubt would be so if he were from AFCSME or some other public employee union with fewer TV dramas made about them, I’m confident that he won’t win, but is that really the point? He has managed to have an influence on the Governor’s race, but we’ll get to that below. [VERN: WTF? I “endorse Joe unreservedly?” Is that supposed to be sarcastic? I’m not saying anything about this race; I’m trying to keep opinion here to the minimum, and if Democrats lose the Congress by one seat I don’t want to have anything to do with it.]

District 45: Derek Tran, Democrat, attorney, veteran, vs. Michelle “Lie-Cheat-” Steel, (MAGA R I):

GREG: Steel remains a mush-mouthed, congee-brained hand-puppet for her white male Republican National Committee leader husband Shawn of Rancho Palos Verdes. She has a web ad up from a woman identifying herself as a former molestation victim and stating that Tran “made a living” out of defending sex traffickers. It was so over the top (and easily refuted) that I doubt it will resonate. But the Democrats who opposed him in the primary may care more about “being proven right” than defending him vigorously. Watch to see what they — many of the same people who once trashed Kamala Harris in her AG and Senate runs! — choose to do. [VERN: As far as I can tell, the DPOC IS “defending Derek vigorously.”]

[See all our Derek Tran material here, and our Shawn/Michelle Steel material here.]

District 47 (Katie Porter’s abandoned seat): State Senator Dave Min, Democrat vs. longtime Repuglican Crook Scott Baugh.

GREG: Baugh’s storied sordid history as a voter suppression enthusiast makes him a perfect (because perfectly unprincipled) Great MAGA Hope, and we can already imagine what fun some future special counsel will have with him. (Note to Republicans: in my opinion, he’d roll, and he’d roll first.) Min is not the equal of Katie Porter, but enough so that he got her unqualified endorsement — and ours. And, DPOC honchos, is what you’re supposed to do when you lose an internecine battle, as we did when we supported Joana Weiss in this race. You may want to study this when it comes to Tran’s race above.

District 49: Mike Levin, (D I) vs. Matt Gunderson, (R, Big Oil).

GREG: If Gunderson could not even touch Levin in a Gubernatorial year (without much of a race), he’s surely not going to touch him in a high-turnout Presidential year. Good! So this is a good chance to tell you about departing CDP President and aspiring Gubernatorial candidate Betty Yee. We have good candidates — both Asian, by the way — in Districts 45 and 47. And who has Yee come out here to support? That’s right: the not-good candidate in a not-close race, Joe Kerr. Kerr is beloved by both the old guard and the new guard in DPOC, and if you want their support for Governor then you let them call the tune you’ll dance to. So I’ll support Betty Yee in the primary only if her major competition is Fiona Ma. When I got an appeal from Betty Yee’s campaign asking me whether I like her, I wrote back, “yes, if she was still the person that she was 10 years ago.” Lesson: Vote for Mike Levin! Donate to Derek Tran and Dave Min!

State Senator

(Only one OC district has a State Senate race this year, and that’s SD 37.)

Steven Choi, (R, Irvine) vs. Josh Newman, (D Inc, Fullerton).

GREG: The first round of redistricting in 2010 was excellent. The second round in 2020 was miserable bordering on psychotic. And if I were conspiracy minded — and in this case I sorta am — I would say that this district was specifically drawn to screw over Josh Newman, who might well be a plausible candidate for statewide office in 2026 and is relatively “unbossed.” But after sorta breaking this post with graphics and information, I’m going to make a separate post on that. If you’re even thinking about not voting for Josh, you should wait until that comes out.

Luckily for Josh, the other candidate to make the runoff was 80-year-old former Irvine Mayor Steven Choi. It is difficult to compare Choi to, say, Joe Biden or Donald Trump, because he doesn’t seem to be a clear thinker or speaker. Josh, by contrast, has done a good job of co-representing this district (with Dave Min). And yes, he absolutely does live in this Orange and Irvine centered district, because he was absolutely screwed in redistricting. [I’ll link to the other post here when it’s done.]

ASSEMBLY

AD 59: David Obrand (D, Deputy County Counsel) vs. Phillip Chen (R, longtime incumbent)

Chen is about as good as current California Republican legislators come, and in a normal year that might lead me to mute any opposition to him. The argument for leaving a reasonable Republican in office is that he might have a moderating influence on his party. But that’s not going to happen this term. That might lead to a no-endorsement, but this year that would be unfortunate — because his opponent may have a far bigger effect on his caucus, which in this hugely Democratic state is even more significant. Obrand, who gave one of the best presentations I’ve ever seen at the Anaheim Democratic club, is a significant player in the Orange County Counsel’s office, which tries to rein in the excesses and perfidy of the DINO Board of Supervisors and to oversee the actions of County agencies, which longtime readers know really needs it. In other words, he looks like someone who is both knowledgeable about how political corruption happens and motivated to try to curb it. The idea of his having a significant role in the Democratic caucus is extremely appealing — because they need good oversight too.

AD 64 –

• Blanca Pacheco (D, incumbent), vs.
• Raul Ortiz Jr. (R, pest control manager)

A rematch that Pacheco couldn’t lose

AD 67 –

• Sharon Quirk-Silva (longtime Democrat incumbent running for her LAST term), vs.
• Beth Culver (R, retired entrepreneur)

A rematch that Quick-Silva couldn’t lose — but it’s her last race in the Assembly, so if you’re rich you can max out to her because she can carry over unspent campaign funds over to her next race! (I think…)

AD 68 –

• Mike Tardif (Republican sheet metal guy & blog habitue), vs.
• Avelino Valencia (Democrat incumbent)

Yes, Avelino is too beholden to Anaheim’s big interests and to party officials — but it’s hard to find anyone who who can stay elected in Anaheim who isn’t, so (grading on the curve) I support him. He’s shown us for the past four years that he has a moral core. Tardif is too MAGA even for a joke vote

AD 70 –

• Tri Ta (crooked Republican incumbent), vs.
• Jimmy D. Pham (D, immigration attorney)

Ta looks more bad than we as yet know Pham to be good, but Ta looks so bad that Pham surely looks that much better.

AD 71 –

• Gary Kephart (D, software engineer) vs.
• Kate Sanchez (R incumbent – and supporter of education extremists in Temecula!)

I’d like to see Kephart win something legislative. That may require relocation.

AD 72 –

• Diane Dixon (Republican incumbent), vs.
• Dom Jones (Democrat nonprofit executive, TV personality)

I hate myself for not being able to resist this, but: Dom vs. Submissive (to special interests.) Jones would be a fun (and smart) legislator.

AD 73 –

• Cottie Petrie-Norris (safe Democrat incumbent), vs.
• Scotty Peotter (Republican figure-of-fun from Newport)

AD 74 –

• Laurie Davies (MAGA-klepto Republican incumbent), vs.
• Chris Duncan (Democrat Mayor of San Clemente)

*************************

[NOTE: School Boards come next on your ballot; but for this story I’ll put them below Supervisor & City Councils. Just cuz.]

**************************

OC Supervisor!

Only District 1 has a race.

But it’s hell-of important, in the wake of ANDREW DO.

When Supervisorial District 1 (Huntington Beach, Little Saigon, Seal Beach, Fountain Valley, Westminster, Garden Grove, Los Alamitos and La Palma) chooses between Frances Marquez and Janet Nguyen, they’ll be choosing a new direction for the whole County (or not.)

Update: Read “Andrew Do Busted – but Janet Nguyen is WORSE.“

Janet’s record as Supervisor, her corruption and degradation of CalOptima along with other misbehavior, shows her to be no better than her old best friend and protege Andrew Do, much as she criticizes him now. And arrogant, business-as-usual Supervisors Chaffee and Wagner spent most of the last year covering for Do and resisting any sorts of reforms their colleagues Foley and Sarmiento brought forward.

