The Orange Juice Blog 2026 Voters’ Guide!

By
Vern Nelson
– October 9, 2026Posted in: "The OC", 2026 elections, democracy, Fresh Juice


Ballots are on the table getting food and coffee on them, people are bugging “Where is the Orange Juice voters guide?” and it’s time to get to work on that. And it’s true like everyone says every time, “This is the most important election of our lifetime,” and unfortunately that IS true every time these last ten years. But it’s mostly true across the country in other states – there’s not much we can do here in OC & California to take back the Congress and the Senate unless you happen to be able to send money to (or travel and canvass for) these GREAT ESSENTIAL SENATE CANDIDATES which I’ll link here just in case:

That’s the part of this election that’ll save our Constitution, our democracy, our nation, from the radical Trump Republican Party and its march to authoritarianism. But here in Blue California, when WE go to the ballot box, we are trying to save the Democratic Party itself from being taken over by Big Moneyed Interests, Big Tech, A.I., law enforcement unions, Krypto Billionaires, industries that thrive on the status quo; we work hard to elect Democrats who remember what it means to be a Democrat, who answer to the people. And there ARE some.

Yeah, time to make a voters’ guide. It’s easy to not be too excited about most of our choices here in OC & California; the Democrats (who are mostly not TOO bad) will slaughter the Republicans (who are mostly pretty bad.) But here are THREE things that I hope will get you guys excited so you’ll go fill out those ballots before they get lost and fall behind some furniture for good or meet an untimely accidental end in the trash can, and get them in the mail or better a drop box THIS WEEK:

  1. ALL OF YOU are able to vote for the great JANE KIM for Insurance Commissioner!
  2. Nearly HALF of you have a very exciting choice for Assembly: Jessie Lopez, or Chris Kluwe, or Victor Hernandez (Green candidate against Phillip Chen!)
  3. AND VOTE DOWNBALLOT!

Yes, Voting Downballot like so many Democrats and young folks forget to do. Some of your most important votes will be for your local council and mayor, school boards and water boards, judges, local initiatives, and that’s where we aim to help you here. So a couple things:

  • I’ll try to keep this simple and keep most commentary at the bottom, using asterisks!
  • 34 Cities in the County – I can’t know about all of them, and we will want to hear your feedback!
  • And we’ll probably publish this over the weekend and it WON’T BE FINISHED for another few days, and if you want to kick our ass and say, “What about such and such, what about MY city?” feel free and we’ll get to that quickly. But we’d prefer to hear from you ABOUT your city!

OK. We appreciate you valuing our opinions and institutional knowledge, we’ll do our best, maybe Greg will weigh in, and here goes:

STATEWIDE: The Milquetoast Gallery

These are the Democrats who had the most money, name recognition, incumbency, and made it through the primary. With very few exceptions, they are better than the Republicans running against them, and they’ll win whether you vote for them or not, but I’m not gonna ask you not to. With very few exceptions.

  • GOVERNOR: Javier Becerra. We sure don’t want that Trump-Limey Hilton.
  • SECRETARY OF STATE: Shirley Weber. Time to retire Don “Spanky” Wagner.
  • CONTROLLER: Malia Cohen. She seems good, she endorsed Jane Kim.
  • TREASURER: Eleni K, also seems good, also endorsed Jane Kim.
  • ATTORNEY GENERAL: Bonta; at least he’s been fighting Trump. Gates? What a bad joke.

And now here’s where I go off the reservation:

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: Gloria Romero (R.) I know, I know, she’s a basket case, but so is Democrat Fiona Ma. And here’s why I’d pick Gloria instead: There is less danger, as a Republican, of her building on this (pretty meaningless) post to build a future political career, than there is with the corrupt Fiona Ma.

INSURANCE COMMISSIONER: JANE KIM, the ONLY progressive on your statewide ballot, and the only statewide D-vs-D race. Jane got the most votes in the primary, but the State Party, typically, picked the second-place finisher because he is the Safe Choice who represents No Change. I’ll be writing much more about Jane, but she is endorsed by Bernie, and we are putting on a big fundraiser for her Friday the 16th at Little Arabia, CHECK IT OUT.

MEMBER, STATE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION: Denis Bilodeau, Republican of Orange. I’ll explain more below why I can’t support Umberg, so here’s the first asterisk.* But I’ll just say two things here: Umberg refused to debate Bilodeau at the Anaheim Democrats Club though I asked him for months and Denis would’ve loved to; and also, ORANGE, if Denis gets this new gig you can get a new Councilman! UPDATE – forget the asterisk – what I wrote was long enough for its own story!

UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE (Congress)

Our Democratic Congressmen from OC have been pretty good on most things, better than I expected, with the exception of Lou Correa. So I’m not ashamed to endorse (along with the OC Register) :

  • Hilda Solis (38th District, La Habra & LA County)
  • Linda Sanchez (41st district, Brea, La Habra & Riverside County)
  • ROBERT GARCIA – actually great! (42nd District)
  • Derek Tran (45th District)
  • Dave Min (47th District)
  • Mike Levin – good except for on Palestine (49th District) . .

