OC Democrats’ Worst-Case Scenario Comes True: Coups Benefit Republicans in AD-69 & AD-74
Posted by Chris Nguyen on March 10, 2012
Due to Prop 14, instead of a traditional primary (where the top June Primary vote-getter from each party would advance to the November General Election), the top two candidates regardless of party would advance to November. Before candidate filing opened, conservative Republicans feared that the 74th Assembly District would pit conservative Republican Assemblyman Allan Mansoor versus liberal Republican Newport Beach Councilwoman Leslie Daigle, with no Democrat in the race. In that scenario, Daigle would grab part of the Republican vote along with nearly all the Democrats’ votes to edge out Mansoor.
Well, now, Orange County Democrats find themselves in their worse-case scenario, and Orange County Republicans are sitting pretty.
There’s a Democrat running in AD-74, and there’s no Republican in AD-69.
AD-74
The candidates in AD-74 are:
- California Assemblyman Allan R. Mansoor (R)
- Council Member/Businesswoman Leslie Daigle (R)
- Business Owner/Accountant Robert Rush (D)
With Rush in the race, Daigle’s hopes of using Democratic votes to advance to November are dashed. Rush will hold the Democratic vote, and Daigle will be forced to battle Mansoor in the June primary for the Republican vote. Conservative Republican primary voters will pick Mansoor over Daigle, and the November general election will feature the Republicans’ Mansoor versus the Democrats’ Rush. With a 13% Republican registration advantage, Mansoor will cruise to victory over Rush, instead of a costly general election between two Republicans.
(Mansoor, Daigle, and Rush have already qualified for the ballot while No Party Preference Candidate Paul Vann did not file for the seat.)
AD-69
The candidates in AD-69 are:
- Orange County Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly (D)
- Councilwoman, City of Santa Ana Michele Martinez (D)
- Non-Profit Workforce Director Julio Perez (D)
- Accountant/Businessman/Auditor Francisco “Paco” Barragan (D)
(Daly and Martinez have already qualified for the ballot. The Registrar is still examining the nomination paperwork submitted by Perez and Barragan. Republican Robert Hammond did not file for the seat.)
Democrats expected to settle their four-way primary battle between Daly, Martinez, Perez, and Barragan in June, with the winning Democrats likely in one of the first two positions, Republican Robert Hammond in one of the other top two positions, and the losing Democrats occupying spots 3-5. This would then set up one Democrat versus Hammond, allowing Democrats to unify their money against Republicans in November.
However, with Hammond pulling out of the AD-69 race, that means the four Democrats will battle it out in the June primary and then the top two Democrats will battle it out again in the November general election. Democrats will be spending their money clobbering each other in AD-69 in November in an expensive intraparty war that simultaneously costs Democrats resources they won’t be spending elsewhere in OC and California and frees up Republican resources to be spent elsewhere in OC and California.
Instead of Republicans spending money against Republicans in AD-74, it’s going to be Democrats spending money against Democrats in AD-69.
Stay tuned for an announcement from the Hammond campaign later today tomorrow…
(In the interest of full disclosure, Robert Hammond is a Custom Campaigns client.)
This entry was posted on March 10, 2012 at 6:29 AM and is filed under 69th Assembly District, 74th Assembly District. Tagged: Allan Mansoor, Julio Perez, Leslie Daigle, Michele, Michele Martinez, Paco Barragan, Paul Vann, Robert Hammond, Robert Rush, Tom Daly. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
OC Political 
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Greg Diamond said
You’re forgetting about the write-in in AD-74.
as for AD-69, we Dems already knew that you Republicans were supporting Daly. Those beans were spilled some time ago. Republicans and “developer Dems” will have to spend a lot of money to beat Perez — if you can. (It would take less money, admittedly, to defeat Martinez or Barragan.)
Really enjoying the website, by the way, guys! There’s so much great information here!
Chris Nguyen said
I wasn’t aware of the write-in candidate in AD-74.
I fully expect AD-69 to be expensive, though I expect little Republican money to flow into that race.
Appreciate the compliment! We’re always trying to be informative (though with a bit of a partisan slant, of course)!
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[…] OC Democrats’ Worst-Case Scenario Comes True: Coups Benefit Republicans in AD-69 & AD-74 Republicans had long feared an all-Republican battle between Assemblyman Allan Mansoor and Newport Beach Councilwoman Leslie Daigle, which would eat up Republican human and financial resources in both June and November. There were further fears that Democrats would cast their votes for Daigle to oust the more conservative Mansoor. These fears proved unfounded when Democrat Robert Rush qualified for the ballot. However, the scenario Republicans feared in AD-74 became the scenario Democrats face in AD-69. Republican Robert Hammond pulled out of the AD-69 race, leaving four Democrats to face only each other in a bloody intra-party battle in June. Then the top two of those four will face each other again in a bloody intra-party battle in November. AD-69 will eat up Democratic human and financial resources in November when they could have been spending their time, energy, and money battling Republicans. (Prop 14 made this possible by eliminating traditional primaries, and requiring the top two candidates from the June primary to advance to the November general election, even if they’re from the same party, even if someone broke 50% in June, and even if there were only two candidates in June.) […]
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