Editor’s note: After this column was published, the OC Bar released its rating for local judges seeking elections which can be found here.
While this year’s elections are understandably dominated by a national, presidential narrative, many Orange County residents’ voting ballots will arrive chock full of local elections.
Many races – like school boards, judges and potentially county supervisors – could be decided at the upcoming March 5 primary election.
As usual, local elections are the toughest civic events for voters to get credible information about.
The mechanics of voting continue to become more and more accessible.
[Read: Vote-By-Mail Opens Today for Orange County Voters]
Yet local elections aren’t as straightforward as slot machines, where you just pull a lever.
Having a functioning democracy requires us all to understand poker.
It’s really hard for voters to find the information needed to really cast an informed decision – especially in time for local elections.
Sadly these days, that seems to be by design.
Most candidates avoid head-to-head debates, instead relying on their own private mail and social media efforts.
And when it comes to hyper-local elections like those for three dozen Superior Court judges up this March, good luck finding useful independent information about the candidates.
As always, here at Voice of OC, we focus our reporting resources on the races most impacting local Orange County residents – with the aim of offering them some decent table stakes at the poker game governing their quality of life.
Our staff has already begun producing profiles of different races throughout the county.
Stay tuned for updates throughout the month and into the fall.
[Read: Orange County Voter Guide: March 2024 Primary Election]
General Voting Registration Trends in OC
Former President Ronald Reagan had a close connection to the county while in office, often declaring that “Orange County is where the good Republicans go before they die.”
Yet these days, the county actually has more registered Democrats than Republicans, just by a bit.
As of Jan. 29, Democrats outnumbered Republicans in countywide voter registration by roughly 74,000 voters.
That count breaks down to 686,390 registered Democrats compared to 612,535 registered Republicans.
Independent voters continue to be a big block in Orange County with more than 416,000 No Party Preference voters.
It’s one of most interesting dynamics here locally fueling what I called back in 2016, a “Purple County.”
Orange County’s Most Competitive Congressional Races
There’s a total of five members of Congress representing districts primarily in Orange County.
It takes a lot of money to run for Congress – so in many cycles, incumbents who have large name recognition are largely reelected barring some scandal.
But in districts where voter registration margins are tight or special circumstances arise that lead to open seats, competitive races break out.
[Read: Orange County’s Most Competitive Congressional Races]
There’s two races this year that are particularly competitive going into November. The March primary here will decide the top two who will compete for office through the fall.
The 47th District
The seat opened up this year after Democratic Rep. Katie Porter, who made a national name for herself roasting bureaucrats and political appointees at overnight hearings, opted to run for a seat representing California in the U.S. Senate.
There’s a host of 47th Congressional district candidates heading into the March 5 primary election, including State Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine), former Assemblyman and former county GOP chair Scott Baugh, and Joanna Weiss, a Democrat and founder of the Women for American Values and Ethics (WAVE) local activist group.
Baugh has fundraised $1.9 million as of Dec. 31, while Min and Weiss aren’t far behind at roughly $1.5 million fundraised by each.
Republican candidate Max Ukropina, a local business owner, has fundraised $480,000 so far.
The other official candidates show very little fundraising activity on the Federal Election Commission website.
The 45th District
In the 45th Congressional District election, incumbent Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Seal Beach) – a former county supervisor – is looking to keep her seat.
Democratic candidates Cheynne Hunt, a social media influencer and former clerk for Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN); Kim Nguyen-Penaloza, also a Garden Grove councilwoman; and personal injury attorney Derek Tran are looking to unseat Steel.
Steel overwhelmingly out-fundraised the other candidates – $4.2 million as of Dec. 31, according to the FEC.
Tran, the latecomer candidate, fundraised $535,000 last year, while Hunt raised $327,000 and Nguyen-Penaloza got $282,000.
Two County Supervisor Seats Up For Grabs
The two most high-profile, local elections this next month are for two county supervisor seats.
Democrats have a slight advantage of seats on the county board, which oversees more than $9 billion in local services like landfills, jails, law enforcement patrols in unincorporated areas and countywide health and social service spending for things like homelessness.