Sucks to be you if you live in the 40th district (OC’s Republican Ghetto) and have to choose between Ken Calvert and Young Kim. I think I would vote for Ken Calvert, because he will die sooner. (Like Zenger used to say about DA Rackauckas in 2018 when Spitzer ran against him, we shoulda listened.)

And in the 46th there’s no way we can vote for AIPAC Lou Correa, and there’s also no way he’ll lose (so Democrats don’t need to worry about losing that seat.) So I’m voting for another Republican here – DAVID PAN. Which is pronounced like the pan you cook on, the English word, because he’s some kind of Asian. We called him, he’s not so bad, he actually picks up the same phone that’s on his website, he’s a nice guy. It’s pretty likely Lou keeps him on somehow to avoid a serious challenge, but I’ll feel much better voting for Pan, don’t know about you! (No write-ins available.)

In the State Senate and the Assembly, Democrats have had a SUPERMAJORITY for a long time. And yet we still can’t get real police reform, meaningful rent control or universal healthcare. That’s because at least half the Democrats are paid off by the same special interests that pay off the Republicans. So I’ve been saying for a while that it doesn’t matter if we get more Democrats unless they’re extra-good ones who fight for the People, also known as “Progressives.” Three of our assembly candidates fall into that category this year, the Senate candidates not so much. (Also it’d be good to have the rare, fiscally conservative but humane, good Republican who values civil liberties. If they can be found.)

Still… sigh.. most Democrats are better than most Republicans.

State Senator

Another little fact – only about half of you will be able to vote for State Senator this year. If your district is an ODD number, you gotta wait till 2028. (And you won’t see no State Senator on your ballot!)

34th District (Anaheim/Orange/SA/Fullerton/Buena Park/Placentia) – currently career politician Umberg, who is termed out and trying to jump to Board of Equalization) – JOIN ME BELOW in the painful decision between Democrat Avelino Valencia and Republican Rhonda Shader. ASTERISK.* This is my district, I know both these people, and I haven’t decided yet. UPDATE – forget the “asterisk.” I made a whole separate story about this race.

36th District (coastal) Currently held by Republican Tony Strickland who truly puts the SCUM into inSCUMbent, where it doesn’t even belong. So I gotta ask you to vote for San Clemente Democrat Chris Duncan, even though we’d rather it was still Seal Beach progressive Rick Foster in the race.

38th District, south County & north SD. Democrat incumbent Catherine Blakespear is good. Dunno who this Republican Laura Bassett is, don’t wanna know.

30th District – in OC that only includes Brea. Represented since 2018 by 81-year old Pico Rivera Democrat Bob Archuleta (THA’S SAAAHH) who was accused of sexual harassment (which he denied and I don’t see any outcome of the case) as well as he missed a WHOLE lot of votes that just happened to address Tenant Protections & Evictions, Racial Justice & Police Accountability. He’s being challenged by Republican Araceli Martinez. I find it hard to care who wins. Yeah. Retire that old useless fart.

32nd District – in OC that only includes Yorba Linda. Represented since 2022 by Kelly Seyarto, who surprisingly is a man – a Republican man – a Republican man from Murietta no less! Democrat Tiffany Tate is running against him, so vote Tiffany, Yorba Linda!

State Assembly

Three Categories.

1. Three GREAT Progressive Candidates

  • 68th District (Santa Ana / Anaheim) – JESSIE LOPEZ! Day & night better than David Penaloza, king of vendidos.
  • 72nd District – progressive superstar CHRIS KLUWE! vs. insane MAGAt Gracey Van Der Mark.
  • And 59th District young Green Party candidate VICTOR HERNANDEZ .taking on longtime Republican incumbent Phillip Chen.
  • All three of these endorsed by the Anaheim Democrats Club!

2. Decent Democrats you may as well vote for cuz they’re better than the alternative:

  • 67th District – Mark Pulido. We remain troubled by his funders and how badly they wanted him to beat Ada in the primary. Same funders as Penaloza! And yet now we see him up against Republican Paulo Morales, who I KNOW to be pure badness and not in a good way.
  • 70th District – the plucky Democrat Paula Swift is taking on rightwing Communist Tri Ta – Vote Swift!
  • 71st District – plucky Democrat JJ Galvez is taking on incumbent Republican Kate Sanchez, and there is NOTHING GOOD about Kate Sanchez.
  • 73rd District – incumbent Democrat Cottie is okay, and she’s being challenged by a Republican who calls himself Urson Russell, a name that is fun to say with your mouth closed.
  • 74th District, way down south. Plucky San Juan Capistrano Democrat Sergio Farias is taking on klepto-MAGAt Laurie Davies, and I do hope Laurie finally goes down.

