The news is out—and it confirms what many of us in Huntington Beach have suspected for months: Gricelda “Gracey” Van Der Mark is not running for re-election to City Council. Instead, she’s throwing her hat into the ring for California’s 72nd Assembly District. Why? Because she knows she has no chance of surviving a re-election bid here at home.
After two years of extreme partisanship, censorship, and culture war chaos, Gracey is jumping ship before the political reckoning catches up to her. Her statement paints a picture of resilience, family, and the American Dream. But let’s not be fooled—this is a strategic retreat disguised as ambition.
Gracey is not a frontrunner because of her accomplishments. She’s a frontrunner because of name recognition driven by media outrage, far-right pandering, and a relentless assault on Huntington Beach’s institutions, from public libraries to public education. Her tenure has been defined not by policy wins, but by division, lawsuits, and national embarrassment. And now, she wants to take that same energy to Sacramento?
Let’s be clear: Huntington Beach deserves better, and so does the 72nd District.
But the last couple days’ political games in Surf City didn’t stop with Gracey’s announcement. Councilmember Chad Williams—himself under fire for campaign finance violations—has now set his sights on retaliating against the Ocean View School District (OVSD) for daring to stand with students, teachers, and families.
After OVSD passed a unanimous resolution supporting Measures A and B—initiatives aimed at restoring democratic integrity to our city—Chad Williams went full authoritarian. He’s now demanding an investigation into the district for “misuse of public resources.” Why? Because they had the audacity to inform parents of their unanimous decision.
It’s rich coming from someone accused of violating HB Municipal Code §2.07.080 by operating two active candidate-controlled committees—an explicit violation of our own campaign laws. Williams’ bogus accusations are a smokescreen to deflect from his own growing scandal. It’s a textbook case of projection.
Instead of addressing rising costs of living, housing needs, and community safety, this Council is playing political whack-a-mole with local educators and school officials. The OVSD board didn’t “campaign”—they took a public position, shared it transparently, and respected democratic process. Chad just didn’t like the message.
So now, we have one councilmember trying to jump to higher office to avoid local accountability, and another trying to silence anyone who calls out his hypocrisy. This is what happens when you elect extremists who care more about political theatrics than public service.
Let this serve as a warning to voters: the same people dismantling trust in Huntington Beach are looking to take their chaos statewide. We must stay informed, stay engaged, and above all—vote with our values and our communities in mind.
The tide is turning. And accountability is coming.
—Tory D. Johnson
Founder, Black Lives Matter Huntington Beach
Columnist, Orange Juice Blog
Every time Gracey is in the news, hundreds of people click on this old piece of mine. Course back when I wrote it, I never imagined she could be Mayor. But then a couple years earlier I woulda laughed if you told me Trump would be President.
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2018/10/embracing-gracey-the-oc-gops-anti-semitic-islamophobic-lorena-bobbit/
The thought of Gracey moving to Assembly reminded me of… somewhere around 2014 when HB Council had this fellow called Matt Harper. This was way before MAGA, and later than the “tea party,” but Matt managed to be both a hardcore rightwinger in some very obnoxious ways WHILE AT THE SAME TIME a kleptocrat pushing the Poseidon boondoggle and other ripoffs in HB. So we were glad when he ran for Assembly, we called that “kicking him upstairs” from city council. And he actually made it, but of course couldn’t do much harm, in Sacramento’s super-minority.
Does anyone think Gracey has a chance in AD 72? (Which is open because Diane Dixon decided she was tired of being impotent in Sacramento and is now running against Katrina for Supe.) Will Gracey be the only Republican running? It seems like the right Democrat could beat her.
That’s a great comparison with Matt Harper—there’s definitely a “kick them upstairs” vibe happening again. The possibility of Gracey Van Der Mark winning the 72nd Assembly District seat is very real, and we’d be foolish to underestimate it. As of right now, it does look like she’s the only Republican in the race, and given the size and voter base of Huntington Beach—California’s 23rd largest city—that could give her a dangerous edge, especially if Democrats fail to unite behind a strong challenger.
But I do believe that the right Democrat could beat her. The district includes parts of more progressive-leaning areas beyond HB, and if someone with both credibility and name recognition steps up, they could absolutely build a coalition of voters tired of culture war antics and focused on real issues like housing, education, and ethics.
Gracey’s record—including her history of antisemitic and conspiratorial social media posts, her role in censoring public comment, and her crusade against affordable housing—should all be front and center in any campaign against her. She’s already shown us who she is as Mayor. Let’s not pretend that wouldn’t carry over to Sacramento.
So the time is now for local Democrats (and moderate independents) to organize, mobilize, and recruit the right candidate. Because yes, she can win if no one stops her.
Yeah, well, though… the worst that comes of sending Gracey to Sacramento is embarrassment.
Republicans can’t get anything they want done in the superminority, that’s why Diane Dixon left that seat.
Hanging her around the neck of every Trump-obsequious Republican might be a pleasant diversion.