Yes, District 1 voters will be choosing between having the following majorities running our 9 BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET:

versus THIS one:

That’s a big f-ng deal, a big f-ing difference. Watch these pages for an upcoming story that will be called “The NERVE of Janet Nguyen, who is WORSE than Andrew Do.” And here is the lady District 1 should vote for:

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CITY COUNCILS!

(And Other Elected City Offices as may be)

ALISO VIEJO

AV’s FIRST district elections! District 1:

• Jennifer Engle (construction project manager) ) — some nice endorsements!
• Tim Zandbergen (small business owner)

District 3 – Lovable Councilman Richard Hurt is unopposed. (This is where you can write in Michael Munzing’s name, just to see if we can drive him nuts. Bwaaaahaha!)

District 5 – the death-match between two 12-year incumbents:

• Mike Munzing, current Mayor & Culture-War wingnut extraordinaire, vs.
• Ross Chun, nice guy, smart guy, & public servant

Read Vern’s Lowdown on Aliso Viejo, our Youngest City!

ANAHEIM

Update: Read Vern’s endorsement, in the Register, of Rosas, Maahs & Ahmad.)

District 1 (West Anaheim – Jose Diaz’ old seat):

• Ojaala Ahmad (communications analyst, supported by Anaheim Democrats Club) vs.
• Ryan Balius (parks commissioner, endorsed by Diaz)

District 4 (south-Central / resort district)

• Francisco Rosas (Navy veteran & aircraft mechanic) vs.
• Norma Kurtz (appointed incumbent, backed by Disney & the DPOC)

[Greg here: Based on her presentation at Anaheim Dems, I believe that Kurtz could and should be better than she is as a vote on Council. She’s not beyond salvation like the Natalies; she seems to think that Disney — through the charity it provides to Anaheim (a mere pittance of the tax forbearance and governmental aid it receives –is a clear force for good in the city. (Mayor Aitken seems to take much the same view, but, unlike Aitken, Kurtz does not seem driven by aspirations for higher office, which would make crossing Disney a bad career choice.) She simply looks down at “charitable contributions on the balance sheet without factoring in that every bit of that charity money and immensely more comes from the city’s largesse orior and continuing largesse, and a small amount of it coming back does not attest to Disney’s community spirit. Agreeing to a Gate Tax, which would allow the city more money for meat and potatoes even if it lost some chocolate fountains, would. Paco Rosas has a much clearer view — but he doesn’t have metric shit-tons of glossy mailers being heaped onto this district’s voters doorsteps singing his glories. It’s a tragic perversion of local democracy — just the way Disney likes it!]

District 5 (east flatlands – Steve Faessel’s old district)

• Kristen Maahs (commissioner / nonprofit advocate; backed by Faessel & building trades)
• Cristal Ruiz (administrative assistant)
• Andrew Sarega (carpetbagging retired cop from La Mirada, backed by police union)

UPDATE: All YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SAREGA!

Greg: We know it’s Not Sarega, but which Not Sarega? I think that Vern and I both came away from their Anaheim Club forum liking Ruiz more than Maahs, but that isn’t decisive if Maahs has a significantly better chance to win. Cunningham wrote a positive story about Maahs back in May, when she was an NPP, but was already the Di$ney candidate. (Comparing her treatment by DPOC to that of Denise Barnes, who had actually joined the Democratic Party but was still denied an endorsement because she was anti-abortion, is highly irritating.) This LAT article on Cristal Ruiz by OC’s Possibly Tallest Mexican pretty HAD much cinched in for me: She may not be the OCLF candidate, but this insurgent union reformer and unbossed Disney employee is as close to a real labor hero as we’ve seen in recent Anaheim politics. Even at the risk of leading to the election of Sarega, this is a candidate who has earned our support. I just wish that the OCLF was more appreciative of a real worker’s hero. RETRACTION: Vern suggested that I take another look at this in light of his recent story (linked right under the photo.) And he’s right: Ruiz is admirable but unseasoned and relatively without campaign funds — and Sarega is much worse than I imagined. So: MAAHS for City Council and RUIZ for Maahs to appoint to a good Commission that will help her learn more about governance and season her for a future political once Maahs leaves office.]

BREA

Greg’s town!

COUNCIL – what, no districts? No. PICK TWO. How old-school.

• Thomas Donini (retired business professor)
• Christine Marick (incumbent)
• Bill Klovstad (anti-gay dad of Madison Miner. NOTE – picture to the right is NOT Klovstad, but the late Fred Phelps, with whom Klovstad stood 30 years ago in protest of Orange’s Gay-Straight Alliance.)
• Marty Simonoff (incumbent)

[Of course I’m voting for excellent incumbent Christine Marick, but I’m surprised to find myself also voting for Marty Simonoff, who I did not admire in the past. But he’s not Brea’s biggest political problem right now; that would be Steve Vargas, who you may remember took a large charitable contribution intended for the Veterans Center right across the street from where I used to live and deposited it into his personal account until forced to remove it — and pretty much got away with it because “MAGA man in OC.” I’m incorporating Vern’s update from below for the rest]: “The non-incumbents Donini & Klovstad (pictured above in his favorite style, dressed like one of the Village People) – along with Eby – are hand-picked candidates of ambitious, corrupt, rightwing Councilman Steve Vargas, and his wife is their campaign manager. Vargas wants to re-make the Council in his image, so he can run for Supervisor as Mayor in 2026 when Chaffee’s termed out, and be less likely to come in third like he did in ’22. AND THAT MAkES THIS RACE CONSEQUESNTIAL FOR THE WHOLE COUNTY! The OJ Blog endorses Marick, Simonoff & Thomas.”]

ELECTED CITY TREASURER:

• Sean Thomas (friend of the blog) vs.
• Denise Eby (incumbent city treasurer)

Vern writes that Eby is also a Vargas plant. I don’t recall whether that’s true, but it doesn’t matter either way: I’ll support Sean Thomas, who has a clear-eyed take on this pointless, wasteful, symbolic position and would do what we could to either give it some actual meaning or help drive a stake through its heart. The problem here is that the voters made Treasurer an elected position, albeit one without actual power and responsibility, and so we’re stuck with it until they overturn it (or maybe a court rules that handing away a public salary and title to an official who literally does nothing is simply wrong.) The public has refused to eliminate the position because they think that it boosts the city’s profile to have a treasurer, even though the work is done by an Investment Committee whom the Treasurer doesn’t even oversee. If Eby even wants to end this scam, she hasn’t done much to advance that — so let’s give Thomas a shot.

BUENA PARK

District 2 “short-term” – must be the seat Trini gave up:

• Carlos Franco, BP commissioner, vs.
• Yong “Chuy” Choi, Planning commissioner / businessowner

District 3:

• John Dade, Licensed Financial Associate, vs.
• Susan Sonne, incumbent

District 4:

• Lamiya Hoque (educator / city commissioner) vs.
• Paul Gonzales (County safety rep.)

COSTA MESA

MAYOR: James Peters (business owner) vs. John Stephens (incumbent Mayor & attorney)

Stephens is one of the reformers who brought Costa Mesa back from the dismal Righeimer-Mensinger years. He has easily earned another term.

District 1 (incumbent Don Harper, who’s leaving?)

• Adam Ereth (planning commissioner / businessman) vs.
• Mike Buley (businessman / attorney)

Adam Ereth has been an OJB favorite in past years when he’s fought the good fight against the horrible incumbents on OC’s water boards. He now has experience on the Planning Commission and is the obvious and welcome choice for City Council. He’s not just for water anymore!

