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Archive for June, 2012

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AD-72’s Distinct Split: Edgar & Allen Top Two in Four Cities, Pham & Dovinh Top Two in Two Cities

Posted by Chris Nguyen on June 18, 2012

With the Primary Election certified, we now have clear breakdowns available in every race in the county.  First up is the 72nd Assembly District, which had the most distinct divisions in the different parts of the district.

First, let’s recall the districtwide numbers:

Los Alamitos Mayor Troy Edgar (R) 18,060 28.0%
Huntington Beach Businessman Travis Allen (R) 12,851 19.9%
Garden Grove Planning Commissioner Joe Dovinh (D) 12,432 19.3%
County Board of Education Trustee Long Pham (R) 12,409 19.2%
Garden Grove Retiree Albert Ayala (D) 8,816 13.7%

So let’s take a look at how the voting broke down in the nine major parts of AD-72 (the seven cities of Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos, Santa Ana, Seal Beach, and Westminster along with the two major unincorporated areas of Midway City and Rossmoor).

72nd Assembly District results in each city and major unincorporated area

(Thanks to Matt Rexroad and Chandra Sharma at Meridian Pacific for the map, which I’ve cropped here and to which I have added graphics.  Note that the population numbers on the map apply to each whole city, not just the portion of the city in AD-72.  Huntington Beach is divided nearly 50/50 between AD-72 and AD-74.  A sliver of Santa Ana and the bulk of Garden Grove are in AD-72 while the bulk of Santa Ana and a sliver of Garden Grove are in AD-69.)

In each city, the candidate with the larger head came in first while the candidate with the smaller head came in second:

  • Edgar came in first with Allen second in Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Seal Beach, Los Alamitos, and Rossmoor.
  • Pham came in first with Dovinh second in Westminster, Santa Ana, and Midway City.
  • Pham came in first with Edgar second in Garden Grove.

Here’s their vote totals broken down visually by city:

Seal Beach single-handedly caused Edgar vs. Allen.  Without them, it would have been Edgar vs. Pham.  Same story with Huntington Beach.

Fountain Valley single-handedly caused the all-Republican matchup.  Without them, it would have been Edgar vs. Dovinh.

Here’s how each candidate performed in the various parts of the district:

  • Edgar came in first or third in every part of the district, except for a second-place finish in Garden Grove and a fourth-place finish in Santa Ana.
  • Pham came in first or fifth in every part of the district, except for a third-place finish in his home of Fountain Valley.
  • Dovinh came in second or third in every part of the district, except for a fourth-place finish in Fountain Valley.
  • Allen came in second or fourth in every part of the district, except for a fifth-place finish in Santa Ana.
  • Ayala came in fourth or fifth in every part of the district, except for a third-place finish in Santa Ana.

Here’s a chart showing how the candidates did in each city and major unincorporated area:

Huntington Beach
Los Alamitos
Seal Beach
Rossmoor		 Fountain Valley Westminster
Midway City		 Santa Ana Garden Grove
  1. Edgar
  2. Allen
  3. Dovinh
  4. Ayala
  5. Pham
  1. Edgar
  2. Allen
  3. Pham
  4. Dovinh
  5. Ayala
  1. Pham
  2. Dovinh
  3. Edgar
  4. Allen
  5. Ayala
  1. Pham
  2. Dovinh
  3. Ayala
  4. Edgar
  5. Allen
  1. Pham
  2. Edgar
  3. Dovinh
  4. Allen
  5. Ayala

Here are the areas sorted by voter turnout:

  • Seal Beach: 36.2%
  • Rossmoor: 34.1%
  • Fountain Valley: 26.9%
  • Los Alamitos: 25.5%
  • Huntington Beach: 24.8%
  • Westminster: 23.5%
  • Garden Grove: 21.7%
  • Midway City: 19.9%
  • Santa Ana: 18.1%

Now let’s see that voter turnout list again, but with the top two candidates in each city noted:

  • Seal Beach: Edgar, Allen
  • Rossmoor: Edgar, Allen
  • Fountain Valley: Edgar, Allen
  • Los Alamitos: Edgar, Allen
  • Huntington Beach: Edgar, Allen
  • Westminster: Pham, Dovinh
  • Garden Grove: Pham, Edgar
  • Midway City: Pham, Dovinh
  • Santa Ana: Pham, Dovinh

Had voter turnout been just a tad higher in Little Saigon or a tad lower in the non-Little Saigon parts of AD-72, Edgar would be facing off against fellow Republican Pham or Democrat Dovinh.