3. An incumbent Democrat Assemblywoman I will kindly ask you NOT to vote for:

That’s in the 64th District which in OC only includes La Habra, but nobody in that whole district should re-elect Downey politician Blanca Pacheco. Her opponent Raul Ortiz is a weenie, BUT VOTE FOR HIM ANYWAY. Blanca is both the legislature’s Queen of Government Secrecy, and the biggest recipient of free travel from special interests. An embarrassment to our Party. Cancel Blanca. Danke. (Don’t believe me? Read here and here.)

JUDICIAL

First, YES on the two Supreme Court Associate Justices, Josh Groban & Kelli Evans. I’ve learned that they are being targeted by MAGA for ruling against Chad Bianco’s ballot theft, so let’s HAVE THEIR BACKS!

Then there are 15 – count ’em no don’t – Court of Appeals justices waiting for your and my okays. Ink is expensive, time is short, patience is on its very last legs, and it wouldn’t be the end of the world if you skipped these. UPDATE: We will endeavor to give recommendations on the remaining 15 judicial races, with the help of a new attorney acquaintance. Her input will be in quotations marks. Also, the Republican Party put out recommendations which may or may not be the opposite of what we believe; Democrats did not:

Division 1:

  • Julia Kelety – “Yes – Cares very deeply about getting procedure right.” Republicans also say yes.
  • Jose Castillo – “Yes – Didn’t find anything objectionable.” Rs also say yes,
  • Truc Do – Emphatic NO – This judge reversed and remanded CONCURRED WITH a trial court ruling that held that 400 days was an unreasonably long time A REASONABLE TIME for a school district to produce public records. This case is detrimental not only to investigative journalism and plaintiffs’ rights but also contradicts the statutory authority that gives public entities 10 to 21 days to respond to a CPRA request.” More on this unfortunate ruling concurred with by Do and Dato: https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/2026/d084327.html and https://voiceofsandiego.org/2026/08/25/governments-may-now-take-months-or-years-to-fill-public-records-requests/
  • William Dato – NO. Because he concurred with Do’s CPRA ruling described above.
  • Eran Bermudez – “Yes – She’s a new judge appointed only in August. Not enough information to go either way. She seems like she has a good relationship with prosecutors and cops, which I don’t love, but not enough to dissuade me from wanting to see her track record develop over time”. Rs also say yes.
  • Lisa Rodriguez – “Hesitant Yes – Too new to know her track record. Also appointed in August.” Rs also say yes.
  • David Rubin – “Yes – Good on procedure, consumer-concious, good record on voting policy.”  Rs also say yes.

Division 2:

  • Corey Lee – “Yes – I only looked at his decision in this case. I think he is fair on procedure and clear on interpretation of the law” R’s also say yes.
  • Michael Raphael – “No – Extremely well qualified for an appellate position, but not good on criminal justice issues.” (Rs say yes, WE SAY NO.)

Division 3:

  • Joanne Motoike – “NO! This judge has faced a lot of controversy regarding her rulings. She is way too far into the Textualism camp. She’s been reversed several times by the California Supreme Court.”
  • Thomas Delaney – “Yes – cares about protecting people from housing discrimination; also decent on anti-SLAPP.” Rs also say yes.
  • Nathan Scott – “Yes – good on procedure.” Rs also say yes.
  • Deborah Servino – No. On the advice of my associate editor.
  • Martha Gooding – “Yes – reasonable, nothing objectionable.” Rs also say yes.
  • Juliet Macaulay – “Hesitant yes – too new to know her track record – appointed in August.” – R’s say no, for what that’s worth.

SCHOOL – State Superintendent of Public Instruction:

Richard Barrera. Whoever the hell he is. Because, seriously, FUCK Sonja Shaw.

COUNTY SUPERVISORS

Only 2 of our 5 districts are voting. Cuz Wagner and Janet aren’t up (unfortunately) and Vince did so good in the June primary, he’s golden!.

District 4: Connor Traut the wunderkind. Not too exciting, but he will be an improvement over Doug Chaffee. And we’ll FINALLY have a real Democratic majority, not just one in name only. His opponent Tim Shaw is an honest enough Republican, and I endorsed him in 2018 over Chaffee (pissing off my Party.) Since then, he’s mostly caused damage as a charter-fanatic member of the OC Board of Education. Which brings up a chisme I heard – it’s in the cards, if the Board of Supervisors gets a Democrat majority, that the BOS could take over the BOE. Oh, I wasn’t supposed to say that? OK, forget about that. But that IS what pushes me over the edge for backing Connor over Tim!

District 5: easy call, my old friend Katrina Foley. Even the Register agrees.

SCHOOL BOARDS!

Coast Community College District

  • Area 1: Joe Kalmick for old warhorse Jim Moreno’s seat.
  • Area 3: re-elect Kim Carr! (well, I mean, ELECT her – she was appointed.)
  • Area 5: re-elect Liz Dorn Parker!