District 2 Loren Gameros (incumbent / educator) is running unopposed… but I researched him anyway just to see whether I want to propose a write in for some probably ineligible alternative just to cut into his vote total. And I don’t. Here’s a story — “Vestiges of Costa Mesa’s Anti-Immigrant past removed as Latinos enjoy civic emergence” — that shows him to be the sort of Councilperson I like. Maybe he’s done other things that I’d disagree with, but this earns him a salute and endorsement.

• District 6: Jeffrey Harlan (incumbent / attorney) vs. Jeff Pettis (veterans health administrator)

CYPRESS

(Apparently Cypress is just STARTING districts, thanks to Frances Marquez!)

District 3

• Mark H. Plager (small business owner) vs.
• Kyle Chang (public health statistician) vs.
• Gayel Kaplan (attorney)

District 4

• Leo Medrano (businessman / engineer)
• Blaze Bhence (business owner)
• Glenn Button (business owner / engineer)
• Mike Frost (incumbent)

DANA POINT

District 5:

• Michael Villar, incumbent, vs. nobody. What? What’s the (Dana) point here?

FOUNTAIN VALLEY

NO DISTRICTS YET – VOTE FOR 2!

• Alicia “Rudy” Huebner (software developer)
• Glenn Grandis (incumbent, businessman)
• Ted Bui (incumbent, business owner)
• Katy V. Wright (speaker / board secretary)

FULLERTON

Read Vern’s Lowdown

District 1:

[Greg here: I’m mostly leaving Fullerton to Vern, except for two things: (1) I do thing that Fred Jung deserves reelection. If he’s implacably anti Ahmed-for-Mayor, it may be because he’s been in a very good vantage point to take his measure. I know that some of my friends favor him, but it’s telling when one person’s potential rise to Mayor becomes THE issue in so many campaigns. This is a solvable problem! Ahmed Zahra could simply foreswear any willingness to become Mayor (Vice Mayor, if it tracks) to that, until after he next faces election. If he did so, I would back Kitty Jaramillo, which I would like to do (though I think that Bruce Whitaker has an important role in city governance, and I’m willing to believe that his wife may be cut from the same cloth in competence beyond mere ideology.) Alternatively, if Jaramillo decided on her own that she would not vote to make Zahra Mayor or to put him on a conveyor belt towards such, then she might be more likely to win. Now, surely Zahra knows that he’s become highly divisive — enough to lose Jaramillo this race. If his ambition is such that he would not voluntarily take such an action himself in order to help his political ally — well, what does that say about him? Whatever it is, that may be what Jung sees in him.

• Matt Truxaw (sudden Republican) vs.
• Fred Jung (incumbent Democrat)

District 2:

• Jan Flory (Democrat attorney) vs.
• Nick Dunlap (incumbent Mayor, business owner, Republican)

District 4:

• Scott Markowitz (mysterious, sudden MAGA Republican & “senior data analyst”)
• Kitty Jaramillo (DPOC-endorsed Democrat, retired “preservation officer”)
• Jamie Valencia (independent Democrat, commissioner, registered nurse)
• Linda Whitaker (Republican, wife of termed-out councilman Bruce)

GARDEN GROVE

MAYOR (incumbent Steve Jones is out finally – termed out? It’s a free-for-all!)

• Musaab B. Mughal (student)
• Phat Bui (business owner)
• Stephanie Klopfenstein (councilwoman / business owner / purveyor of giant scary signs)
• Lan Nguyen (school board member / attorney)
• Thomas Thai Nguyen (media host / businessman)
• Deidre Thu-Ha Nguyen (cancer scientist / teacher / Dem favorite)
• John R. O’Neill (incumbent councilman)

District 2 (John O’Neill was incumbent)

• John Ramirez (land use consultant) vs.
• Phillip Nguyen (business owner / teacher)

District 5 (Stephanie Klopfenstein was incumbent)

• Sandy L. Thomas (retired bank manager)
• Yesenia Muneton (substitute teacher)
• Mariyan Bahadarakhann (businesswoman / mortgage broker)

District 6 (Kim Bernice Nguyen’s old seat – termed out?)

• Tri Lam (biomedical engineer) vs.
• Ariana Arestegui (campaign finance director)

HUNTINGTON BEACH

The City where the 4 Republican incumbents are pure anti-American MAGA Culture-Warrior Kleptocrats, and the 3 Democrat incumbents are smart, honest, and ALL UP FOR RE-ELECTION! The majority will still suck even if all 3 Democrats win re-election, but there’ll be no getting back sanity in Surf City any time soon if they don’t!

And no districts. Vote for THREE. The OJ urges votes for the 3 Democrat incumbents Kalmick, Moser & Bolton.

• Butch Twining (businessman / HB commissioner)
• Amory Hanson (historic resources boardman)
• Natalie Moser (incumbent & attorney)
• Marissa Jackson (MOTHER!)
• Rhonda Bolton (incumbent, appointed when Tito Ortiz buggered off to Florida)
• Don Kennedy (businessman / HB commissioner)
• Dan Kalmick (BRILLIANT incumbent)
• Chad Williams (Navy SEAL speaker)

Elected City Clerk (incumbent Robin Estanislau)

• Regina M. Blankenhorn (Municipal Executive Coordinator)
• Lisa Lane Barnes (businesswoman / HB commissioner)

Elected City Treasurer

• Alicia Blackstrom (incumbent) vs. NOBODY!

IRVINE

Irvine’s FIRST DISTRICT ELECTIONS! (As always, read Irvine Watchdog for the best Irvine political news.)

LINKS IN NAMES ARE TO CANDIDATE STATEMENTS! THANKS, IRVINE!

Irvine does offer one strong argument for ruthless dictatorship: Republicans did a far better better job of clearing the field for their preferred candidates in these races. You could really see a Republican Mayor and four awful Councilmembers thanks to the lack of intraparty competition relative to Democrats. So I’m deferring more to DPOC this year than I’d prefer. (and if ever a city was educated enough to make Ranked-Choice Voting work, surely Irvine would be a prime contender!)

MAYOR! (incumbent Farrah Khan):

• Felipe Delgado (Automation Project Manager)
• Larry Agran (current vice-mayor; and, dude, it’s Agran.)
• Wing Chow (retired CPA)
• Akshat “Ab” Bhatia (realtor / entrepeneur)
• Tammy Kim (current councilwoman, DPOC-endorsed)
• Ron Scolesdang (business owner)
• Lee Sun (Irvine finance commissioner)

Greg here: OK, hear me out, because my take in the Agran vs. Tammy race is an unusual one. If you see Vern change the color of Lee (Liqing) Sun’s name to orange, you’ll know he agrees. If he puts his rarely-used purple over Tammy Kim’s name as the most effective anti-Agran vote, I can appreciate that; it’s what I might be doing without this option to support a viable candidate. But Sun does seem to be a viable candidate. [Later note: given that Scolesdang, a former MMA fighter who looks like he may be Thai, has the OCGOP’s endorsement, I’m a little more concerned about him winning — which could push me back to supporting DPOC-endorsed Tammy. As of Oct. 25, I’m equivocating]

I’m looking at donors rather than endorsements because they essentially function as such in this environment — but they are also something tangible. Endorsement a way for a donor — especially a candidate! — to publicly “lay claim” to a relationship with a given recipient candidate, especially when that bond is strengthened by the recipient’s reciprocal contribution.