Is Phu Nguyen in the district?
Folks, I have some bad news for you. She will have a cushier landing spot than the HB City Council if she doesn’t win an Assembly seat.
I haven’t wanted to write about this yet, because it’s too disgusting to process, but: there is a Huntington Beach to Trump Administration conveyor belt already operating — and so long as she stays loyal (she can) and maybe makes herself more photogenic (only if she will be on-camera) she can be on it. It most likely would lead to Linda McMahon’s Department of Education, where she could work on popularizing her book burning penchant
The precedent? Mike E. Gates — now known as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the federal Department of Justice.
(As a footnote: LAist’s aka KPCC’s Jill Replogle described Huntington Beach as a “conservative city.” It is not. It is a city that was for years dominated by candidates elected due to massive donations by the Lincoln Club — not to be confused with the admirable Lincoln Project, until a hardworking Democratic team finally overcome them — at which point Mikee Gates imposed a coup over the Huntington Beach City Council, in an audacious and specious a manner familiar of what we now see in the Later and Lesser Trump Administration, to prevent them from using City funds without his approval to attack his coup in court. The human (underneath layers of corporate entities such as “Advance” and “Code Four”) who is the effective owner and operator of the Air Show was a man named Kevin Elliot — and the only source in which I could find his name was in a press relief from the firm where Lee Fink works and our old friend Brett Murdock, published on this very site, containing the complaint.) He demanded that HB reimburse him $7MM for losses caused by the cancellation of the third and final day of the Air Show — which was not done by HB’s choice, just as the oil spill was not caused by HB’s own negligence actions of omissions. When the Council stared at him and in essence said “uh, did we suddenly becomes your insurer?”, Elliott spent large to oust the four pesky Democrats on the Council with a crew
who would channel public funds his way. Gates approved the payment, and as punishment was forced to take a position in the Trump Administration, endangering his very soul.)
Another footnote about Gates’s new gig will be in the next comment I post.
The Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights is a familiar name for those watching California politics: former Republican Party Chair Harmeet Dhillon. (So of course she knows Gates.) Gates’s precise scope of responsibility is hard to find, but he is on a motion to dismiss a previous complaints against the fine people at Southwest Key Holdings (private facilities to house children in the penal system and to give them “opportunities” to learn work skills. It’s not hard to guess what sort of issue this case was about; my suspicion is that it was absolutely meritorious.
Here’s a search of mentions of Gates on the DOJ Civil Rights Commission site, where you can see what previous complaints he has dismissed on behalf of his department. So much good work to undo!
This one was a surprise to me: His division seeks to intervene on behalf of “Muslims of Long Island”! A cursory examination shows that what they want to do is to use a few Muslims as a stalking horse to assert greater rights for Christian churches, accusing cities of, for example, treating religious assemblies with fewer rights than, say, movie theaters. All in all it’s just a (breaking of) another brick in the wall (of separation between church and state.)
So he is not, as I imagined, parked solely in an area dealing with voting rights and election law. He has much more than that on his plate.
Good stuff, Greg, you should write a piece on post-HB Gates.
Sadly, one of his longtime antagonists in HB, the guy who nicknamed him Mike E. Gates, died last night from complications of open heart surgery. John Briscoe.
I expect more available time around the beginning of June. Until then, I’m squeezing things in as and where I can.
Oh, damn. He was a good egg in most respects. I hope that he rests in peace (save for some time haunting certain MAGA members of his party, if he feels like getting out a bit.) Condolences to his friends and family, especially (in the former category) his colleague and frequent collaborator Gina Clayton-Tarvin.
I believe that Max Maxenti is running, I think as an independent. He was a pro-Occupy Tea Partier back in the day, then sort of “fight the power” MAGA, but now he’s more MAGA than sorta, except I don’t think he’s big on racist. This is from memory and aspects of it may be wrong (like maybe he gave into the darkest corders of the movement?) Better than Gracey in any case.
So why can’t she run for re-election if she fails in a primary election?
Because at this point she will be laughed out of the building. Gracey Van Der Mark has zero chance at local reelection. This is honestly her last shot to stay in the game
It really depends on the big funders, dunnit? If the Air Show guy or the Lincoln Club wants her, she has a good chance at Top Two.
I think you’re whistling in the dark. The woman got elected once. Why not as an incumbent?
She could win a city or school board position if she loses the primary.
Griselda’s self-loathing as a Latina is truly sad. I’ve never met anyone who wants so bad to be white than her. She’s a shoe-in for reelection in HB. That town and her district in particular are full of MAGA mongrels and Republican cultists that will fall all over themselves voting for her again. She’s going to run for Assembly because it’s a paying gig – over $100k a year which is more money than that sorry two-bit hood rat trash has ever seen in her hardscrabble life. If she fails, oh well she has her council seat to fall back on where she can whittle away the day by spewing her bile all over the HB coastline.
When you elect clowns expect a circus.