North Orange County Community College District

  • Area 1: Rama Maline – Dunsheath has been there long enough.
  • Area 3: no endorsement, Neither Andre, Serrano, or Gonzalez seem to have the experience – let the chips fall where they may and may the winner be a quick learner!
  • Area 6: Jesus Silva should do good!

The very troubled Rancho Santiago Community College District

  • Area 2: Union lunk John Hanna or psychotic Steve Rocco? A hard choice – we will have to decline!
  • Area 4: Definitely Beatriz Mendoza!

South OC Community College District Area 4: my old friend Gila Jones! (whom I miss and so does Capo)

Anaheim Union High School District

  • Area 1: Germaine Neumann!
  • Area 4: Roberto Garcia!
  • Read why HERE and HERE!

Fullerton Joint Union High School District

  • Trustee Area 1 – Regina Cuadra or Matthew Matias?
  • Trustee Area 5 – incumbent Marilyn Buchi, or Amy Dudich?

Brea Olinda Unified School District

  • Trustee Area 4 – Wendy Criner? Or incumbent Natalie Johnson?

Capistrano Unified School District

  • Trustee Area 4 – Melissa Caldwell (this Marco nut wants GUNS IN SCHOOLS, and he’s a childless carpetbagger to boot!)
  • Trustee Area 6 – Gila’s old seat – Jeanna Eammons for sure!
  • Trustee Area 7 – Judy “N-word”‘s old seat – Ron Ruef for sure!
  • Just like Huntington Beach, it’ll take a couple cycles to de-MAGAfy this Board.

Garden Grove Unified School District

  • Area 2: Charlene Cuellar.
  • Area 4: Tracy La, or if the Ho thing bugs you too much, John Nguyen. ANYBODY BUT QUAN!

Irvine Unified School District (who heroically sued the OC BoE this year!)

  • Area 2: incumbent Katie McEwen!
  • Area 4: incumbent Jeff Kim! 
  • District ain’t broke don’t fix!

Laguna Beach Unified School District

  • 3 Members, out of incumbent Dee Perry, Shaheen Sheik-Sadhal, Kimberly Smith, Elizabeth Bates, and incumbent Joan Malczewski. I understand at least Dee Perry is good.

Newport-Mesa Unified School District

  • Area 2: Michelle Murphy!.
  • Area 4: Andy Godinez!

Orange Unified School District

  • Area 1: Andrea Yamazaki!
  • Area 4: Sara Pelly!
  • Area 5: Kris Erickson!
  • Area 7: Dr. Stephen Glass!

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District (PYLUSD)

  • Area 4: Barb Buckley!
  • Area 5: Carrie Buck!
  • THE BUCKS START HERE!

Rowland Unified School District

  • Trustee Area 5 – incumbent Kevin Hayakawa, or Fallyn Love???????

Saddleback Valley Unified School District

  • Trustee Area 5 – Barbara Schulman is out. Who to replace her: Kris Spowart, or Edgar Montes?                 

Santa Ana Unified School District

  • Area 4: incumbent Katie Brazear Aceves.
  • Area 5: incumbent Hector Bustos.
  • These are our peeps, for years. Are we being inconsistent though, they fired teachers unnecessarily just like the AUHSD incumbents that we’re opposing. NOT REALLY – one big difference is that these two are being challenged by MAGA crazies, while the AUHSD challengers are progressive reformers!

Tustin Unified School District

  • Area 3: incumbent Lynn Davis.
  • Area 5: incumbent Jonathan Abelove.

Anaheim Elementary School District

  • Area 2: Dr. Jeff Cole. (although Juan Alvarez is slightly redeeming himself by canvassing for Elia.)
  • Area 4: Mark Lopez. Unfairly removed two years ago. BUT we are impressed with Alva Alvarez, so let the chips fall where they may! We’re told Mark is doing a good job on the North OC Community College board he’s on, so let him stay there.

Cypress School District

  • Trustee Area B – Who should take Troy Tanaka’s place? Jon Peat? (I think not) – probably Jack Torossian!
  • Trustee Area C – appointed incumbent Meghna Parikh, or [there he went, that perennial guy!] Steve Blount?

Fountain Valley School District

  • VOTE Dennis Cole, Rick Nichols, & Carl Blankenhorn! (NOT Eugene Murray. Ewww!) 

Fullerton School District

  • Trustee Area 3 – who’ll take over the immortal Beverly Berryman seat – Amy Choi-Won, or Jordan Abushawish??

Huntington Beach City School District area 4 – definitely Diana Marks!

La Habra City School District area 4 – Adam Rogers!

Lowell Joint School District

  • Trustee Area 4 – incumbent Karen Shaw, or Yoony Takeuchi???

Magnolia School District

  • Trustee Area 5 – incumbent Annie Warne? Or retired sheriff Gary Shields?

Ocean View School District area 4 – definitely Jennifer Rank!