Among Mayoral candidates as of the Sept. 21 reports, Tammy Kim (hereinafter just “Tammy”) had $85,750 raised and a $121,157 cash balance after expenditures. (presumably the difference would have come from funds left over after prior campaigns.) Agran had $53,597 ($25K of it his own loan, which I believe is refundable at that level) raised and a $31,193 cash balance after expenditures. No other candidate but Sun had raised over $7,300. But Lee Sun had raised $53,147 ($30K from his own loan) and had a $32,536 cash balance after expenditures. On paper — and not counting a suppliant newspaper (owned by another) — he and Agran are essentially even. So I looked at their donors (limited to those found in Jeremy Ficaroli’s analysis in the Watchdog, linked above.)

For Agran, Carolyn Inmon led the list, along with what I take to be some Agran-appointed commissioners.

Tammy has the “smart money” on her, including each of the mostly cross-donating viable candidates in the four district races: I’d consider Melinda Liu (D1) and William Go (D2) to be the second-best in their races, respectively behind Jackie Kan and Jeff Starke; I consider Jing Sun (D3), and Ayn Craciun (D4) to be the best candidates in theirs. (Tammy, Liu, Go, Sun, and Cracian all have the DPOC’s endorsement.) Again, if a Democrat wants to run for an Irvine district seat this year, you publicly endorse Tammy with a contribution. But nobody has done that for Agran. (That’s telling!) The only other “notable donor” to a Mayoral candidate included by Ficarola — who himself acknowledges having donated to “leftward” candidates Jeff Starke (D2), Jing Sun (D3) and Ayn Craciun (D4) — came when D1 candidate Jackie Kan donated to Lee Sun. (I have no idea whether Lee Sun and D3 candidate Jing Sun, whom I also like, are related, but “Sun” is a pretty common Korean name.) His ballot statement, which you can read here, is also exemplary.

What I take from this analysis is that Agran is very unlikely to win, unless all this is missing something. I don’t think he’s going to have IEs; he has burned too many bridges by now. So if you’re trying to have any shot of beating Tammy Kim from the left — or for that matter from the reformist or libertarian right, given that Tammy accepted a big donation from the Firefighters Association to beat back the abortive recall against her — then Lee Sun is pretty much your only option.

That said, even given that Lee Sun is the best alternative, is defeating Tammy Kim even worth attempting? I think that, even without the threat of Agran, it’s absolutely worth showing the flag. Tammy does have some areas of concern, but what I find most of concern is whether she’s going to be a self-serving politician, beholden to special interests and the benefits that associating with them brings to her. Many or even most of the significant outside forces acting upon on a City Mayor propel them towards corruption in the broad sense of putting personal or political interests above fealty to constituents. I haven’t made enough of a study of Tammy to know how seriously I take these concerns with respect to her, but even without close attention I get whiffs of smoke around her that I find disturbing. So yes: the more votes a principled progressive gets against her, even in defeat, the more likely she’ll be not to stray from the path of honest services. And, of course, retaliatory or provocative actions towards the 4-6 challengers from the left in Irvine’s election would be a huge red flag. We should all remember that Farrah did not start out as what she became.

All that said, it’s starting to look to me like the endorsed Republican candidate Ron Scolesdang, who despite his name appears to be Southeast Asian MMA fighter, has a real chance.

District 1 (short-term)

• Melinda Liu (Irvine commissioner / attorney)
• Michelle Johnson (Irvine planning commissioner)
• John Park (Irvine commissioner / businessman)
• Jeff Kitchen (systems engineer)
• Jackie Kan (small businesswoman)

[GAD: My heart says Jackie Kan … but my brain says that the most important thing is not to have James Mai’s candidate Skeevy John Park in this position. (Melinda Liu seems to have the most powerful institutional support (Reina Ada, Tammy Kim, William Go, Mary Anne Foo) , and more importantly trusted names like Kathleen Treseder, Naz Hamid — and especially Jing Sun, who is taking on James “Warthog” Mai in District 3. (Neshanian likes Johnson, the apparent Agranista candidate. There’s a case for that, but here she seems like a spoiler where we can’t afford one. If I can give up Kan, he can give up Johnson.)

DISTRICT 2 (see Vern’s story on this race).

• William Go (Irvine commissioner / businessman / endorsed by DPOC)
• Parrisa Yazdani (commissioner / businesswoman / legally troubled Farrah protege)
• Gang Chen (architect / author / businessman / Republican choice)
• Mohamed Kothermydeen (IT service manager)
• Jeff Starke (Irvine finance commissioner / Irvine Watchdog choice)

[GAD: Again, Republicans have cleared their field for Gang Chen, who despite low contributions may be listed on party slate mailers. Yazdani does not seem likely to be a factor. Go will pretty clearly beat Starke. So be it. That ought to free me up to support the one who should win: Starke. Yazdani’s sole “notable” contribution is from Republican Anthony Kuo, which tells you whose interests she’s serving here. If you’re most worried about beating Gang Chen and his, um, under $5,000 of contributions (no idea about IEs), you can Go with Go; but I’d Stay with Starke!]

Yazdani, Starke, Go –
Dan C. frets that the existence of two decent Democrats in the race
could hand it to the crooked & unstable Yazdani, and he could be right.

District 3

• James Mai (right-wing race-baiting troll)
• Tom Chomyn (Irvine commissioner)
• Jing Sun (Irvine commissioner / Democrats’ choice)

“Warthog” Mai (not his real nickname, but I’m trying to keep it clean here given the extra readership this will get) raised the fewest funds of the three, which to be honest is extremely gratifying. Almost all of his funds come from a $40,889 loan he gave his campaign — and as of the Watchdog’s last report he had $39,944 left unspent. That looks like a guy who thinks that he’ll get his entire loan back if some sucker will just give him another $945 of their own hard-earned money. DO NOT GIVE IT TO HIM! Thanks to his patron, sub-Democrat Supervisor Doug Chaffee, he’s been able to avoid most consequences for his actions, but I promise you — if we can keep him below raising $945 more, we’ll be enjoying this humiliation for years to come!

OK! Jing Sun’s statement is very strong, showing not only familiarity with the business of governing but also the degree of trust and respect that his colleagues evidently have had for him.. James Mai’s statement is J.D. Vance-level pap (sadly, heds take that as a compliment) and leaves out that his very presence drove good people off of the County’s Housing Commission in protest. Tom Chomyn’s statement is nice, but largely limited to quality of life issues in a city that is large and significant enough to have much gnarlier problems. Non-MAGA Republicans who appreciate outdoors recreational opportunities and dislike abetting racial hatred might want a look at it. But I hope that Democrats and independents will go with Jing Sun.

District 4

• Mike Carroll (corrupt Republican incumbent)
• Ayn Craciun (nonprofit director / environmentalist / Democrats’ choice)

LA HABRA

No districts, pick three!

• Delwin “Del” Lampkin (deputy sheriff / consultant)
• Rose Espinoza (Mayor Pro-Tem, incumbent forever, “infamous garage” someone said)
• Susan M. Pritchard (School Board member)
• Michelle Bernier (La Habra Commissioner)
• Daren Nigsarian (Mayor)
• Carrie Surich (appointed incumbent Councilwoman)

LA PALMA

Just started Districts! District 1:

• Debbie S. Baker (incumbent Councilwoman)

District 3:

• Vikesh P. Patel (engineer / ASSISTANT SCOUTMASTER!)

District 5:

• Mark Waldman (incumbent councilman / business owner)

LAGUNA BEACH

No Districts! PICK TWO!

• Judie Mancuso (businesswoman / nonprofit CEO)
• Hallie Jones (nonprofit executive commissioner)
• George Weiss (incumbent councilman)
• Bob Whalen (incumbent councilman / finance attorney)
• Anne Marie McKay (incumbent councilwoman)

Elected City Treasurer:

• Laurie Parisi (incumbent treasurer / CPA) unopposed

LAGUNA HILLS

No Districts (and they think they can get away with that forever!) PICK TWO:

• Jared Mathis (business owner / CEO)
• Neel Patel (actuarial analytics director)
• Don Caskey (incumbent councilman / businessman)

(Mayor Janine “of Arc” Heft termed out?)

