OC Political

Chris Nguyen posted about the vacancy on the Anaheim Union High School District Board earlier this week. He gave a great analysis of those who have thrown their hat into the ring for the appointment.

This is a difficult post to write, because I am very torn on the issue of making non-partisan seats partisan. In the case of the Anaheim Union High School District I am forced to take a stance on political intervention because it is a matter of protecting future partisan offices.

In cases where vacancies exist on local elected bodies such as City Council or School District it is most common to see an appointment process to fill the vacancy as opposed to special election. The Anaheim Union High School District has had a history of members running for and sometimes winning higher office:

Tom Daly- This former member of the Anaheim Union High School District went on to become Anaheim Mayor and then became Orange County Clerk Recorder. He is currently running for the 69th Assembly District.

Alexandria Coronado- This former School Board Trustee ended up winning a seat on the Orange County Board of Education and then later on ran against Loretta Sanchez for Congress unsuccessfully. Se got knocked off the County Board of Education this last June by David Boyd.

Thomas “Hoagy” Holguin- He ended up running for the City Council this past November and ended up losing and in the process lost his School Board seat as well.

Jordan Brandman- The next candidate in the cycle is Jordan Brandman who is currently running for the Anaheim City Council in what is sure to be a very interesting election.

With the history of candidates moving on to higher office it is imperative that the OC GOP intervene and make sure that a Republican be appointed to this seat. That may not sit well with a lot of people but from a Republican standpoint it makes sense.

In fact when the OC GOP has their endorsing convention one of the questions that pops up is whether or not the applicant for endorsement has endorsed any Democrats. I argue that voting to appoint a Democrat is far worse than endorsing one because an endorsement still requires the voters to approve of the candidate. An appointment requires between 3-5 votes to effectively elect somebody to the body.

Look at the story told by former CRA President Mike Spence:

He warned people to take on a candidate for Rio Hondo Community College District because she was a big threat to the Republican Party. Nobody really felt that threatened by this candidate during that election to a small College District. The candidate was Hilda Solis who went on to serve in the legislature, Congress, and then was appointed U.S. Secretary of Labor by President Obama.

Some solid Republicans applied for this seat and I hope that the 3 Republicans on the School Board will take this into consideration when filling the vacancy.