SD-34: Nguyen Outraises Solorio in 2013, Solorio Dependent on Old Sacramento Money
Posted by Chris Nguyen on August 15, 2013
SD-34 Candidates:
Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen (R-Garden Grove) and former State Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana)
SD-34 is one of the more complex races to calculate campaign finances for, due to the fact that Supervisor Janet Nguyen (R-Garden Grove) and former Assemblyman Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana) wield massive warchests, scattered across multiple campaign accounts. Furthermore, independent expenditures will likely dominate the final weeks of the general election.
Nguyen wields campaign accounts for both Senate and Supervisor while Solorio has Senate, College Board, and ballot measure accounts. Nguyen just opened her Senate account during this reporting period but already managed to obtain $105,750 for her Senate account. She also raised $65,345 into her Supervisorial account during 2013. Solorio raised $64,420 into his Senate account in 2013, $3,200 into his College Board account, and $2,500 into his ballot measure account.
It’s clear Solorio is depending on money from his Sacramento days, as he simply didn’t raise as much as Nguyen did during this reporting period – the first reporting period in which Solorio was no longer an Assemblyman.
The campaign contribution limit for Supervisor is $1,900 per election while the contribution limit for Senate is $4,100. Consequently, it is quite likely that the vast majority of Nguyen’s supervisorial account ($331,704) can be transferred to her Senate account ($102,965).
Solorio has $104,339 in his ballot measure committee, which has no contribution limits, but that means he can only transfer $4,100 per donor per election into his Senate account; a chunk of that is not transferable since he has donors who gave $10,000 to the ballot measure committee, and a total transfer would violate Senate contribution limits. Since there’s only $292 in Solorio’s College Board account, he’ll have no problem transferring all of it, but then again, it’s only $292 (I’ll note College Board has no contribution limits, though).
Refreshingly, neither candidate in SD-34 had any loans to their campaigns.
For visual learners:
| Candidate | 12/31/12 Cash Balance |
Contributions | Unpaid Bills |
Expenditures | Cash on Hand (COH) |
COH Minus Unpaid Bills |
|||||
| Nguyen for Senate | $0 | $105,750 | $1,278 | $6,507 | $104,243 | $102,965 | |||||
| Nguyen for Supervisor | $408,496 | $65,345 | $15,220 | $126,966 | $346,924 | $331,704 | |||||
| Solorio for Senate | $304,802 | $64,420 | $1,810 | $16,185 | $353,042 | $351,232 | |||||
| Solorio for College Board | $10,068 | $3,200 | $0 | $13,969 | $292 | $292 | |||||
| Solorio Ballot Measure | $105,636 | $2,500 | $229 | $3,507 | $104,628 | $104,339 | |||||
| Notes: Figures may be off by one dollar due to rounding. | |||||||||||
SD-34 is 38.4% Democrats, 35.8% Republicans, 21.0% No Party Preference voters, and 4.8% third party voters. 87.8% of SD-34 voters are from Orange County while 12.2% are from Los Angeles County. With lower voter turnout in November 2014 due to a lack of the presidential race, this should favor the Republican (Nguyen) against the Democrat (Solorio), as Republicans tend to have higher voter turnout than Democrats do.
It appears Nguyen and Solorio sit in relatively even positions with over $400,000 cash-on-hand each, but fundraising momentum rests with Nguyen. Furthermore, her office as a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors is a better perch from which to raise money than Solorio’s perch on the Rancho Santiago Community College Board.
(For the record, I am not related to Supervisor Janet Nguyen. The last name Nguyen is held by 36% of Vietnamese people.)
OC Political 
OC Insider said
Let’s hope someone else steps forward — we need much better choices than these two. The FBI may lessen Nguyen’s chances, and Solorio is just another tax ‘n spend Democrat.
OC Insider #29 (aka Greg Diamond) said
“Just another tax ‘n spend Democrat” — yeah, I wish.
So who would you guys prefer from my side of the tracks? I’m thinking that maybe Speaker Perez moves down to Long Beach. What do you think?
OCInsider#33 said
Fellow OCInsider Friend #29, I wish Jose fit into the Orange County pro-business mold that OC Reps like and you are not so fond of. But Jose will roll for whatever the unions and Dem Caucus wants if he gets back to Sacramento. And FBI aside, Janet is too scared of her own political shadow to be much good to anyone, anywhere. It’s a sad district for both sides of the aisle.
senecadoane said
No, he will only pretend to do so. (Look at his voting record in committee.) He’s the guy who got Tom Daly, of whom I presume you would approve, elected. He is from the Solorio Party and if elected will head the Solorio Caucus.
As for Janet: don’t try to cheer me up. She’d just be running to get a head start on opposing Lowenthal in 2016, when she’d have a free pass to oppose him.
We need Speaker Perez in the district, even if for nothing more than the entertainment value.
checker said
According to the AFSCME union, Solorio had an 89% pro-union record on the Assembly Floor, 91% in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, and voted for AFSCME’s position in the Assembly Insurance Committee (they only took one position in that committee).
Click to access AFSCME-Scorecard-Spreads.pdf
senecadoane said
What’s wrong with you guys? I read your stuff; why don’t you read my stuff?
This — http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2013/04/cal-labor-fed-issues-legislative-scorecards-jose-solorio-sets-a-dubious-record/ — is from April; it will explain why you should desire to change your handle to “checking a little closer.”
By the way, I realize that my slagging Solorio here simply makes it likelier that some Republicans will vote for him. I leave it to you to determine whether I’m playing you — but read the gosh-darn article first. (It’s long, but you can do it.)
OC Insider #29 (aka Greg Diamond) said
That’s weird — wrong account. Oh well, fixed now.
Look for my reply tomorrow, Chris.
TheMarshallPlan said
I hope the OCGOP is really focusing on registration (real registration, not the supermarket registering kind) and most importantly GOTV, because the increase in votes for the Democrats between ’08 to ’12, and the corresponding decline in votes for Republicans was embarrassing, and this is not something that has been limited to just the last two presidential elections.
TheMarshallPlan said
I should mention that I was specifically talking about the numbers in Garden Grove and Westminster.
OC Political: Solorio Fundraising Falling Behind Janet Nguyen’s! HELP US, John Perez! | Orange Juice said
[…] and quote from the following perspicacious analysis by our friends in the elephant herd: SD-34: Nguyen Outraises Solorio in 2013, Solorio Dependent on Old Sacramento Money. Credit here goes to Chris Nguyen — who assures us in his piece that he is not related to […]