LAGUNA NIGUEL – No Elections!!! (???)

How did THIS happen? Nobody wants to serve with Gennawey and Jennings?

LAGUNA WOODS

No districts, pick three!

• Eun Ju “Pearl” Lee (retired business co-owner)
• James Ping-Ya Tung (retired geologist / geophysicist)
• Shari L. Horne (incumbent Mayor Pro-Tem)
• Cynthia S. Conners (incumbent councilwoman)

LAKE FOREST

District 1:

• Doug Cirbo (incumbent)

District 5:

• Robert Pequeno (incumbent)

woo-hoo! The excitement in Lake Forest is “pequeno.”

LOS ALAMITOS

District 1:

• Tanya Doby (incumbent councilwoman / business owner)
• Wendy Grose [GROSE? From Los Al??] (doctor / nurse practitioner)

District 2:

• Gary Loe (planning commissioner)
• Trisha Murphy (appointed incumbent councilwoman)

District 3:

• Jordan Nefulda (incumbent) unopposed!

NEWPORT BEACH

[Do they still have those phony faux-“districts” like Santa Ana used to, where each candidate has to live in a different district, but run city-wide?]

District 2 (incumbent Brad Avery – termed out or quitting?)

• Michelle Barto (business owner)
• Nancy Scarborough (business owner)

District 5:

• Jeff Herdman (community volunteer)
• Noah Blom (incumbent councilman)

District 7:

• Miles Patricola (man of mystery)
• Sara J. Weber (CPA / business owner)

ORANGE

MAYOR – Mayor Dan Slater running unopposed!

District 2 – Councilman Jon Dumitru running unopposed!

District 3 – Councilwoman Kathy Tavoularis running unopposed!

District 5 – Councilwoman Ana Gutierrez running unopposed!

¿SERIO?

CITY CLERK – Pamela Coleman running unopposed!

CITY TREASURER – and we have a race!

• Eugene Fields – Public Information Officer / Democrat Insider vs.
• Garrett P. Smith – Finance Professional

UPDATE: I didn’t want to be hostile to Eugene just because he’s always hostile to us, but I’ve heard from Orange Democrats who are going to support Smith, whatever Party he’s in, basically because “Treasurer is a MATH job; Smith has math skills while Eugene has PR skills. Plus, Eugene is cozy with (former mayor) Mark Murphy who let our city’s finances fail.” Yeah, treasurer whose skills are PR – that does sound like a recipe for disaster. [UPDATE – see Eugene’s response to this here.]

PLACENTIA

District 1 (incumbent Rhonda Shader – termed out?)

• Thomas Hummer (educator)
• Joshua Correa (minister – hey I know him! Thought he lived in Anaheim.)

District 3

• Jeremy Yamaguchi (current Mayor, business owner)
• Kenneth Stevenson (educator)

District 5

• Colson Teal (political science student)
• Ward L. Smith (incumbent councilman)

City Treasurer – Treasurer Kevin Larson running unopposed

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA

THEIR FIRST DISTRICT ELECTIONS (thanks to our friends’ lawsuit)

MAYOR

• Tony Mata (real estate broker)
• Myrta Rivera (community volunteer)
• TONY BEALL (who has run that town for decades, and we have a lot of problems with him.)

District 3:

• Carol Gamble (current Mayor who broke the law getting her sigs for this race – story coming!)
• Keri Lynn Baert (community volunteer – NO!) Nonprofit Business Executive. Keri has reached out to us. RSM’s city clerk told her that “somebody had a problem” with her Nonprofit Business Executive designation, and had threatened a lawsuit, so the clerk would not allow that! Sounds like RSM. We will be talking more to Keri, and maybe doing a whole story about Rancho Santa Margarita. Part of her platform is TERM LIMITS, which RSM really needs, she’s also running against the current council’s waste and irresponsibility. For now, check out BAERT4RSM.COM. Sounds like we’ll be endorsing Keri! Greg Adds: Under the rules I’m familiar with, challenges to ballot designations have to be filed within 10 days (or so) of the filing deadline. It should have been brought by the “someone” who presented the objection and as I recall it is filed with the court. It’s not the Clerk’s role to simply impose such a sanction. Again, if I understand the situation and the current rules, this is the sort of things cities get sued for and employees get sued over. Looks like we may have found the “government sponsored election interference” that Trump is always nattering about — and of course it’s in a deep red part of OC.

ROSSMOOR Community Services District

Pick Three:

• Tony De Marco (incumbent)
• Mary Ann Remnet (community volunteer)
• Konya Vivanti (environmental manager)
• Nathan Searles (incumbent, friend of the blog)

SAN CLEMENTE

THEIR FIRST DISTRICT ELECTION! (thanks to our friends’ lawsuit!)

District 3

• Rick Loeffler (incumbent Councilman)
• Amanda Quintanilla (registered nurse)
• Lois McNicoll (retired manager)
• Angela Watts (business owner)

District 4

• Zhen Wu (business owner – we endorsed him in ’22)
• Sarah Schneider (library media technician)

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO

District 1

• Sergio Farias (current Mayor) vs.
• Jesse “Chip” Nelson (business owner)

That’s ALL???

SANTA ANA

Where the police union, developers & landlords are trying to knock off at least ONE progressive councilmember, while the progressives are trying to knock off Mayor Valerie!

MAYOR:

• Mayor Valerie Amezcua the Lamentable, vs.
• Progressive Councilman / teacher Ben Vasquez!

WARD 1:

• Julie Tran, small business owner (beauty salons) vs.
• Incumbent Councilwoman Thai Viet Phan!

WARD 3:

• Jessie Lopez, incumbent Councilwoman who fought off a recall last year! vs.
• Jeffrey Katz, lawyer / businessman / Zionist activist

WARD 5:

• Johnathan Hernandez, incumbent Councilman, vs.
• Mario Alvarado, city commissioner / business owner

We support Santa Ana’s 4 progressives – naturally!

SEAL BEACH

District 2 (incumbent Thomas Moore, termed out?)

• Ben Wong (planning commissioner / business owner, running unopposed)

District 4 (incumbent Schelly Sustarsic, termed out?)

• Patty Senecal (businesswoman running unopposed)

NO DRAMA IN SEAL BEACH!

STANTON

District 2:

• Victor Barrios (special education teacher) vs.
• Incumbent councilwoman Hong Alyce Van

(The Kleptoscribe Matt Cunningham has been trying hard to prove that Alyce doesn’t really spend most of her time in district 2 but nearby. Don’t know why, Victor Barrios tells me he has no idea why Matt is doing that.)

District 4 (incumbent Carol Warren, termed out)

• Mike Montgomery (journeyman electrician) vs.
• John Douglas Warren (commissioner / businessman… Warren? Ah, the old family hand-off!)

TUSTIN

First District Elections! District 1

• Lee Fink (OC commissioner & educator. Also crack attorney & Beckie Gomez’ endorsed successor!) vs.
• Tanner Douthit (commissioner / businessman)
  • Greg says: Never judge someone by their worst moment, especially if it’s transitory, out of character, brought about by an attack on his child, he’s apologized for it, and it’s being touted by anonymous partisans in league with people spending more on this one district race than Tustin has usually seen spend on all its races.

District 2

• Bill Esbit (retired business owner)
• Nathan Yeargin (chiropractor)
• John Nielsen (East OC Water Board)

District 4

• Ryan Gallagher (Councilman / Engineer)
• Lana Clay (advocacy director)

VILLA PARK

PICK TWO! Probably not the most likely little homogenous place for district elections.

