Candidates for Orange County Supervisor are collectively sitting on nearly $650,000 in funds, fundraised from various constituents and special interests interested in the outcome of the race. 

Over half that funding has gone to just two candidates running in the first district race for county supervisor, which is expected to be one of the most competitive seats in the county as OC Supervisor Andrew Do leaves at the end of the year after hitting his term limit. 

[Read: Open Northwest Orange County Supervisor Seat Sees Packed Primary]

So far, there hasn’t been a lot of outside spending by special interests on the races, with the biggest outside spending coming from the county firefighter’s union and developers ahead of the March 5 primary election..  

The county sheriff’s union, which is currently sitting on over $900,000 in its political action committee and is generally one of the biggest spenders in county elections, has yet to disclose any spending on any candidates. 

The sheriff’s department and the county’s contract with the OC Fire Authority take up over 20% of the county budget. 

First District Sees Tight Competition

This is the first year 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. 

State Senator Janet Nguyen – a former OC supervisor – is currently leading the pack of candidates running to replace Do, with over $260,000 banked in her supervisor campaign committee as of the end of January according to her disclosures.  

She’s already spent $275,000 to date on her campaign, according to disclosures. 

Almost all of Nguyen’s funding was transferred from her state senate committee.

Most of that came from a series of large special interest groups including several medical company political committees, the county apartment association and a series of car dealerships throughout her district. 

Nguyen has a history of fundraising off of medical committees, and was in the past investigated for taking campaign donations from those companies while sitting on the board of CalOptima, the county’s health plan for the poor. 

Ultimately, the OC District Attorney’s office under Tony Rackauckas decided she hadn’t broken the law. 

[Read: DA: Nguyen Didn’t Violate Conflict of Interest Laws]

So far, no groups have disclosed spending on Nguyen’s behalf. 

Van Tran, Do’s chief of staff and a former state assemblyman, is entering the final days of the primary with over $174,000 in his campaign account as well. 

Tran has already spent $239,000 on his campaign. 

Many of those funds came from individual Vietnamese donors and companies from across the state. 

There has also been one outside spending group getting involved in the race between Tran and Nguyen, dubbed the Take Back California committee. 

The committee has run ads promoting Tran’s stance supporting former President Donald Trump and bashed Nguyen over her stances on the border, despite county supervisors having no control over border policy. 

According to their filings at the state, they’ve disclosed spending on mailers – about $2,500 against Nguyen and over $3,000 supporting Tran. It’s largely funded by small dollar donations from a few donors. 

Unless one of the candidates wins over half the vote, the top two vote winners will move onto a runoff election in November. 

Cypress City Councilwoman Frances Marquez, the one Democratic candidate, is currently sitting on $36,000 that mostly comes from numerous local construction unions and small dollar donations from county residents. 

She’s spent around $38,000 on her campaign. 

A political action committee dubbed Orange County Families has also spent $20,000 advertising Marquez’ campaign. Campaign finance disclosures show it’s exclusively funded by the California Real Estate Political Action Committee. 

Former Fountain Valley Mayor Michael Vo is running a largely self-financed campaign, and was sitting on just under $20,000 from donors at the end of January. 

He’s also loaned his campaign over $170,000 of his own money, and spent just under $70,000. 

While Westminster Councilwoman Kimberly Ho is on the ballot and has an open campaign committee, records show no money in it. 

Third District

In the county supervisor’s third district, incumbent Supervisor Don Wagner is fending off a challenge from Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan in a fight that will determine representation for the cities of Irvine, Lake Forest, Tustin, Orange, Mission Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita, Yorba Linda, and other unincorporated areas like the county canyons in the third district. 

[Read: Eastern OC Supervisors Election Could Get Decided in March Primary] 

Wagner has about $74,000 left in his own campaign, largely from individual donors and several political action committees like the county employee’s association and the association of builders and contractors. 

A large chunk of his support came from one donor – the Orange County Professional Firefighters Association. 

According to a disclosure filed last week, they’ve already spent over $50,000 in mailers advertising his candidacy. 

Wagner has also spent $184,000 on his campaign from his own fund. 

Khan has just under $100,000 left in her fund for county supervisor, most of which came from individual small dollar donations, construction unions and local Democratic groups. 

She’s already spent over $108,000 on her campaign.

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.