Oh Geez, Other Pinche Districts

Rossmoor Community Services District

  • 2 Directors – out of incumbent Jo Shade, Jody Roubanis, and Konya Vivanti!                                

Serrano Water District

  • Division 4 – Patrick O’Hara or Fredrick Fascenelli?

Silverado-Modjeska Recreation and Park District

  • 1 Director, Short Term – Mark Levy or Kirsten Reiser? (I see that’s where assembly candidate JJ Galvez came from!)                                  

THE VERY COVETED Midway City Sanitary District

  • 3 Directors – out of: good old Sergio Contreras (incumbent), Donald Lank, Michael Liu, Andy Nguyen, & Mark Nguyen.                                                  

El Toro Water District  

  • 2 Directors, Full Term – out of: Alfredo Cardenas, incumbent Mike Gaskins, or Kathryn Freshley.

The legendary Irvine Ranch Water District Division 5 – the magisterial Peer Swan wants to keep the post – it is HIS!

Moulton Niguel Water District – you can pick 4, but DON’T – we can only recommend Jennifer Engle! (another bullet vote.)

Mesa Water District division 5 – damn, that arrogant crook Shawn DeWane is still there? From the Poseidon days? Vote Mikelle Fish!

Trabuco Canyon Water District 

  • 3 Directors, out of: Brad Weiskittel, Jill Coss, John Casarietti, incumbent Glenn Acosta, incumbent Mike Safranski, Chad Brown, and incumbent Edward Mandich.

Municipal Water District of OC, division 2 – Mike Markus. (“20 years is long enough for Larry Dick.”)

Buena Park Library District

  • Trustee Area 2 – Can Brian Carver do a better job than the incumbent Brenda Estrada? I am so glad I don’t have to decide!

34 CITIES: Our “Laboratories of Democracy!”

Aliso Viejo

Aliso Viejo, like America, is simple right now: a death struggle between the destructive Republicans who have power now and decent constructive Democrats on the verge of TAKING ALISO VIEJO BACK. (With the actually wonderful Tiffany Ackley who has been elected to her third term with no opposition.) But now you guys gotta vote in:

  • District 2 – my good friend Steven Van Der Porten! Hell yeah you want Steven over far-right incumbent mayor Max Duncan, who has become the new Munzing down there.
  • District 3 short-term: my good friend Marie Tsaasen over incumbent rightwing follower Dwyer.
  • And while I have you guys’ attention, please vote for my great friend Jennifer Engle for Moulton-Niguel Water Board – she knows what the fuck she’s doing.

Anaheim. My Town.

MAYOR. You’ve been following the news, right? Some members of my Club (Anaheim Democrats Club) are impressed with, and supporting, Alfredo Rodriguez. I don’t know… I’ll still probably write in Jose Moreno. Hopefully Ashleigh’s re-election, resignation early next year, and special election soon after that will sort things out.

Only District 3 has a Council race and hell yeah we’re all backing ELIA RENTERIA-GARCIA over Natalie Rubalcava. And while I have your attention, vecinos, if you see these school board races on your ballots, vote:

  • Germaine Neumann & Roberto Garcia for Anaheim Unifed School Board, and
  • Dr. Jeff Cole & Mark Lopez for Anaheim Elementary School District!

Brea

You can vote for three Councilmembers, but ONLY VOTE (“bullet vote”) for Cecilia Hupp & Blake Perez!

Buena Park

Carlos Franco and Brandon Schooner seem the best.

Costa Mesa

  • Mayor – Loren Gameros!
  • District 3 – Cara Stewart!
  • District 4 – Angely Andrade Vallarta!
  • District 5 – Kelly Brown!

While we have your attention, Costa Mesans: Measure C sounds good, and if you have these school district races on your ballot, please vote for Michelle Murphy and Andy Godinez!

Cypress

My north star in Cypress has the initials FM… will get back . .

City of Cypress, City Council 

  • District 1 – Anne Herz Mallari, or David Burke?
  • District 2 – Bonnie Peat? NO! Helen Le!
  • District 5 – Randy Parker or Rachel Strong Carnahan?

Fountain Valley

(Still miss Gus Ayer, but we still have Phu Nguyen!)

For FV Council you can pick 3 out of 9 candidates. DON’T!

“BULLET-VOTE” FOR ONLY Elizabeth “Liz” Andrade!

She’s the only good one, and that’s the best way to make sure she gets on Council.

Fullerton

I gotta reset my thinking on this great town. There’d been two cliques, Zahra and Bushala, and I was reluctant to support members that would put Zahra (who backed Poseidon and also told lots of stories about people) in the Mayor’s seat. I do like Shana Charles. Fullerton needs people from NEITHER clique. Undecided still…

City of Fullerton, City Council 

  • District 3 – Shana Charles most likely (vs Daniel Kim)
  • District 5 – Oscar Valadez, David Fischbein, or Jozef Maldonado?

