With 3 OC supervisor seats in June, candidates can now enter races – Orange County Register

A majority of Orange County voters will get to choose their county supervisor in June, and they will soon find out who will be on the ballot.

The application period is open this week for candidates seeking seats in the newly drawn Districts 2, 4 and 5, and anyone wishing to appear in the June 7 primary vote can You have until March 11 to file paperwork with the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

The combination of the recent redistricting (which change county boundaries), and term limits on supervisors, have created a rare situation – two supervisory seats are essentially wide open.

Supervisor Katrina Foley won a special election last year in District 2. But the new version of that seat does not include Costa Mesa, where she lives. So to stay on the board, she hopes to win the newly drawn District 5, where Supervisor Lisa Bartlett is ineligible for re-election due to term limits.

While the race in District 5 is expected to be full of contention, Foley’s move to leave the new District 2 – OC’s first Latino majority voting district – up to get. At the same time, the new District 4, where current Supervisor Doug Chaffee is back in action with a self-funded war warehouse of about $300,000, is expected to attract some competition.

“I can’t remember the last time we had two supervisory seats open at the same time,” said Democratic political adviser George Urch.

While the county supervisor seats are technically not partisan, Republicans and Democrats in Orange County backed the candidates and vie for control of the five-member council. For decades, the battle was between David and Goliath. Until 2019, voter registration numbers show that the GOP has an edge over the Democrats in Orange County – and the GOP held a virtual lock on the county supervisory seats. Some critics argue that the 2011 redistricting was shaped to help the GOP hold that advantage.

This time around, the landscape was different. Orange County voter registration data currently shows Democrats have a small but growing advantage over Republicans. And this year’s board, with two of its five Democratic supervisors (Foley and Chaffee), that created new districts shows Republicans hold a slim registration advantage in Districts 1, 3 and 5, and Democrats have a larger advantage in Districts 2 and 4, according to Poli Data Inc., a company that tracks voter registrations across California.

“I think the redistricting maps are fair,” said Republican adviser Lou Penrose. “They are fair battles.”

While the Democratic Party’s advantage in District 2 appears to be the largest in the county – with the party favored by 48.1% of registered voters compared with 22.5% of those registered with the GOP – Penrose showed a link. party is not necessarily the deciding factor.

“I would encourage a Republican candidate to run vigorously in any of them,” Penrose said of the supervisory seat.

Santa Ana Mayor Vicente Sarmiento and Garden Grove Councilmember Kim Bernice Nguyen (both Democrats) announced that they are running for District 2, which includes all of Santa Ana and parts of Anaheim, Garden Grove, Orange and Tustin.

In District 4 – which includes northern Orange County, including western Anaheim, Fullerton and Placentia – Chaffee will have to compete with at least one other Democrat, Buena Park Councilmember Sunny Park, and have plenty of time. Time for other candidates to jump in. county has a registration advantage of about 12 points over the GOP – 41.9% to 29.3% – according to Poli Data Inc.

In District 5, where Republicans have an edge over mild Democrats, 37.4% to 33.4%, the race can get crowded.

Foley is expected to face a number of Republican opponents, including Diane Harkey, who has held local and state offices, and State Senator Pat Bates, who is also a former county supervisor. Some people who planned to run before the district changed still have campaign accounts open, and Urch said he wouldn’t be surprised if a few more candidates actually applied to participate. .

Penrose sees the reconfigured District 5 as a prime location as it brings together the county’s key revenue-generating properties, John Wayne Airport and Dana Point Harbor, and it also includes the Fairs & Events Center lawsuit OC (state owned) and (city owned) Port of Newport

While Penrose thinks voters’ concerns about crime and quality of life issues could lead them to support GOP candidates (he supports Harkey in District 5), Urch sees an opportunity to Democrats chose the third seat and won a majority on the board for the first time. for many decades.

One challenge for all those running for the position of supervisor may be to bring them to the attention of the public.

Most of the state races in the June 7 vote are incumbents seeking re-election and there will be no statewide initiative – something Urch proposes that voters can feel boring.

“People will be scrambling for limited campaign money and attention for their campaigns,” he said.

Potential candidates for the OC supervisory seats in Districts 2, 4 and 5 have until March 11 to submit the paperwork to get the June ballot. more than two candidates and no one receives at least 50% plus one vote, the two receiving the highest votes will go head to head again in a two-person runoff in November.