OC Political

There’s been some confusion as to what OC GOP has and has not endorsed so far.  For an OC GOP endorsement to be official, it must be approved by the Central Committee.

A number of early endorsements were approved by the Central Committee on August 18 (which I dubbed Round 1 in my live blog.) I should note there were also two endorsements made during the primary that carried over to the general election (Claude Parrish for Orange County Assessor and Kevin Haskins for Superior Court Judge) and one really early endorsement made during the primary for the general election (Michael Gates for Huntington Beach City Attorney).

The Endorsements Committee met on September 2 and September 3 (which I dubbed Round 2A and Round 2B respectively in my live blogs).  The Endorsements Committee votes are only recommendations for the Central Committee to consider at its meeting next week on September 15.  The Central Committee must ratify the recommendations of the Endorsements Committee before any endorsement can be official.

For our readers’ edification, I’m going to consolidate the lists of endorsements and recommendations here, so people don’t need to scroll through each live blog to figure out what the status is for each endorsement or proposed endorsement.

All of these have been approved by Central Committee, so these (so far) are the official endorsements of the Republican Party of Orange County:

• Orange County Supervisor, 5th District: Robert Ming
• Orange County Assessor: Claude Parrish
• Superior Court Judge, Office No. 14: Kevin Haskins
• Aliso Viejo City Council: Dave Harrington
• Anaheim Mayor: Tom Tait
• Costa Mesa City Council: Jim Righeimer, Lee Ramos
• Fountain Valley City Council: Mark McCurdy
• Huntington Beach City Council: Erik Peterson, Mike Posey, Lynn Semeta
• Huntington Beach City Attorney: Michael Gates
• Irvine Mayor: Steven Choi
• Irvine City Council: Jeff Lalloway, Lynn Schott
• Lake Forest City Council: Scott Voigts
• Newport Beach City Council, District 1: Diane Dixon
• Orange City Council: Ray Grangoff, Fred Whitaker
• San Juan Capistrano City Council: Pam Patterson, Derek Reeve
• Westminster City Council: Tyler Diep
• Yorba Linda City Council (November): Peggy Huang, Tom Lindsey
• No on the Yorba Linda Recall (October)
• Rancho Santiago Community College District, Trustee Area 6: Phil Yarbrough
• Capistrano Unified School District, Trustee Area 4: Craig Alexander
• Capistrano Unified School District, Trustee Area 6: Ellen Addonizio
• Capistrano Unified School District, Trustee Area 7: Julie Collier
• Lowell Joint School District: William Hinz
• Municipal Water District of Orange County, Division 1: Brett Barbre
• Municipal Water District of Orange County, Division 5: Dave Ellis
• Orange County Water District, Division 5: Steve Sheldon
• Yes on Measure E – County Contracting with FPPC
• Yes on Measure G – County Supervisorial Vacancy
• Yes on Measure O – Costa Mesa Charter
• Yes on Measure W – Irvine Great Park Transparency
• Yes on Measure V – Irvine Term Limits
• Yes on Measure Y – Newport Beach General Plan Update
• No on Measure AA – Santa Ana Utility Tax
• No on Measure GG – Stanton Sales Tax Increase
• Yes on Measure JJ – Yorba Linda City Council Pension & Healthcare Elimination

The following have been recommended by the Endorsements Committee, but all of the recommendations of the Endorsements Committee below must be ratified by the Central Committee on September 15 (the Central Committee can and does overturn recommendations from the Endorsements Committee):

• Brea City Council: Steve Vargas, Cecilia Hupp
• Buena Park City Council: Baron Night
• Dana Point City Council: John Tomlinson
• Fullerton City Council: Greg Sebourn
• Lake Forest City Council: Andrew Hamilton
• Laguna Niguel City Council: Elaine Gennawey, John Jennings
• Mission Viejo City Council: Wendy Bucknum, Rhonda Reardon, Ed Sachs
• Newport Beach City Council, District 3: Duffy Duffield
• Newport Beach City Council, District 4: Kevin Muldoon
• Newport Beach City Council, District 6: Scott Peotter
• San Juan Capistrano City Council: Kerry Ferguson
• Fountain Valley School District: Jim Cunneen, Sandra Crandall
• Fullerton Joint Union High School District: M.J. Noor
• Ocean View School District: John Briscoe, Tracy Pellman
• Orange Unified School District, Trustee Area 5: Timothy Surridge
• Orange Unified School District, Trustee Area 7: Rick Ledesma
• Santa Ana Unified School District: Angie Cano
• Tustin Unified School District: David Yang
• Orange County Water District, Division 7: Shawn Dewane
• Mesa Water District, Division 4: Ron Amburgey
• Costa Mesa Sanitary District: Chuck Perry
• No on Measure H – Anaheim Union High School District Bond
• No on Measure I – Fullerton Joint Union High School District Bond
• No on Measure J – North Orange County Community College District Bond
• No on Measure K – Orange Unified School District Bond

The Endorsements Committee recommended neutrality on the following (however, the Central Committee could overturn the Endorsements Committee and vote to endorse any of them):

• Anaheim City Council: Gail Eastman, Kris Murray, Douglas Pettibone, James Vanderbilt
• Fountain Valley City Council: Michael Vo
• Fullerton City Council: Sean Paden (Endorsement Motion for Paden Failed 3-3), Larry Bennett
• Huntington Beach City Council: Barbara Delgleize (Endorsement Motion for Delgleize Failed 3-3)
• Rancho Santa Margarita City Council: Laurie Biehl, Don Chadd, Jerry Holloway, Brad McGirr, Jesse Petrilla, Michael Vaughn
• Measure Z – Rancho Santa Margarita Zoning

The Endorsements Committee was prohibited from considering the following applicants because the Central Committee had already endorsed the number of seats available (however, these candidates can appeal to the full Central Committee, who can choose to dual-endorse by adding these candidates to the existing endorsements or they can undo a prior endorsement in favor of one of these candidates):

• Costa Mesa City Council: Tony Capitelli (Jim Righeimer and Lee Ramos already endorsed for the two seats)
• Orange County Water District, Division 5: Leslie Daigle (Steve Sheldon already endorsed for the seat)

The Endorsements Committee did not consider the application of one candidate, who somehow missed the Endorsements Committee meeting:

• San Clemente City Council: Tim Brown

There are a handful of late endorsement applications that are still floating out there, having missed the August deadline to submit an application, so these will be considered in Round 3, with Central Committee voting on October 20, just 15 days before the election.  These would most definitely be considered late endorsements.  Because it’s endorsements, there’s one more caveat: a late applicant could appeal to the full Central Committee at its September 15 meeting to try to get a September endorsement, but that’d be tough to pull off.