Looking at Pham’s first-or-fifth performance everywhere (outside of his home of Fountain Valley), it’s clear that Team Pham focused too much energy on Little Saigon.  Just a little bit more mail, walkers, or other effort in the non-Little Saigon areas of AD-72 would have been just enough to get him that 0.7% he needed to make the run-off against Edgar.

67% of the voters cast their ballots for the three Republicans while 33% cast their ballots for the two Democrats.  The majority of primary election voters (52.2%) cast their ballots for Dovinh, Pham, or Ayala.  Edgar and Allen combined to win 47.9% of the vote.

The path to victory for the two November contenders goes through Little Saigon, the Democrats, and the independents.  Between Edgar and Allen, whoever can get these large blocs of voters to swing behind them will be the next Assemblyman from the 72nd District.

Posted in 72nd Assembly District | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

Shawn Nelson’s Fourth District Update

Posted by Newsletter Reprint on June 17, 2012

This came over the wire from Supervisor Shawn Nelson’s office on Friday…

Supervisor Shawn Nelson - Fourth District Update Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 4th Supervisorial District | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Bill Campbell’s Third District Report

Posted by Newsletter Reprint on June 17, 2012

This came over the wire from Supervisor Bill Campbell’s office on Friday…

Photo of Supervisor Campbell, Bill Campbell Supervisor 3rd District, Newsletter, Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 3rd Supervisorial District | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Norby Notes 11 – Budget Deadline Looms & Top-2 Primary: A Whole New November

Posted by Newsletter Reprint on June 17, 2012

This came over the wire from Assemblyman Chris Norby’s office on Thursday…

Image Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in 65th Assembly District | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

Orange County Registrar of Voters Presidential Primary Election Update: Primary Election Certified

Posted by Newsletter Reprint on June 16, 2012

This came over the wire from the Registrar of Voters yesterday…

Primary Election Certified

Final Official Certification is Complete

Earlier today we completed the final process of certifying the tally of all votes cast in the June Primary Election. The final turnout was 26.5% with 17.5% of voters casting their ballot by mail and 9% through their polling place.

Neal Kelley
Registrar of Voters

Voting Booth Returns Complete

Making sure we pick up voting booths from our polling places in a timely manner is critical. We have shortened this window to less than 10 days, freeing up space for our volunteer polling locations.

Ballot Envelope Sweep

One of the last steps in the certification process is to ensure that there are no ballots that were stuck in the return envelope. This guarantees that every single vote has been counted.

Ballot Storage Underway

Ballots Are Stored for 22 Months

We have been working to store voted ballots in boxes where they will remain for 22 months. Each ballot is sorted by precinct to make any necessary reviews easier to locate.

Poll Workers 1,642,516  | VBMs Mailed: 684,836  | VBMs Returned: 277,348

Voter Outreach at the Vans Warped Tour

Our voter outreach for the November election is in full swing. We have dozens of events planned before the General Election, each designed to recruit volunteers to work in the Presidential Election. Our outreach will move to the Great Park in Irvine on June 21st as the Vans Warped music tour comes to town.

Posted in Orange County | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Election Night Pool: Results Are In

Posted by Former Blogger Chris Emami on June 15, 2012

Now that the results are finalized and all races have been decided it is time to crown a winner for the election night pool.

And the winner is….. Dwight Robinson.