Garden Grove

  • Mayor: Dr. Thu-Ha “Diedre” Nguyen – she’d be SO great!
  • Council District 1: Long Tran Nguyen
  • Council District 3: Amanda Nguyen
  • District 4: My old friend HIEU Nguyen! He’ll also be so great. Big improvement from mad Joe Dovinh.

Sounds to me like a Nguyen-Nguyen-Nguyen-Nguyen slate! And while we have you guys’ attention, for GGUSD:

  • Area 2: Charlene Cuellar.
  • Area 4: Tracy La, or if the Ho thing bugs you too much, John Nguyen. ANYBODY BUT QUAN!

Huntington Beach

Ah, my poor old original hometown. Now I have to rely on my friends down there to tell me, and they say, for Council vote:

  • Taryn Palumbo
  • Ben Davis
  • Erin Spivey
  • and Brenda Glim

It’ll take a while to wrest Surf City back from MAGA madness, but we are all rooting for you. Wait, they get to vote for a City Attorney? Because Gates is back to playing Icarus? Oh I see, there’s only one candidate, one Vigliotta. Sounds like some consigliere. Never mind.

Irvine

MAYOR – sadly no good choice. Larry Agran has gone off the deep end and is basically a Republican now, aligned with lobbyist Strader and works in lockstep with fellow Council Republican Mike Carroll. And his only challenger, Max Ergerov, he is NPP but has conservative viewpoints and is a single issue candidate (against new housing developments in Oak Creek.)

  • District 1: incumbent Melinda Liu over MAGA John Park and Larry Agran clone, Sukhee Kang. Sukhee only recently moved back to Irvine after many years in Fullerton and entered the race, with Larry Agran’s full support, knowing it may split the Dem vote and allow a MAGA to win the seat since Park is the only Republican.
  • District 5: incumbent Betty… NO! Byron Salvatierra! See HERE.
  • District 6: incumbent Dr. Kathleen Treseder over another Larry Agran disciple and former campaign worker, the mysterious Scotty Hong, who is also funded by Strader and his wife.

While we have your attention in the City of Beige, the nation has its eyes turned to you for Ranked Choice Voting – yes on D!

Laguna Beach

.?? . .

City of Laguna Beach, City Council 

  • 3 members – choose between Sue Kempf (incumbent), Ashley Cintas, Laura Parisi, Mark Orgill (incumbent), Nick Aronoff, Edward Bayuk, Joy Berry, Alex Rounaghi (incumbent) and Karen Martin. 

Laguna Hills

.?? . .

City of Laguna Hills, City Council 

  • District 1 – Harry Huggins or Laura Thies?
  • District 4 – Michael Caputo, Tiffany Boccieri, Valerie Ann Geller, or Scott Miller?

NOTHING in Laguna Niguel?

Even after being forced to have District Elections, nobody wants to run against these mean vengeful incumbents! Is what I see.

Laguna Woods

City Council: Sue Quam & Annie McCary!

La Habra

Poor La Habra. All their candidates suck, and they are pretty much all Republican and MAGA. Susan Pritchard is the worst, literally being friendly with Trump and Marco Rubio. The two incumbents Jim Gomez & Jose Medrano (who is registered Dem) have refused to help resist ICE in La Habra, and vote for FLOCK over and over. Macias appears to be a plant. There’s nobody to vote for. And ON TOP OF THAT ALL THEIR ASSEMBLYMAN IS BLANCA PACHECO. Poor La Habra.

Lake Forest

  • Council District 2 – Becky Keene!
  • Council District 3 – no recommendation – Patel or Grable?
  • Council District 4 – AMY STEVENS! No, not THAT Amy Stevens, but still a good one!

And while we have your attention in Lake Forest, HELL NO on Measure F, a Voigts-Tettermer scheme to stay in power FOREVER – see this comment.

La Palma

.?? . .

City of La Palma, City Council 

  • District 2 – Andrew Kim, or Nitesh Patel?
  • District 4 – Mary Paningsoro, or Jonathan Dinwiddie?

Los Alamitos

.Ah, Dean Grose land! We’ll get back to you… (We really miss JL Ivler, remember him?) . .

City of Los Alamitos, City Council 

  • District 4 – incumbent Shelley Hasslebrink, or Joe Hastie?
  • District 5 – incumbent Emily Hibard, or John Delavigne? 

Mission Viejo

  • District 3 – re-elect the great Cynthia Vasquez!
  • District 4 – Laura Lacko for sure!
  • Districts 1 & 2 – I hear all these candidates are “a bunch of people who will tell you whatever you want to hear.”

Newport Beach

Ah, Willie the Weenie land! We’ll get back to you… . .

City of Newport Beach, City Council 

  • District 1 – incumbent Joe Stapleton, or Tina Babajanians?
  • District 3 – incumbent Eric Weigand, or Tim Stoaks, or Walter Starr?
  • District 4 – well… it’s gonna be Robyn Grant unopposed!
  • District 6 – incumbent Lauren Kleiman, or Andrew Gerken?