• Robert Frackelton (business owner)
• Lawrence Talebi (administrator)
• Kelly McBride (building repair contractor)
• Yan Killy (technical marketing engineer)

WESTMINSTER

District 2

• Hauwie Tieu (business owner)
• Thanh Dang (businessman / engineer)
• Carlos Manzo (worthy incumbent councilman)

District 3 (incumbent Kimberly Ho – termed out? Can she stop pretending to live in Westminster now?)

• Mark Nguyen (sanitary director / engineer)
• Joseph Ngo (business owner / traffic commissioner)
• K C Wolbert (business owner / contractor)

YORBA LINDA

No districts – VOTE FOR THREE!

• Peggy Huang (longtime incumbent councilwoman, but “appointed” – ?)
• Anthony Johnson (commissioner / businessman)
• Tara Campbell (incumbent Mayor)
• Jess Battaglia (businessman / parks commissioner)
• Shivinder Singh (commissioner / business owner)
  • Greg says: I know that longtime OCGOP figure Peggy Huang is bad news. I don’t recall my previous thoughts on Tara Campbell, but I doubt that anyone becomes YL Mayor in an election year, so let’s churn the Council by promoting all three brave commissioners. P.S.: YL really should have districts, even if they think it makes their living there less gracious.

Vern says, poor Yorba Linda sure has slim pickings for Council. BUT we’re a YES on JJ & KK – read here!

**************

School Boards

NORTH ORANGE COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

Trustee District 2:

• Jack Daniel Fennell, construction project manager vs.
• Ed Lopez, incumbent trustee and OG of the Anaheim Democrats Club

Ed Lopez continues to do a masterful job in this position. Working along another Lopez and one fewer Bent will make him all the more effective.

Trustee District 5 (incumbent Jackie Rodarte, retiring)

• Mark Lopez (currently on the Anaheim ELEMENTARY SD), vs.
• Steve Slawson (businessman.)

Trustee Area 7:

• Ryan Bent (incumbent trustee) [NOTE: ORIGINALLY MARKED IN ORANGE BY MISTAKE!]
• Kyle Miller (education policy advisor)

Miller comes highly recommended. Bent comes highly unrecommended based on his performance.

COAST COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

Trustee Area 2 (incumbent Jerry Patterson finally retiring)

• Joe Dovinh (GG councilmember – see our classic 2010 interview with him!)
• Phu Nguyen (FV school board & old OJ friend)
• Linda Zamora (small business owner)

RANCHO SANTIAGO COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

Trustee Area 3 (incumbent Sal Tinajero leaving)

• Cecilia Iglesias (“educator / policy advisor” and rightwing culture warrior)
• Andrew Linares (business owner)
• Nelida Mendoza (retired teacher – and former Santa Ana councilwoman)
• Audrey Y Noji (retired college administrator)

Trustee Area 5

• Mayra Ruiz (businesswoman)
• David Crockett (incumbent trustee)

Trustee Area 7

• Tina Arias Miller (incumbent trustee, pal of Gerry Serrano but I guess we’re letting that go?)
• Tony Castro (political science student – hey wasn’t he a fake candidate in Fullerton in 2022?)

SOUTH O.C. COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT

Trustee Area 1

• Carolyn Inmon (incumbent trustee)
• Katherine Daigle (writer / journalist)
• Marlene Bronson (businesswoman)

Trustee Area 3

• Rocky Cifone (retired college educator)
• Lisa A. Bartlett (businesswoman, corrupt former OC Supervisor)

Trustee Area 6

• Michael Franklin (college teacher)
• Ryan Dack (incumbent trustee – we endorsed him last time.)

Trustee Area 7

• Carl J. David (military education executive)
• Tim Jemal (incumbent trustee)

CAPISTRANO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

[Hey! We were part of this district GETTING district elections back in 2010!]

Trustee Area 1

• Amy Hanacek (incumbent trustee)
• Jennifer Adnams (teacher)

Trustee Area 2

• Michael Parham (incumbent trustee)
• Lisa Zollinger (teacher / businesswoman)

Trustee Area 3

• Lisa Davis (incumbent trustee)
• Sherine Smith (retired school superintendent; we endorsed her for OCBE in 2020)

Trustee Area 5

• Sonia Terwiske (Aliso Viejo businesswoman)
• Krista Castellanos (incumbent trustee)

GARDEN GROVE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Trustee Area 1

• Nicholas Dibs (teacher, nonprofit CEO)
• Teri Rocco (incumbent trustee)

Note: Due to a conflict of interest I have to sit this one out.

Trustee Area 5

• Khai Do (journalist / radio host – we know him as an honest guy)
• Dina Nguyen (incumbent trustee – this blog is full of material of Dina as both homophobe and Poseidon lover; she also once left me a bunch of strange late-night texts about Chinese foot-binding)

LAGUNA BEACH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

No districts, VOTE FOR 2:

• Howard Hills (“constitutional lawyer,” author)
• Sheri Morgan (businesswoman)
• Lauren Boeck (community volunteer)
• Jan Vickers (incumbent trustee)
• Margaret Mary Warder (retired LB educator)

LOS ALAMITOS UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Trustee Area 4

• Farnaz Pardasani (nonprofit board member)
• L. Bobby Papoulias (professor / entrepeneur)

Trustee Area 5

• Perla Mendoza (community volunteer)
• Matt Bragman (school administrator)

NEWPORT-MESA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

Trustee Area 1

• Leah Ersoylu (incumbent trustee)
• Robin Mensinger (businesswoman – hey, her husband Steve was a CM councilman, an angry rightwing guy.)

Trustee Area 3

• Carol Crane (incumbent trustee)
• Philip Stemler (deputy DA)

Trustee District 6

• Amy Peters (businesswoman)
• Chris Kretzu (design consultant)
• Krista Weigand (incumbent trustee)

ORANGE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

This district has just been through a reactionary shitstorm, and thanks to the hard work of normal parents and teachers, has come out of it – read Vern’s latest update!

Trustee Area 3

• Ana Page (incumbent trustee)
• Dzung “Dan” Nguyen (mysterious businessman & dad of rightwing blogger Chris)

Trustee Area 4, short-term

• Sara Pelly (appointed incumbent trustee)
• Mando Perez-Serrato (perennial candidate)

Trustee Area 7, short-term

• Dr. Stephen Glass (appointed incumbent trustee, boogieman to Matt Cunningham)
• Steve Rocco (“writer,” perennial candidate)

PLACENTIA – YORBA LINDA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

(A VERY IMPORTANT RACE, in the aftermath of the redemption of OUSD and Temecula for public education champions!)

Trustee Area 1 (incumbent Shawn Youngblood – gone?)

• Tricia Quintero (teacher)
• Ryan James Miller (business owner)
• Nicolas Cardenas (had a kid or two)

Trustee Area 2

• Marilyn Anderson (incumbent trustee)
• Maria “Lupita” Stubbs (engineer)

Trustee Area 3

• MISTY JANSSEN!!! (Marine reservist)
• Leandra Blades (wingnut incumbent extraordinaire, Jan. 6 insurrectionist, political prankster who puts her teenage son in legal jeopardy)

UPDATE – SEE THIS. And vote for Misty Janssen!!!

SADDLEBACK VALLEY USD

Trustee Area 2 (incumbent Edward Wong leaving)

• Scott Miller (Laguna Hills commissioner)
• Michele Sparks (businesswoman)

Trustee Area 3

• Michelle O’Brien (had a kid or two)
• Susie Swartz (incumbent trustee)

NOTE: A commenter informs us that “Michelle O’Brien was former chair of Mission Viejo Moms for Liberty, and has attended meetings asking for book banning.” NOT good!

