This year marked the first time that The Orange County Register endorsed candidates for office.  While the paper has endorsed for or against ballot measures on a regular basis, this was the paper’s first foray into endorsing City Council candidates.

So here’s who they endorsed, and whether the candidate won or loss (I should note these numbers are subject to change pending further results from the Registrar of Voters, as there are several close races, including, but not limited to, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Mission Viejo, Tustin, and Yorba Linda):

Aliso Viejo (1-2)
W: William “Bill” Phillips
L: Greg Ficke
L: Don Garcia

Anaheim (1-1)
W: Lucille Kring
L: John Leos

Brea (1-1)
W: Marty Simonoff
L: Steven Vargas

Buena Park (1-0)
W: Fred Smith

Costa Mesa (2-1)
W: Steve Mensinger
W: Gary Monahan
L: Colin McCarthy

Cypress (0-0)
No endorsement

Dana Point (1-1)
W: Carlos N. Olvera
L: Ed Stevenson

Fountain Valley (1-1)
W: Steve A. Nagel
L: Patrick Tucker

Fullerton (3-0)
W: Bruce Whitaker
W: Jennifer Fitzgerald
W: Travis Kiger

Garden Grove (0-0)
No endorsement

Huntington Beach (1-2)
W: Dave Sullivan
L: Erik Peterson
L: Barbara Delgleize

Irvine (2-1)
W: Steven S. Choi (Mayor)
W: Christina Shea
L: Lynn Schott

La Habra (0-0)
Uncontested

La Palma (1-2)
W: Peter Kim
L: Robert Carruth
L: Sylvia Colannino Smith

Laguna Beach (1-0)
W: Steve Dicterow

Laguna Hills (1-1)
W: Andrew Blount
L: Raghu P. Mathur

Laguna Niguel (2-1)
W: Jerry McCloskey
W: Laurie Davies
L: Brad Barber

Laguna Woods (3-0)
W: Cynthia S. Conners
W: Milton W. Robbins
W: Noel Hatch

Lake Forest (1-1)
W: Dwight Robinson
L: Jim Gardner

Los Alamitos (1-0)
W: Richard D. Murphy

Mission Viejo (1-1)
W: Frank Ury
L: Wendy Bucknum

Newport Beach (0-0)
Uncontested

Orange (1-2)
W: Tita Smith (Mayor)
L: Ray Grangoff
L: Richard Callahan

Placentia (3-0)
W: Jeremy Yamaguchi
W: Scott Nelson
W: Constance “Connie” Underhill

Rancho Santa Margarita (3-0)
W: Tony Beall
W: Carol Gamble
W: Brad McGirr

San Clemente (0-2)
L: Jim Dahl
L: Mike Mortenson

San Juan Capistrano (1-1)
W: Roy L. Byrnes
L: Kim McCarthy

Santa Ana (0-1)
L: Charles Hart

Seal Beach (0-0)
Uncontested

Stanton (2-0)
W: Carol Warren
W: Al Ethans

Tustin (2-1)
W: John Nielsen
W: Charles E. “Chuck” Puckett
L: Tracy Worley Hagen

Villa Park (0-0)
Uncontested

Westminster (0-3)
L: Ha Minch Mach (Mayor)
L: Charlie Nguyen Manh Chi
L: Helena Rutkowski

Yorba Linda (2-1)
W: Mark Schwing
W: Eugene J. “Gene” Hernandez
L: Nancy Rikel

The Register went 39-27 in Council races (2-1 in mayoral races if you count those separately from Council races), endorsing the winner 59% of the time.

On ballot measures, here’s what happened with The Register’s endorsements:

On statewide ballot measures, The Register went 10-1 (91%) with Orange County voters but 7-4 (64%) with California voters.

On local ballot measures, The Register went 7-14 (33%) with the voters.

I’ll still be number crunching over the next days and weeks, but despite what looks like a dismal endorsement record, it appears The Register was actually middle of the pack on their endorsement success rate in Orange County.