Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/author/nsantana/)
Norberto Santana, Jr. is an award-winning investigative reporter with nearly two decades reporting experience, most recently engaging Orange County government institutions and decision makers as the founding publisher of the nonprofit digital newsroom, Voice of OC. As publisher, Santana oversees all newsroom, engagement and fundraising operations and also writes a weekly Opinion column about Orange County government. In 2017 and 2018, the Orange County Press Club recognized Santana as Orange County’s best columnist. Before founding Voice of OC in 2009, Santana was a lead investigative reporter for the Orange County Register from 2004-2009, focusing on county government. He’s spent nearly two decades just focusing on local governments across Southern California, previously as a staff writer with outlets such as the San Diego Union Tribune and the San Bernardino County Sun. Santana began his journalistic career in the early 1990s as an apprentice reporter with Congressional Quarterly in Washington, D.C. covering daily floor action in the U.S. Congress and followed that up with a stint covering the territorial Senate for the U.S. Virgin Islands Daily News. In addition to his experience as a journalist, the Southern California native has a master’s in Latin American Studies, has worked as an elections analyst on National Endowment for Democracy programs across Latin America and was one of the founders of CubaNet.org, a website featuring the work of dissident journalists inside Cuba that has operated since 1995. Languages spoken: English and Spanish Areas of expertise: Orange County, southern California, investigations, politics, elections, government transparency, Congress, Latin America, local government, civic education and reporting education.
OC GOP Chairman Fred Whitaker talks frankly about what went wrong this past election cycle where Republicans lost every congressional seat in the county’s midterm elections. Whitaker also talks about what Republicans have to do to bounce back in the future.
After Orange County’s blue wave this past November, local Democrats face a tough choice in a January election for chair of the local Democratic Party with union leader Ada Briceño running against longtime local elected official Beth Krom. The big question rumbling around OC office hallways and holiday parties is whether the face of the party needs to better match the base?
Following harassment of a Voice of OC reporter earlier this year, Anaheim’s Police Chief Jorge Cisneros has apologized for the “impact” of the action. Yet due to a state law that shields discussion of police blunders, there’s little that Anaheim’s top cop can say to the public about how missteps are handled. That should say a lot about the future of police relations and funding in California.
United Way Chief Operating Officer Carla Vargas updates progress on homelessness programs in Orange County, discussing a new pilot program, funded by a $250,000 grant from the County of Orange, that hopes to connect homeless people who are ready for permanent supportive housing with willing apartment owners as a way of quickly moving the dial to address an estimated need of 2,700 permanent supportive housing units across the county.
Foley talks about how Democrats swept local elections in Costa Mesa this year, shutting out Republicans for Congress, State Assembly, city council and the mayor’s race. Foley reflects on the campaign and where the city’s first directly elected mayor will take civic affairs.
On Election Day, President Trump drove unprecedented voter turnout in Orange County, nearly 65 percent of registered voters visited the polls. That hasn’t been seen during a midterm election in Orange County since the 1970s. The results don’t bode well for the GOP but there’s a deeper message here for incumbents: Engage the public or peril.
Incoming DA Todd Spitzer outlines his plans as he prepares to become Orange County’s top law enforcement official in January.
As we come out of the election season, and go into another month of tight, tense counts at the local registrar of voters office, Veterans Day offers a chance to stop and reflect on our freedoms as well as those who have sacrificed to ensure our way of life. Today, Orange County’s state fairgrounds in Costa Mesa hosts the annual commemoration where people can visit the Hero’s Hall museum as well as the walk of honor featuring plaques that tell the stories of more than three-dozen war heroes from Orange County.
Chapman University Political Science professors Mike Moodian and Fred Smoller talk about the unprecedented voter turnout and election results from across Orange County, noting the end of OC GOP dominance and the advent of a more competitive political landscape.
Wylie Aitken, a prominent local attorney, chairman for the Chapman University Board of Trustees and the Voice of OC Board of Directors, writes about his experience watching this year’s political hit mail in Anaheim’s mayoral and city council races, raising questions about the impact on local civic life.