With each of Orange County’s seven countywide elected officials up for re-election in the June Primary I thought it would be helpful to take a look at each of the elected officials, their plans and any potential challengers.
NOTE: There are no term limits on countywide offices in Orange County.
ASSESSOR Webster Guillory has been in office since ’98. He generally avoids politics and the media. He is one of only a couple Black elected officials in Orange County. He is registered as a Decline to State. There is no hard evidence that he will see anyone challenge him in ’06. Although I was at a Christmas party last week and met a guy who works for the LA County Assessor who express interest in Webster’s job.
AUDITOR-CONTROLLER David Sundstrom was also first elected in 1998. He too stays out of the limelight. Not a peep from anyone about challenging him. He is a registered Republican.
CLERK-RECORDER Tom Daly was elected in 2002, the year he was termed out of his mayor’s job in Anaheim. He is a Democrat. No one has surfaced to challenge Daly who has not done much publicly either since being elected. Daly did make a smart move in hiring Phil Tsunoda to be a top deputy (director of external affairs). Tsunoda has a good PR background and knows the political landscape well. I would not be surprised to see Daly make a run for something someday. No challenger to his current post so far.
DISTRICT ATTORNEY Tony Rackauckas a solid conservative Republican (but gets along well with the Dem crowd) was first elected in 1998 (full disclosure I managed his campaign—GBWA was his consultant). For a few tense months this year Assemblyman and former deputy district attorney Todd Spitzer considered aloud the possibility of challenging Tony but thought better of the idea. Rackauckas has had a relatively quite year, although he gets a considerable amount of press. No grand scandals of minor ones the press has blown up for a while. The DA has huge support from the other elected officials in the county and if challenged would have the money he needed to defend himself as he did with ease four years ago, but no one has surfaced so far.
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR John Williams is the elected public administrator and the appointed public guardian. Basically he oversees the assets of those that die without a will and handles the assets and affairs of those who are remanded to the county for various reasons, mostly crazy people. It is one of those obscure offices you don’t even think about, unless you are a friend of John’s or perhaps if you are a crazy person. John is also an elected member of the South Orange County Community College District and elected to the GOP Central Committee. He was first elected to Public Admn. in 2002 beating the chief deputy public administrator. No one has said they want to challenge him and I doubt anyone will.
SHERIFF-CORONER Mike Carona is the popular top cop in the county. A Republican, he was elected for the first time in ’98. Lots of controversy has surrounded his department. A former friend and assistant sheriff was fired and is now under indictment for bribery. Other charges are still pending. No one has ever suggested the Sheriff himself was involved in the improprieties of his former employees. The Sheriff is a key homeland security advisor to President Bush and tight with Governor Schwarzenegger (not necessarily a good thing right now). The good news for the Sheriff is that crime is low and the people of Orange County feel safer than ever. And when you ask the voters, that’s what matters to them the most. There are a few potential rivals to the Sheriff in June including an LA Sheriff’s Commander Ralph Martin and LA Sheriff’s Dept. Sergeant Robert Alcaraz but neither have any public profile yet. A lieutenant from within the OC Sheriff’s Department, Bill Hunt (who has some ethical issues surrounding him—cover-up stuff) is also in the race. The Sheriff has the ability raise a million dollars plus, the others will probably struggle to raise anything. Expect lots of nasty accusation and negative press and then a huge win for Sheriff Carona.
TREASURER-TAX COLLECTOR John Moorlach is giving up his virtual
life-time seat for a run at County Supervisor (2nd District). He has no opponent as of now, but his stand against huge out of control pensions has made him a target of the public employee unions. Moorlach was appointed in 1995. He is a very conservative Republican. Assemblyman Tom Harman was running against him but switched to State Senate. Harman will have to choose soon because the April 11 Special Election for the 35th state senate seat will be after the deadline for filing for supervisor. So far just one candidate has surfaced for Treasurer-Tax Collector, Chriss Street. He and Moorlach were the ones that told the world that Orange County was investing in risky product just before the bankruptcy. Street is uninspiring but rich and has the support of Moorlach.
The political reality of a countywide race is that it costs BIG MONEY. Good people like John Moorlach ran with great messages like “The sky is falling,” but had no money to communicate it and lost in 1994. Rackauckas had a fierce opponent who had the support of the deputy district attorney’s assoc. but he fell flat on his face, why? No money. Even a well funded candidate will have a hard time taking on an incumbent countywide. Because the voters in OC (and elsewhere too) are reluctant to ‘throw the bastards out’ if they are doing a generally good job.
One thing that could change the dynamic of our campaigns for countywide elected office would be the creation of an Orange County media market (our own local network TV news). This is a topic for another day that I will revisit. But keep in mind that Orange County a population of over 3 million is under the same umbrella media market as LA. Lots of smaller communities have their own CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX or other local network. More on that soon.