Trustee Area 4

• Amanda Morrell (incumbent trustee)
• Michael Stannard (businessman / Lake Forest commissioner)

SANTA ANA USD

(which is being sued by some Jewish groups for alleged down-low antisemitism)

Trustee Area 1

• Brenda Lebsack (special ed teacher)
• Rigo Rodriguez (teacher / incumbent trustee)

[NOTE: A commenter informs us that Lebsack is an “anti-woke MAGA nut” and backs this up handily with Lebsack’s “Brenda4Kids” website. Well, SOME voters might like that!]

Trustee Area 2 (currently our friend Carolyn Torres who is leaving – sad face emoticon)

• Valerie Magdaleno (community engagement director)
• Lloyd Boucher-Reyes (taxpayer advocate)

Trustee Area 3

• Alfonso Alvarez (incumbent trustee, who – d’oh! – had a DUI last year)
• Tamiko Anderson (community volunteer)
• Dana Suarez (mental health counselor)

TUSTIN USD

Trustee Area 1

• Allyson Muniz Damikolas (incumbent trustee, and we LOVE her – should have won Congressional primary)
• Joe Portera (lighting control specialist)

Trustee Area 2 (incumbent James Laird, leaving)

• Bill Pevehouse (healthcare technology exec)
• Kathy Copeland (retired nonprofit exec)

Trustee Area 4

• Mark McCallie (small business owner)
• Jonathan Stone (incumbent trustee)

A commenter writes: “Vote Damikolas, Pevehouse, Stone. The opposition is a triad of kooks who see pedophiles, protected by Board policies, under every rock, think Critical Race Theory and gender reassignment therapy are being pushed by woke elementary school teachers and administrators. This is the hydra-headed group that failed at the [Damikolas] Recall trying now to cement a Board majority. Only a matter of time before book banning. If you want this level of kookiness, move to Huntington Beach.”

ANAHEIM UNION HS DISTRICT

Trustee Area 3

• Jose Paolo Magcalas (professor, current Elementary School Board member) finally taking on:
• Katherine Smith (incumbent trustee; ah, the stories I could tell about this ancient Anaheim matron. Some good, some bad. But she has been on the board long enough.)

Trustee Area 4

• Henry Charoen (Centralia school board member – another trying to move on up to AUHSD. Gustavo tells us he used to be a La Palma Mayor so WEIGH THAT HEAVILY!)
• Brian O’Neal (incumbent trustee)

Trustee Area 5, short term

• Ron Hoshi (appointed incumbent trustee)
• Steve Blount (trustee on North OC CCD)

UPDATE: Hearing from lots of people on both NOCCCD AND AUHSD that Hoshi deserves to stay. I won’t repeat the bad things they’re saying about Blount, who has tried but failed to get the DPOC endorsement.)

HUNTINGTON BEACH UNION HS DISTRICT

Trustee Area 3

• Susan Henry (incumbent trustee)
• Leeann Corrall (teacher)

ANAHEIM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT

Trustee Area 1

• Jackie Filbeck (incumbent trustee)
• Ryan J. Hall (business development executive)

Trustee Area 3

• Julie Diep (disability rights advocate)
• Matthew Mariscal (small business owner, friend of the blog, running for Magcalas’ old seat; endorsed by Magcalas, Filbeck, Jose Moreno, Mark Lopez & other Anaheim education stalwarts)

BUENA PARK SCHOOL DISTRICT

Trustee Area 3

• Michael Jensen (Areospace engineering executive)
• Tharwa Ahmad (incumbent trustee)

CENTRALIA SCHOOL DISTRICT

Trustee Area 3 (incumbent Liz Gonzalez, leaving)

• Angela Hernandez (business owner)
• Thomas Barraza (business owner)

UPDATE: Barraza reached out to tell us he’s been endorsed by the incumbent Liz Gonzalez, and he’ll be writing more about his platform and qualifications in the comments. Update Update: Tom came to our Anaheim Democrats Club meeting, and what a great guy!

CYPRESS SCHOOL DISTRICT

Trustee Area A

• Carrie Hayashida (incumbent trustee)
• Steve Shanahan (business owner)

Trustee Area E

• Candi Kern (incumbent trustee)
• Jaime Needham (teacher)

FOUNTAIN VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT

No districts, pick two:

• Huy Tran, assistant principal
• Ashley Ramirez, education administrator
• Steven Schultz, incumbent trustee

FULLERTON SCHOOL DISTRICT

Trustee Area 2

• James Cho (lieutenant colonel)
• Hilda Sugarman (incumbent trustee)

Trustee Area 5

• Leonel Talavera (incumbent trustee)
• Vanesa Estrella (business owner; backed by Kitty Jaramillo & DPOC)

HUNTINGTON BEACH CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

Trustee Area 1 (vacant)

• Cindy Barrios (had a kid or two)
• Brian Burley (educational systems administrator; isn’t this the guy who ran for several things, with the slogan “Make HB Great Again?”

LA HABRA CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT

Full term, No districts, vote for TWO:

• Ofelia Corona Hanson (incumbent trustee)
• Bertha Manzanares (social services manager)
• Justin Rodgers (incumbent trustee)

Short term, vote for ONE:

• Minerva Gomez! (compliance director; and a good old friend of mine – “homita!”)
• Barbara Gastelum (registered cardiac sonographer)

OCEAN VIEW SCHOOL DISTRICT

No districts; Gina up for re-election; Westwell weary of causing mischief & leaving; pick TWO:

• Keith Jorgensen (investor / realtor)
• Keri Gorsage (teacher)
• David Clifford (executive / businessman)
• Gina Clayton-Tarvin (incumbent trustee & HB hero)
• John Briscoe (former trustee; broker / business owner / maverick Republican)

Well THAT race is easy – Gina and Briscoe are great!

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WATER & SANITARY DISTRICTS

SERRANO WATER DISTRICT

Div. 2:

• Robert “Robbie” Pitts, sanitation director
• Mike Pelly, appointed incumbent

COSTA MESA SANITARY DISTRICT

Div 2, Brett Eckles incumbent (leaving?)

• Shaun Patrick Ferryman (man of mystery)
• Nicole Wiltshire (small business owner)
• Mark Shaffer (community relations manager)

MIDWAY CITY SANITARY DISTRICT – the Valhalla of Little Saigon politicians!

No districts, pick two! ON YOUR MARK, GET SET… (I bet this pays good!)

• Tyler Diep, reptilian incumbent
• Khai Do, journalist / radio host / friend of the blog
• Anh “Andy” Nguyen, business owner
• Chi Charlie Nguyen, incumbent
• Namquan Nguyen, Westminster councilman / businessman
• Amy Phan West, crazy MAGA Westminster councilwoman

SUNSET BEACH SANITARY DISTRICT

Vote for FOUR!!! (One unlucky candidate gets VOTED OFF THE BOARD!)

• John Dentzer, chemical engineer
• David Evans, incumbent
• Graham Hoad, incumbent
• Peter Amundson, small businessman
• John Woods, incumbent

IRVINE RANCH WATER DISTRICT – the BEST water district!

Div. 4 – incumbent Karen McLaughlin (leaving?)

• Daniel Ferons (water resources manager)
• Steven Allison (environmental science professor)
• Ron Semon (real estate broker)

MOULTON NIGUEL WATER DISTRICT

PICK FOUR – ONE unlucky candidate will be voted off next year’s board! (But you should only vote for three!)