The Third District
Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner is running for reelection against Irvine Mayor Farah Khan in the third district, which covers the eastern edge of the county anchored around Irvine.
[Read: Eastern OC Supervisors Election Could Get Decided in March Primary]
The two have sharply differed over whether the county government should join the region’s Green Power agency, as well as over auditing at the local transportation authority.
[Read: Santana: OC Transit Officials Want to Gut Oversight on Local Road Taxes]
The First District
Tethered to the urban core of the county around Little Saigon, the First District features two top area Vietnamese American Republican candidates vying against a lone Democrat.
[Read: Open Northwest Orange County Supervisor Seat Sees Packed Primary]
State Senator Janet Nguyen (R-Huntington Beach) – herself a former county supervisor – has put together the most well-funded campaign for her bid to take over as county supervisor from her former Chief of Staff, outgoing Supervisor Andrew Do.
Do’s own Chief of Staff, Republican Van Tran, is running against Nguyen, along with Cypress Democratic City Councilwoman Frances Marquez, Westminster’s Republican City Councilwoman Kimberly Ho and Michael Vo.
In the wake of a scandal involving Do steering public funds to a nonprofit listing his daughter as president, a heightened focus on independent auditing at the county surfaced as a campaign issue with just about every candidate calling for more eyes on how public monies are distributed at the county.
[Read: OC Supervisors Decide Against Disclosing Family Contracts]
Three County School Board Races in Play
In addition, there’s three Orange County Board of Education seats up for election – as a time of increased debate over the authorization of charter schools, something the board has influence over approving.
Those races will be decided in the March 5 primary.
Superior Court Judges
About three dozen OC Superior Court judge candidates have already won their races ahead of the primary election.
Apparently, because no one showed up to run against them, a total of 33 judges just won the election automatically.
There’s another three that are contested, with deputy district attorneys – probably the most common previous job held by current OC Superior Court judges – running in each one.
Office 3 pits Deputy District Attorney Jason Baez against Dan Jacobson.
Office 16 features Binh Dang against Deputy District Attorney Richard Zimmer.
Office 35 has Whitney Bokosky, a deputy District Attorney, running against Daniel Kern, a family law attorney.
Good luck finding reliable, independent vetting information to help you decide.
The OC Bar Association used to have a judicial rating service as a public service but the website for that service seems out of date .
DA Todd Spitzer put out his own list of judicial candidates he’s supporting.
Surprise surprise, the DA backs his deputy DAs running for judge.
After publication of this column, I took a deeper look at the candidates running for Orange County Superior Court judges.
[Read: Santana: Finding The Real Judges of OC]
Orange School Board Recall
Voters in the Orange Unified School District will decide if they want to remove school board trustees Rick Ledesma and Madison Miner from office next month.
A group of parents, teachers and community members launched efforts to start a recall election against the two trustees after the board called a special meeting in January 2023 to abruptly fire Superintendent Gunn Marie Hansen and put an assistant superintendent on paid leave.
[Read: Two Orange Unified School Board Members May Face a Recall Election]
Huntington Beach Charter Amendments
Huntington Beach city leaders are bringing a whole host of initiatives to the ballot, including new rules that would allow voter ID and ballot drop box monitoring, along with another measure making it almost impossible to fly themed flags – like the LGBTQ banner – over city hall.
California’s Proposition 1
California voters will decide if they want to approve a roughly $6.4 million bond and redirect tax money aimed at treating mental health issues and shift it to building more housing.
[Read: Will California’s Prop 1 Help Curb Homelessness or Cut Mental Health Programs?]
Proponents say the bond – dubbed Prop. 1 – will expand mental health services, help homeless vets and create more permanent supportive housing.
Critics say Prop. 1 will allow state officials in Sacramento to take more mental health tax dollars split by California and county governments and force local leaders to spend more of those dollars on housing, which could slash funding for mental health programs.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly noted the Second District is up for election instead of the First District. We regret the error.
Editors Note: Spencer Custodio, Hosam Elattar and Noah Biesiada contributed to this story.
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