Standings were as follows for all participants:

Dwight Robinson     649 Points
Chris Emami             607 Points (and Tiebreaker over Scott Carpenter)
Scott Carpenter         607 Points
Connor Duckworth  599 Points
Mike Ferri                  507 Points

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Come to my Fundraiser on June 27th

Posted by Jon Dumitru on June 15, 2012

OC Political is shaping up to be a great source of information on Orange County Politics. I am excited to be a part of this endeavor and look forward to posting more substantive stories over the coming months.

For now though I wanted to take a moment to invite our readers to a fundraiser I am holding on June 27th in the great City of Orange.

Here is the info for the event:

You are Invited to a Fundraising Event for Orange City Councilman Jon Dumitru

Candidate for Orange Mayor 2012

Wednesday, June 27th
5:30pm – 7:30pm

OC Taco Joint
1724 N Tustin St. Orange, CA

$50.00 per person
$250 Corporate
$1000 Sponsor

RSVP— dumitruformayor@gmail.com or (949) 230-9609

Paid for by: Jon Dumitru for Mayor 2012 P.O. Box 4284 Orange, CA 92863

Posted in Orange | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Registrar of Voters: Unofficial Ballot Count Complete

Posted by Newsletter Reprint on June 14, 2012

This came over the wire from the Registrar of Voters two hours ago…

Newsfeed header

Unofficial Ballot Count Complete

June 14, 2012 – We have finished all of our ballot counting and required audit functions from the June 5th Primary Election.  Registrar of Voters, Neal Kelley, will certify the final results tomorrow following the preparation of the Statement of Votes.  Our election results this evening indicate “unofficial” until we finalize tomorrow.  We will be including write-in votes tomorrow as well.

Posted in Orange County | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

How Fast is the Registrar of Voters Counting Ballots? When Will They Finish? Who Will This Affect?

Posted by Chris Nguyen on June 14, 2012

On Friday evening, there were 17,125 uncounted ballots.

By Monday evening, there were 14,724 uncounted ballots, meaning 2,401 ballots were resolved on Monday.

By Tuesday evening, there were 9,528 uncounted ballots, meaning 5,196 ballots were resolved on Tuesday.

By last night, there were 4,625 uncounted ballots, meaning 4,903 ballots were resolved on Wednesday.

At the rate they’re going, it’s highly likely the Registrar of Voters completes the vote count today.

For visual learners:

There are only a few races that could still be affected by the outstanding ballots.

  • Will Ray Grangoff close his 51-vote deficit to overtake Jeff Lalloway for the last slot on the Republican Central Committee from the 68th District?  Will Ken Williams close both his 115-vote deficit to overtake Jeff Lalloway and his 64-vote deficit to overtake Ray Grangroff for the last slot on the Republican Central Committee from the 68th District?
  • Will Bill Dunlap close his 62-vote deficit to overtake John Draper for the last slot on the Republican Central Committee from the 74th District?

Those two races are the only ones in all of Orange County where the gap between the elected and the unelected (or 2nd and 3rd place in those fighting to advance to November from primaries) is 0.3% or less.  It is highly unlikely the 4,625 outstanding ballots would move the needle any more than 0.3%.

There are a couple races where the current leads would be unaffected by the remaining 4,625 ballots, but where the gap could close enough to lead the 3rd or 4th place candidate to pay for a recount to advance to November from the primaries.  (I’m assuming no one’s going to pay for a recount for any party’s Central Committee.)

69th Assembly District
Tom Daly (D) 10,862 39.3%
Jose “Joe” Moreno (R) 5,933 21.5%
Julio Perez (D) 5,649 20.4%
Michele Martinez (D) 4,614 16.7%
Francisco “Paco” Barragan (D) 594 2.1%

Team Perez is likely contemplating whether they’ll pay for a recount if they get within 1% of Jose Moreno (not to be confused with Anaheim City School District Trustee Jose F. Moreno).  Perez’s allies spent six figures trying to elect him, so the cost of a recount wouldn’t be out of the question for them.

