Orange County residents are guaranteed at least one new county supervisor this election season, with Supervisor Andrew Do terming out of office at the end of this year.
Now, a state senator, a former state assemblyman, and a slate of current and former city council members are running to replace him overseeing central Orange County.
It’s also the first time the first district seat has been up for grabs following the board’s redistricting in 2022, placing the cities of Cypress, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, and Westminster together.
If any candidate manages to grab over 50% of the vote in the March 5 primary, there won’t be a runoff in November, but if all the candidates fall short of the majority threshold, the top two vote getters will face off again in the general election.
Cypress Councilwoman Seeks Higher Office
The sole Democrat in the race is Cypress City Councilwoman Frances Marquez, who’s also netted the endorsement of the county Democratic Party and has worked for years in the party at the federal level, working in Congressmen Alan Lowenthal and Mike Honda’s offices.
She earned her own elected seat in 2020 on the Cypress City Council, where she frequently clashed with colleagues as she called for more transparency in a push that’s seen her censured by her colleagues twice.
[Read: Cypress City Council Again Censures Councilwoman Frances Marquez]
Marquez declined an interview with Voice of OC, but In a statement highlighted transparency as one of her biggest focuses, calling for the creation of a new office that would vet all contracts to ensure businesses who receive funding from the county were above board.
“These guidelines are there to reinforce the public’s trust in elected officials. There is a current crisis of public trust at the county and these changes will seek to address this problem,” Marquez said.
She also suggested introducing a new climate sustainability plan for the county, with a focus on preparing the coastline for climate issues like the San Clemente rail line’s frequent collapse.
When asked how she planned to fund these initiatives, Marquez said her experience working at the federal level would help her bring more federal funding to the county to support her initiative.
I know how the federal system works and to gather federal dollars and grants to fund programs,” Marquez said. “I have worked in government for decades and have a Ph.D. in political science. There is no concern about my ability to access funding for county programs.”
Former Supervisor Seeks Return to Seat
Republican State Senator Janet Nguyen, who once employed Do as her chief of staff, is seeking the seat, which she previously held as the first district’s representative from 2007 to 2014 on the OC Board of Supervisors before she sought election to the State Assembly.
While Nguyen’s campaign website doesn’t include many details about where she stands on county policy, she’s publicly called for major reforms of the OC Animal Care department and pushed for audits of the county’s past spending to figure out what programs are working well.
She’s also been a strong proponent of the Huntington Beach City Council’s “Fab 4” majority, campaigning with them in 2022 where she won her current senate seat.
She continues to support them through several contentious votes on implementing voter ID rules, limiting access to books and fighting state housing mandates.
Nguyen was controversial during her first term as a supervisor.
While she was supervisor, Nguyen was instrumental in reshaping the board of directors of CalOptima, the county’s health plan for the poor.
She later faced numerous questions from her own Republican colleagues on board of supervisors after a grand jury report highlighted over a dozen executives fleeing the agency and other questionable changes.
[Read: Nguyen Harshly Criticized by Colleagues Over CalOptima Audit]
In her new race for county supervisor, she’s already picked up endorsements from a slate of Republican coastal council members, the county Republican Party and the Lincoln Club, a Republican fundraising organization that’s traditionally been one of the biggest spenders in local politics.
[Read: Major OC Republican Group Lost on 96% of its Big Local Bets in Latest Election]
Republicans have a 3% lead over Democrats in voter registration for the first district, according to the county registrar.
When asked for an interview, Nguyen referred reporters to a campaign consultant who did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Supervisor’s Chief of Staff Seeks His Seat
Van Tran, who’s currently Do’s chief of staff and carries his endorsement, is also running for the seat, highlighting his past work as a Republican State Assemblyman and Garden Grove City Councilman on why he should be considered for the position.
While there have been questions over how independent Tran is from Do, he insisted in an interview with Voice of OC that he’s his own man.
Do’s faced multiple questions over his ethics while in office, being fined by state regulators for pay to play politics and steered over $10 million to a nonprofit where his daughter is listed as the president.
Read: OC Supervisors Decide Against Disclosing Family Contracts
“It’s un-American to be held guilty by association,” Tran said. “I should be judged based on my track record, my experience, on my background and on my ethics.”
But when asked about his differences of opinion, Tran didn’t point to any specific instances where he disagreed with Do on current county policy, encouraging voters to instead look at his record in the state assembly and judge him separately from the work of the supervisor.
Tran said he felt the county is doing “the best that it could” on homelessness, but said he wanted to focus on coordinating county agencies better to help.
“We’re putting in millions of dollars from both the state and federal government to deal with this issue. We just have to be very strategic with it,” Tran said. “Yes we can do more. But we’re headed in the right direction.”
He added that he wants to focus on expanding mental health and social services options, to attack the “root causes of homelessness.”
“Nobody wants to be on the streets,” Tran said. “But it will take time, it will take persistence and discipline and dedication to deal with this issue. It won’t go away any time soon.”
Other Candidates
Former Fountain Valley Mayor and Republican Michael Vo is running for the seat as well, saying he plans to be tough on crime on his campaign website and that he plans to lower taxes and eliminate wasteful spending.
Vo did not respond to requests for comment on what plans he had for those programs.
Westminster Councilwoman Kimberly Ho is also listed as a candidate, but hasn’t yet launched a campaign website, noting in her ballot statement she would have a focus on public health given her pharmacy doctorate.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @NBiesiada.
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