Orange

  • MAYOR: ARIANNA BARRIOS. Representing reform, responsibility and an end to the so-called “Orange Way” which got you-all in the mess you’re in. Dan Slater will just be more of the same and you’ll be BK in no time flat. Plus he loves Flock cameras.
  • DISTRICT 1: The Effervescent BRANDY ROMERO!

While we have your attention in the Eponymous City:

  • YES ON I & J, you guys need it, and we your loving caring neighbors will help pay that sales tax as we always do.
  • NO ON K, the Worst Charter Ever.
  • Keep the fine OUSD incumbents Glass, Yamazaki, Erickson and Pelley.
  • Also you guys might consider voting Bilodeau for Board of Equalization, cuz if he wins you could get a different Councilman in District 4!

Placentia

  • District 2 – JULIE SUCHARD – Myovich swears by her!
  • District 4 – ? Chad Wanke or James Burandt? Probably Burandt but I’ll check. (We always laugh when we drive thru Placentia and see Chad Wanke signs, but that’s just because we are vulgar outlanders who suck hard.)
  • CITY CLERK – Vote Bob McKinnell or you won’t be GETTING no City Clerk!

And while we have your attention, PYLUSD needs BUCK AND BUCKLEY!

San Clemente

  • MAYOR – KATHY WARD is back! She was a great Mayor! Anybody, there’s no reason we should prefer Hirschman or Cabral is there?
  • District 1 – Donna Vidrine? Steve Camp? Aaron Washington? I think Vidrine, right?
  • District 2 – MARK ENMEIR – that’s an Easy one, he’s running against MAGA nutjob Steve Knoblock who is nothing but Bad Trouble!

San Juan Capistrano

Council District 2 – Erin Beyer for sure!

Santa Ana

  • MAYOR: DAN SHIMELL! The scandalous Valerie has gotta go! I trust Chicanos Unidos’ judgment – the white guy is the best choice here!
  • Ward 2 – Keep the fine Ben Vazquez! (over recent Republican Selica Diaz.)
  • Ward 4 – the GREAT tireless community advocate SANDRA DE ANDA, over arrogant business Democrat Phil Bacerra!
  • Ward 6 – The wonderful activist ISURI RAMOS over the sort of comical, grouchy “young Dem” Giovanni (Vendido Penaloza’s chosen successor)

While we have your attention in the Golden City, Hector and Katie on the SAUSD seem worth keeping. And it seems like ustedes need that Measure N Sales Tax, don’t worry we’ll drive through and help you pay it when we’re not helping them in Orange… .

Seal Beach

  • District 1 – (to replace departing Joe Kalmick who’s been there forever) – Matthew Terry!

Stanton

  • District 1 – the great Donald Torres!
  • District 3 – Marlon-Ray Velasco.

Tustin

  • MAYOR: Letitia Clark – She did not distinguish herself in the Poseidon fight, but she’s sure better than Austin Lumbard!)
  • Council District 3: TJ Reed!

Westminster

  • MAYOR: The great Carlos Manzo!
  • Council District 1: David Johnson
  • Council District 4: Loan Nguyen

Yorba Linda

Council: Bullet-vote for ONLY Robert Pease!

And while we have your attention, PYLUSD needs BUCK AND BUCKLEY!

Rancho Santa Margarita

In this very Republican town, run since its inception as a fiefdom of Tony Beall, a major criterion is electing folks who are not Tony’s puppets, not corrupt, and will support incumbent Keri Lynn Baert in term limits and other reforms. We value the advice of RSM good-government activist Shawn Gordon and ask you to elect:

  • District 1 – Nicholas Reese
  • District 2 – Natalie Guse
  • District 4 – WRITE IN Maryann Verghese.

Measures Submitted to the Voters

(AKA PROPOSITIONS)

Props 1 thru 5 look like YES – we appear to agree with the Democratic Party on that.

Prop 40, the BILLIONAIRE’S TAX, is famously problematic and ill-drafted, but I seemed to have been the only member of my Anaheim Democrats Club who had any qualms about it. There is no stanching the tide. There is no standing athwart the stream of history yelling STOP! The People are dying to tax the Billionaires’ Wealth. Let it rip.

ALL THE OTHERS HELL NO

LOCAL MEASURES

A – Laguna Beach Unified School District, Safe, Modern Laguna Beach Unified School District School Bond Measure – SCHOOL BOND obviously, up to you guys in Laguna Beach!

B – Westminster School District, Westminster School District Classroom Repair, School Safety/Security, Quality Education Improvement Measure – SCHOOL BOND obviously, up to you guys in Westminster!

C – Costa Mesa, The Costa Mesa Fair Business License Reform, Small Business Protection Measure – Our reformist Republican friend Craig Preston tells us this is good, a YES – “Updates very old business license rates so the large corps pay their fair share.”