• Richard Fiore, incumbent
• Hossein “Milo” Ebrahimi, from a sanitary board
• BRIAN PROBOLSKY? LOLOL incumbent
• DUANE CAVE, the DEI-fighting, Mayor-marrying Duane Cave. Wait – he doesn’t live in this district any more if he (as people are saying) is living in Rancho Santa Margarita with his wife Mayor Gamble. What gives??? [Anyone from here feel like filing a quo warranto suit?]
• Sherry Wanninger, incumbent.

SANTA MARGARITA WATER DISTRICT

Division 3

• Betty Olson, incumbent
• Gretha Solorzano, retired nuclear engineer

EAST O.C. WATER DISTRICT

Division 1

• Paul Jones, water resources engineer
• John Sears, incumbent

OC WATER DISTRICT (the notorious OCWD)

Div 2

• Mando Perez-Serrato – no designation, but he’s also running for Orange USD, and US President!
• Denis Bilodeau, incumbent & Orange Councilman. Dude, how long have you been there? Well, you got another four years

Div 3

• Monique Davis, nonprofit CEO
• Roger Yoh, longtime incumbent who was a staunch opponent of Poseidon!
• Al Nederhood from the MWD

Div 6

• Nile Morgan, army forward observer
• Cathy Green, incumbent – UGH. She’s been the worst (along with Dewane and Sheldon.) Can an “army forward observer” really take her out? (Whoops that didn’t sound right)

Div 7

• Bob Ooten, environmental engineer
• Erik Weigand, incumbent (DON’T know him.)

TRABUCO CANYON WATER DISTRICT – PICK TWO (Don Chadd leaving)

• Barbara Jean Foster, business owner
• Stephen Dopujda, incumbent
• John Horst, man of mystery
• Mark Anderson, civil engineer
• Stanley Kirst Jr, retired civil engineer

MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT (the notorious MWD)

Div. 4

• Pano Frousiakis, nonprofit executive
• Karl Seckel, incumbent

Div. 6

• Jeffrey Thomas, incumbent
• Frank Gomez, chemistry professor
• Pramod Kunju, business owner

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STATE BALLOT MEASURES!

Greg explains, helpfully: Propositions # 2-6 are referenda, sent to the voters by the State Legislature. Propositions #32-36 are State Initiatives, qualified by voter signatures. Collectively, they are called “propositions.” Local (county and city) ballot measures will be in their own section, SOON!

Greg will write at length below how we came to our decisions, but to keep things simple here’s how WE’RE voting:

• Prop 2 School Bonds Yes.
• Prop 3 Erase 2008’s anti-gay Prop 8 – HELL YES.
• Prop 4 environmental bonds Yes.
• Prop 5 Make Local Bonds easier yes.
• Prop 6 end forced prison labor YES.
• Prop 32 raise minimum wage YES.
• Prop 33 enable expanded rent control YES!!!
• Prop 34 dirty landlord trick HELL NO.
• Prop 35 Medi-Cal improvement Yes.
• Prop 36 restart drug war NO.

Statewide Propositions

Greg here: I am using the proposition descriptions from the DPOC website, which I’m sure are biased, because the OCGOP did not provide their own titles. After each, I give a sense of what the measure actually does. Please refer to the voter pamphlet that was sent to you if you want more information. (You probably don’t, though non-readers of this post probably want it even less.)

Also note: I’m simplifying my task this year (due to the demands of my allegedly non-existent job) by mostly noting where the two major parties come down of these measures, though time permitting I’ll also add other sources like the League of Women’s Voters. For the most part, your vote will likely depend on which team you root for. But you learn a lot by noting when the clash of the major parties does not exist.

Both, for example, favor the $10BB School Bond proposition, Proposition 2. Why is that? Probably because charter schools, technically being public schools, now benefit from primary and secondary education infrastructure — and if they don’t get their fair share (or more), they may sue over it (an activity that they really seem to enjoy!)

On Proposition 3, the Marriage Equality in the State Constitution Measure, the Dems favor it (naturally) and the Republicans are … did I get that right: “neutral”? Huh, that’s a change. This probably tells you that while the CA GOP doesn’t mind disappointing pro-LGBT+ voters, it does not want to antagonize pro-LBGT+ donors, many of whom are willing to put up with indifference (they’re used to it) but not actual bigotry. Lavender money is green too!

Moving down to the initiatives, the Renters’ Rights initiative Prop 33 (where the parties disagree) suggests that the DPOC (which may or may not be reflecting the CDP) is not especially afraid of the landlords. But Prop 34 may tell a different story, one of possible capitulation to landlord and medical interests, which I’ll address in detail below.

The final anomaly in the parties’ responses is that both of them are in favor of Prop 35. It would permanently extend a program that is currently scheduled to sunset in 2026. It taxes managed health care insurance programs to pay for health care services (including primary and specialty care, emergency care, family planning, and prescription drugs) for low-income families with children, seniors, disabled persons, and other Med-Cal recipients. Good for both parties!

OK, below are the positions of the local parties on all of the statewide measures. The above exceptions to a clear split of party positions are noted above; on the rest, you can figure out what party’s positions you favor and then go with that.

Prop 2. – “Repair, upgrade, local public schools”
IT ACTUALLY: Authorizes $10BB over 35 years to build, repair, and upgrade K-12 schools and community colleges.
DEM: YES — OJB AGREES
GOP: YES

Prop. 3 – “Uphold California principles of equality and justice”
IT ACTUALLY: Codifies Marriage Equality in the State Constitution.
DEM: YES — OJB AGREES
GOP: NEUTRAL

Prop. 4 – “Protects drinking water, prevents wildfires”
IT ACTUALLY: Authorizes $10BB for 40 years as follows:

• $3.8BB for ensuring clean and sufficient water supply and flood prevention/amelioration
• $1.5BB for forest health and wildfire prevention
• $1.2BB for ameliorating risks of sea level rise, restoring coastal areas, and protecting sea life
• $1.2BB for land and habitat preservation
• $850MM for renewable energy infrastructure, such as offshore wind farms
• $700MM to expand, renovate, and repair local and state parks
• $450MM reduce effects of extreme heat on communities
• $300MM help farms withstand climate change effects and increase sustainability

Will there be pork barrel spending. Probably. Will spending favor the already comfortable and powerful? Probably. Is this a good agenda for authorizing state borrowing for withstanding climate change? Yes.
DEMS: YES — OJB AGREES
GOP: NO

Prop. 5 – “Creates more affordable housing for families”
IT ACTUALLY: Allows cities/counties to pass affordable housing bonds with a reduced 55% vote margin
DEMS: YES — OJB AGREES
GOP: NO

Prop. 6 – “Involuntary servitude is slavery”
IT ACTUALLY:
DEMS: YES
GOP: NO

Prop. 32 – “Raises minimum wage”
IT ACTUALLY:
DEMS: YES
GOP: NO

Prop. 33 – “Facilitates local rent control ordinances” (opposed by California Apartment Association)
IT ACTUALLY: Allows city and county rent control ordinances by repealing the Costa-Hawkins Act.
DEMS: YES — OJB AGREES (See yeson33.org to learn why this is not a a “trojan horse” and will not make affordable housing impossible — CAA itself is a big reason that it’s so difficult!)
GOP: NO

Prop. 34 – “Prevents Nonprofits from Using Surplus Medicaid Bonuses for Additional Services”
IT ACTUALLY: “Revenge Initiative” is an evil abuse of the initiative process. See my extended post.
OJB SAYS: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
DEMS: No recommendation (cowards!)
LA TIMES: NO WAY! (See, it has courage sometimes…)
GOP: YES (knaves!)

Prop. 35 – “Protects patient access to health care”
IT ACTUALLY:
DEMS: YES
GOP: YES

Prop. 36 – “Restarts failed costly war on drugs”
IT ACTUALLY:
DEMS: NO
GOP: YES