Democrats have lost every local election in Huntington Beach over the past four years, but this time they’re trying a new strategy – their opponent’s old one.
For the last two elections, candidates endorsed by the Republican Party of Orange County have run on slate campaigns together to get into office, with every member of the slate winning election, in one instance even beating out three sitting city council members for their seats.
[Read: Republicans on Track to Sweep Every Elected Position in Huntington Beach]
But this year, the Republican Party is facing a number of candidates jumping into the field amid a fractured slate, and the Democrats are running together on one platform to try and retake a majority on the city council after four years on the outside.
How Did Surf City Democrats Team Up?
This year, the Orange County Democratic Party has endorsed four candidates for Huntington Beach City Council: Taryn Palumbo, Erin Spivey, Ben Davis and Brenda Glim, who are running on the Surf City Four slate.
When asked how they came together, they all had the same answer – everyone said it was the winning strategy.
Spivey said they got the idea to run as a slate from the Republicans as it was evidently the winning strategy in the city after they swept the last two elections.
“A lot of people were like ‘That’s not how it’s supposed to be done,’ but there’s no denying they were successful,” Spivey said in an Aug. 17 interview. “So we decided we should give it a go this year.”
Spivey also said the push from many community groups and activists now centers on forming a winning slate rather than running an independent campaign.
“They’ve seen how effective the current city council has been,” Spivey said. “We broke into this thing by saying ‘hey we’re an alternative.’ Then we launched into all the things we plan to do to make things better in Huntington Beach.”
While each of them is running separate campaigns, they each shared that one of their goals is to make Huntington Beach politics boring again.
“We don’t want to be in the headlines for some of the things we’ve been in the headlines for in the past,” Palumbo said. “City council should be truly non-partisan and focused on local city issues like parks, potholes and public safety.”
While Republicans have an 11% voter registration advantage over Democrats in Surf City, they do not have a majority of the registered voters, sitting at just over 41%, with no party preference voters making up roughly 21% of the voters.
Davis said they need to get elected as a slate in order to be effective, pointing out how without a majority they may struggle to pass legislation on a variety of issues like the city’s housing plan, the city’s budget and improving the city’s
“We all know the best chance you have at shifting the dynamics of the city is for all four of us to get elected,” Davis said. “That’s where the slate started. “We can share resources, put our names on the same signs.”
Glim raised complaints with the way city council members have spoken to the public over the past few years, saying she wants to represent all the voters, even the ones who don’t agree with her.
“It was as if they were playing to a select group of people and ignoring the rest of the city,” Glim said. “I want it to be where all residents feel comfortable coming in front of the city council.”
Councilman Pat Burns, who’s been recorded on hot mics at city council meetings belittling residents, said he represents every resident in a post on Facebook on Labor Day – but that doesn’t mean he agrees with them.
“Nobody elected me to nod along with every opinion in the room. They elected me to use my judgment,” Burns wrote. “That’s how this works. That’s the system. Anyone who tells you they can make every single resident happy is either lying to you or doesn’t understand the job or process.”
The Fab Four Go Separate Ways
The members of Huntington Beach’s original slate, self dubbed the “Fab Four,” are up for election this year, but only two are running to stay on city council – Mayor Casey McKeon and Councilman Burns.
Former Mayor Tony Strickland is running to keep his seat in the state Senate that he won in a special election last year, while Councilwoman Gracey Van Der Mark is running for State Assembly.
[Read: How State Senator Tony Strickland Became Orange County’s Political Lazarus]
Strickland was replaced on the city council by Councilman Andrew Gruel, and the Republican Party has endorsed Brian Thienes, a planning commissioner and local businessman who owns his own engineering company, to run for Van Der Mark’s vacant seat.
But they’re not all running on the same slate, with Gruel separating his campaign from the team of McKeon, Burns and Thienes.
In a Tuesday statement, Gruel said he thinks that many Surf City voters aren’t looking to vote for a party endorsed slate – they want a candidate with answers to fixing the problems.
“I want people to know exactly what I stand for – public safety, fiscal responsibility, supporting local businesses and maintaining parks – rather than simply identifying me as part of a slate,” Gruel wrote. “I don’t know if voters love slates. It’s a different political environment now than it was 2,4, and 6 years ago.”
Gruel also made it clear he still supports the other three candidates for office, an assertion that was backed up by McKeon in an interview last week.
“We were hopeful to all run together, he just wanted to run on his own, build his brand equity is what he had said,” McKeon said. “We’re all endorsed, there’ll be some events we campaign at together, and some not.”
But McKeon and Gruel have also increasingly found themselves on opposite sides of votes over the last few months, publicly butting heads over items including raises for police officers, upgrades to the city’s sports complex and plans to serve hard liquor at a bikini bar near an elementary school.
Gruel said he thinks it’s a positive that he doesn’t always agree with the other candidates, showing the slates aren’t “a rubber stamp.”
“We all want the same thing, we just have different ideas on how we get there. We need more spirited discussion like this in my opinion,” Gruel wrote. “My biggest takeaway is that there needs to be a lot more open discussion in city politics.”
“Once people see disagreement they think it’s non-functional. That’s not the case,” he continued. “That’s the system working but we always need to figure out ways to best explain things in pieces to the public. Too often it’s just a final vote and no one understands what went behind the vote.”
McKeon said the things they disagree about are “on the margins,” and that the slate strategy continues to work.
“Imitation is the best form of flattery. It worked for us in 22, it worked for them in 24, I’m not surprised other groups are going to emulate the same recipe,” McKeon said. “It’s just a testament to what we’ve built and the strategy to win elections and we’ll see how it shakes out.”
School Board Member Runs for Congress and City Council Simultaneously
There’s also another Republican running for office in Huntington Beach, but he’s not just running for city council – he’s also running for Congress.
Brian Burley, who’s currently a trustee of the Huntington Beach City School District, made it past the June primary in the race for the 42nd Congressional District, setting him up to square off with sitting and former Long Beach Mayor, Congressman Robert Garcia.
Burley is not endorsed by the county Republican Party, but is on the ballot as a registered Republican in his race for Congress and is endorsed by the state party.
At the same time, he’s also qualified to run for Huntington Beach City Council and is campaigning for both roles despite losing previous council campaigns in 2018 and 2020.
In a Tuesday interview, Burley said he thinks city leaders need to abandon their various lawsuits against the state and look at the city’s budget problems, noting that previous “black swan” events like the arrival of Tito Ortiz and the Fab Four had thrown off his previous campaigns and he wasn’t afraid to campaign against the Republican Party’s endorsed candidates.
“Those people are going to continue to support me because I’ve built my base independent of the party establishment,” Burley said. “I’m the Republican nominee (for Congress) and whatever the party does in terms of city council I think I’ll be in the top four on city council as well.”
On his campaign website for city council, Burley encourages residents to reject both slates running for office and to view the candidates as individuals.
“Brian Burley urges you to reject the special interest slate of candidates and to research each candidate asking for your vote,” reads the site. “The slates are bankrupting our city and HB must get back to electing the most qualified candidates.”
He’s also not the only candidate running outside a slate.
Rosalind Price, who joined the city’s Community and Library Services Commission last month after she was appointed by City Councilman Chad Williams, is also running for city council as well as Amory Hanson, who’s run for city council in every election the last 10 years and never received over 5% of the vote.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.