D – Irvine, Measure Directing the Use of Ranked Choice Voting for City Council Member and Mayoral Elections after January 1, 2028. YES! All of us are looking toward Irvine hoping they’ll take the first step for improving democracy. And when Strader and Chmielewski (who’s written 19 pieces against this so far) are in agreement, then you KNOW what side the rest of us are on!

E – Laguna Beach, An Ordinance of the People of the City of Laguna Beach, California, Adding Section 2.04.080 to the Laguna Beach Municipal Code to Establish Term Limits for City Council Members – yes, this one really IS term limits, not a trick like Lake Forest’s Measure F or Orange’s “Charter” Measure K.

F – Lake Forest, Lake Forest Election Reform and Voter Choice Measure – NO! Actually a SUBVERSION of Lake Forest’s term limits, a sneaky way for Voigts and Tetterman to stay on council FOREVER! See this comment.. NO!

G – Los Alamitos, Los Alamitos Hotel Tax (TOT Measure) – sure, I assume you guys need it?

H – Newport Beach, City of Newport Beach General Plan – Amendment – haven’t been following Newport – anyone?

I – Orange, City of Orange Public Safety/Essential Services Measure – They mean permanent sales tax. Yes, it looks like Orange needs that.

J – Orange, City of Orange Hotel Guest Tax Modification Measure – they mean TOT hike. Yes, Orange needs that too.

K – Orange, Proposed Charter for the City of Orange – FUCK NO! Worst. Charter. Ever. After all the sausage-making, all that was left was a Lake Forest-style Term Limits Sabotage allowing Dumitru and Bilodeau to “serve” into the 2040’s. OH HELL NO.

L – Placentia, Placentia Hotel Tax Measure. Ah, sounds like another TOT hike. Placenta probably needs it.

M – San Clemente, San Clemente Natural Hazards Sales Tax Citizens Initiative – If the “citizens” want this, then let them vote for it!

N – Santa Ana, Santa Ana Streets, Public Safety, Essential City Services Measure – what they mean is permanent sales tax. Sounds like Santa Ana, sadly, needs it.

O – Westminster, Westminster City Services Measure. Aha! It’s another sneaky name for a hotel TOT tax increase. Why not say that? Okay then is that what you guys want? Los Alamitos, Orange, and Placentia are all considering the same thing..

*

*Appendix*

*Why I Had to Vote for FOUR damn Republicans.*

It is NOT a pleasant thing to be FORCED to vote, this year, for a member of the Party that, nationally, is both 99% subservient to Donald Trump and pushing relentlessly forward with Project 2025. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. But in all four cases that I had to do it, it was more or less because the Democrat was someone I couldn’t support in good conscience. I will NEVER forgive those Democrats for making me vote Republican!

Anyway, generally it’s a “protest vote” – there’s not really much danger of the Republican actually winning. Although (except for in the Congressional race between Pan & Correa) it wouldn’t make much difference if they did. So here, share my grief and discomfort:

Pan vs. Correa.

I wouldn’t risk losing a single Congressional seat to Republicans this year. But Homegrown Lou won’t lose, in fact he wouldn’t lose if thousands of you-all joined me in voting for David Pan. Shit, REPUBLICAN VOTERS love Lou. In the decades I’ve known him he’s been one of the most corporate, conservative politicians with a D next to their name; he’s become one of the Party’s most unquestioning supporter of anything Israel does along with the biggest recipient of dirty AIPAC money, and he has weird friendships with foreign Trump-loving dictators like El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele.

David Pan is actually a real nice (if eccentric) Republican who answers his own phone when you call the number on his website. You will not feel dirty voting for David Pan (pronounced like the English frying “pan.”)

Gloria Romero vs. Fiona Ma.

First, know three things:

  1. Both these female politicians, Republican (and former Dem) Gloria Romero and Democrat Fiona Ma, are equally bad news, as we’ve documented elsewhere.
  2. The office of Lieutenant Governor (“Lite Guv” as the dear departed Scott Lay called it) does not have much power, none at all really, unless Governor himself up and croaks, Lord forbid.
  3. The main feature of the office is launching pad – it has frequently served its holder as launching pad to Governor or other higher office.

My thinking is, there is less danger in having a bad Republican (Gloria) sit on that launching pad than there would be with a bad Democrat (Fiona.) It’s not like California is gonna suddenly, in 2030 or 2034, have a resurgent GOP that’ll make Gloria Governor or something! So anyway, I voted for Gloria. Even though she’s crazy. And I wish Fiona would go away.

Bilodeau vs. Umberg.

Too much – this became its own story! Read it! Please! It’s good! I think.

Rhonda vs. Avelino.

Again. This had to be its own story.

. . .

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About Vern Nelson

Greatest pianist/composer in Orange County, and official political troubadour of Anaheim and most other OC towns. Regularly makes solo performances, sometimes with his savage-jazz band The Vern Nelson Problem. Reach at vernpnelson@gmail.com, or 714-235-VERN.