Yesterday was the last day* for candidates to file to run in California’s June 3 Primary Election. The races that will appear on the ballot for that election are the primaries for Assembly, State Senate, and Congress, as well as Superior Court judicial races, county Board of Education, county Supervisor, and party central committees.
I’m pleased to report we have a full slate of Democratic candidates in Orange County and a nearly full slate statewide. Check the list below the fold:
AD 56: Tony Mendoza (incumbent)
AD 60: Diane Singer
AD 67: Steve Blount
AD 68: Ken Arnold
AD 69: Jose Solorio (incumbent)
AD 70: Mike Glover
AD 71: Gil Hodges
AD 72: John MacMurray
AD 73: Judy Jones
SD 29: Joseph Lyons
SD 33: Gary Pritchard
SD 35: Ginny Mayer
CD 40: Christina Avalos and Tom Kennedy
CD 42: Ed Chau, Ron Shepston, and Michael Williamson
CD 44: Bill Hedrick
CD 46: Debbie Cook and Daniel Kalmick
CD 47: Loretta Sanchez (incumbent)
CD 48: Steve Young
I can already hear some of you saying, “So what? Other than the incumbents, few of these Democrats have much chance of winning.”
While it’s true that most of the non-incumbents face very uphill battles, to say the least, they’re performing important roles. They raise issues, keep their opponents on their toes, register voters, promote the Democratic Party, force Republicans to spend time and money on their own campaigns, and get Democratic voters to the polls. Most of them are highly qualified individuals who would do an excellent job representing us in Sacramento and Washington, DC.
We owe each of these candidates our thanks. They’ve already put forth a good deal of time and energy just getting their names on the ballot and they’ll be doing a lot more in the coming months. [Cue applause]
I’d also like to give a shout-out to the people involved in recruiting. (Since I’m one of them, I know how much work it is.) Many thanks (in no particular order) to the CDP’s Voter Services chair, Jim Wisely; DPOC Candidate Recruitment chair, Alicia Berhow; DPOC Executive Director, Melahat Rafiei; LACDP Political Director, Clark Lee; DCC Riverside chair, Shirley Walton; District Director for Senator Lou Correa, Tammy Tran; Field Director for Loretta Sanchez, Marc Sussman; and probably several others I don’t know about.
Apparently the CDP was able to find candidates for every partisan race in the state except CD 22 (Kevin McCarthy) and AD 4 (Ted Gaines).
* the deadline is extended to March 12 in races where the incumbent does not file.
Thank you Gila for the shout out! It’s been a wild ride and so much to learn. We opened our candidate account today and the poor guy at WaMu didn’t know how to do it. It’s all very overwhelming but we are doing the best we can.
I wish all of those who are running the best of luck and both Gary and I look forward to getting to know everyone!
don’t be so sure this time around none of them have a chance – it will be a battle but remember on Feb 5th more democrats than republicans turned out – IN OC, that hasn’t happened in decades
Do you happen to know if any Dems around the state are running without Republican opposition?
Ed: apparently only in two districts. I was told by Jim Wisely there’s no opposition to Kevin McCarthy in CD 22 (mostly San Luis Obispo and Kern Counties) nor to Ted Gaines in AD 4 (Placer County).
Heather,
What race are you running in?
Who the heck is Ken Arnold? Does he have a prayer against Van Tran? You guys should have run Hoa Van Tran in that race, as a Green Party candidate, to undermine Tran in the general. Too late now…
Gila —
can you please post information about how to contribute to each campaign. I have an assemblyman and Congressman in my district I’d like to replace.
Dan: great idea. So I don’t have to collect the information myself, I’ll write a post requesting that the various campaigns post their info.
This is something all progressive candidates should be doing. Maybe Chris can set upa special page. Thanks Gila.
Just asking – My husband, Gary Pritchard, is running for State Senate.
UPDATE: I was told yesterday, and was able to confirm today, that Rogelio Morales did not qualify for the CD 44 race. I’ve modified the above list.
And, in anticipation of possible questions, I don’t know why he didn’t qualify.
Hey Gila-
Congress is a federal body and the Assembly is state, so in a presidential election year, wouldn’t it have made more sense to list the CD’s first, or would that put Ed Chau’s name too close to the top of the list?
Before I get flamed (again) for making a factual observation, I freely admit that you may not have done this on purpose, but under the circumstance that at least *I* personally have discovered through channels that you’re upset about Ed’s candidacy, it’s just another indication that you may in fact be trying to keep him in obscurity.
And before you argue that you listed his name first in his district, Ed has raised $6k more than Ron Shepston and Williamson has raised a grand total of ZERO (as in ‘goose egg’) and is the ‘no amnesty candidate,’ which practically makes him a Republican.
Again. this isn’t an attack, just something for you to seriously consider.
SMS
Oh and Heather-
Does your husband share your reasonable and moderate views? If so he has my full support. Let me know if you need anything. 🙂
SMS
I am absolutely not opposed to the candidacy of Ed Chau. Anyone who said that is misinformed.
As one of the folks involved in candidate recruitment, I do get very frustrated that so many people want to run for Congress and so few want to run for down-ticket races. Whenever someone tells me they want to run for Congress I try to encourage them to try a lower ticket race.
However, once again this is taking the thread off-topic and I’m not going to discuss it further here.
In response to Art Pedroza’s post, I Ken Arnold, a computer scientist and business systems analyst, grew up in Orange county and raised my two sons here. I’ve been politically involved for a long time but never as intensely as since we got the White House stolen and the many crimes against the nation, Constitution and world that have followed. If you have looked at the past voting and/or registration figures for the 68th, it is highly unlikely that any Democrat will win, regardless of his name, which is why, in part, there was no other candidate and I was recruited by the party. I’ll campaign as much as I can, but more for building the party, increasing Dem. registration and turnout and getting other Dems elected than with any expectation of a win of my own. (Though I know I have a lot to contribute if I do get to Sacramento). Hoa Van Tran has a much better chance in the supervisor’s race than in the 68th AD. I and my Vietnamese-American wife will be supporting him. l will be pulling for all our Democratic candidates but so far am particularly interested in helping Debbie Cook, Steve Young, Kathy Foley, Gus Ayers, Hoa Van Tran, and Kevin Carr. We must get real controlling majorities in both houses of the Federal and State legislatures and capture more local government offices.
Victory in ’08
Ken
Ken —
what a great post! You are to be commended for taking a risk and for being realistic all at the same time. PLease post a web site where readers can cut you a check.
Ken – Thanks so much for that. Gary Pritchard, my husband, is running for many of the same reasons and we plan on helping those in our district with GOTV and registering Democrats! If we can help these candidates up the ticket they can help us down the ticket. That’s what we should be doing as Dems.
So glad someone else has the same plan 🙂
who knows, a major sex scandal could break out a week before the election and you’ll win