72nd Assembly District
Troy Edgar (R) 17,968 28.0%
Travis Allen (R) 12,726 19.8%
Joe Dovinh (D) 12,353 19.3%
Long Pham (R) 12,325 19.2%
Albert Ayala (D) 8,756 13.7%

Long Pham is likely contemplating if he will pay for a recount if he gets within 0.5% of Travis Allen.  It’s unlikely Joe Dovinh or his team have the financial resources to pay for a recount.  Pham would need to dig into his own pockets for a recount.  He’s already spent $100,000 of his personal funds on his campaign and making 2nd place to get to the November general election against Troy Edgar may be the only way he recoups that $100,000.

The 1% for Perez vs. the 0.5% for Pham is on the basis that Perez would be more aggressive than Pham in pursuing a recount, as Perez’s allies spent more and have deeper pockets to pay for a recount while Pham spent less and has more shallow (less deep?) pockets.

Posted in 69th Assembly District, 72nd Assembly District, Orange County, Republican Central Committee | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

AD-69: Traditional D vs. R Match-Up in Daly vs. Moreno; Martinez Plays Spoiler for Perez

Posted by Chris Nguyen on June 13, 2012

On Monday, I took a look at AD-72, and in this post, I’ll be looking at another of OC’s multi-candidate Assembly races that has now narrowed down to two: AD-69.

Conventional wisdom held that if any OC district was going to feature an intraparty battle in November (courtesy of Prop 14), it was going to be the Republicans in AD-74 between Assemblyman Allan Mansoor and Newport Beach Councilwoman Leslie Daigle or the Democrats in AD-69 between OC Clerk-Recorder Tom Daly and either labor leader Julio Perez or Santa Ana Councilwoman Michele Martinez.  (Unexpectedly, it was AD-72 that created OC’s sole intraparty battle with an all-Republican November matchup between Los Alamitos Mayor Troy Edgar and Huntington Beach Businessman Travis Allen.)

AD-69 will come down to Daly and Republican OC Eligibility Technician Jose “Joe” Moreno (not to be confused with Anaheim City School District Trustee Jose F. Moreno).

We here at OC Political predicted Daly vs. Moreno here, here, and here. (While we made several predictions that went wrong [like nearly everybody else, we failed to predict Edgar vs. Allen in AD-72], we’ve been consistent in predicting Daly 1st and Moreno 2nd in AD-69.)

This race was incredibly evenly divided.  Daly was far and away the top vote-getter, getting nearly double the number of votes of the second-place candidate.

Tom Daly 10,724 39.6%
Jose “Joe” Moreno 5,843 21.6%
Julio Perez 5,440 20.1%
Michele Martinez 4,506 16.6%
Francisco “Paco” Barragan 577 2.1%

Some readers may be wondering if Perez could still catch Moreno with the remaining uncounted ballots.   There just aren’t enough out there. 27,090 out of the 417,965 ballots counted in Orange County so far cast votes in AD-69, which equals 6.5% of the votes.  There are 9,528 uncounted ballots remaining in Orange County, which leaves approximately 619 votes remaining in AD-69.  To make up his current 403-vote deficit, Perez would need to be ahead of Moreno by 65.1%.  If Moreno captures 10% of the vote, that would require Perez get 75.1%, leaving just 14.9% to be split between Daly, Martinez, and Barragan.  Let’s say AD-69 has a disproportionate share of the outstanding ballots, and double that to 1,238 ballots remaining in AD-69, Perez would need to be ahead of Moreno by 32.6%.  That is a tough margin for Perez.  If Moreno captures 10% of the vote, that would require Perez get 42.6%, leaving just 47.4% to be split between Daly, Martinez, and Barragan.

It’s clear from the results that Martinez was Perez’s spoiler.  If just 10% of Martinez’s votes had gone to Perez, he would have surpassed Moreno and advanced to a run-off against Daly.  Martinez and Perez were clearly the liberal Democrats in the race, with Daly and Barragan the more moderate Democrats, and Moreno was the Republican.  The lion’s share of Martinez’s votes would have gone to Perez.

It’s now clear that without Michele Martinez in the race, union-backed Democrat Julio Perez would have advanced to the November run-off against business-backed Democrat Tom Daly.

Posted in 69th Assembly District | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments »

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