Former Assemblyman Tom Umberg will have more than just name identification and the ability to raise funds for the upcoming special election in Orange County for the supervisorial seat vacated on Lou Correa’s recent election to the 34th State Senate District. What Umberg also has is a little money left over from his own losing race against Correa in the Senate primary — about $45,000 cash on hand, according to his most recent campaign disclosures, most of which he will likely be able to use in the supervisorial race should he decide to run in the special election. Though the Orange County campaign ordinance as originally enacted bans transfers to a county candidate committee from other candidate committees, an opinion of the California Attorney General issued in March, 2002 [85 Op. Atty. Gen. Cal.4] determined that the Orange County ban was unconstitutional as applied to "intra-candidate" transfers (for example, a transfer of surplus campaign funds from a State Senate campaign account to a county office campaign account controlled by and for the benefit of the same person). The Attorney General determined "inter-candidate" transfers could be banned (transfers from one candidate to another), but found that an "intra-candidate" ban amounted to an unconstitutional expenditure limitation on the person running for office. Given Orange County’s contribution limit of $1,500 per person, Umberg does have the advantage of a small warchest available to him that could provide a bit of a head start in the scramble for the special election.
