Former State Senator Lou Correa is the only declared candidate for Congress in CD-46 representing most of Santa Ana, parts of Orange and Anaheim. We’ve received about a half dozen phone calls from reliable tipsters suggesting that there will soon be two new entries in the race — one from each party.
Former Santa Ana city council member and current Rancho Santiago Community College trustee Claudia Alvarez is said to be weighing a run for Congress. She made the rounds at the recent Democratic Convention in Anaheim, while Correa was absent due to a family obligation. We’ve been told Alvarez is working the phones seeking to dredge up support and money and would run way to the left of Correa on the Democratic front. Alvarez comes with significant baggage and may find if hard to get votes outside of Santa Ana from Democrats remembering her stone deafness to her public comparison of a Jewish property owner in Santa Ana to Adolf Hitler.
Alvarez’s fallback is if she doesn’t finish in the two two, she will have plenty of time and funds to run for re-election to her RSCCD board seat. If Miguel Pulido doesn’t run for re-election under a cloud of a federal lawsuit on pot shops, Alvarez will almost certainly run for Mayor of Santa Ana.
Despite having assurance that Irvine Council member Lynn Schott wasn’t a candidate for Congress in CD-46, her Campaign Committee is still open and an update to this website shows a Lynn Schott for Congress committee is still live (the update was for 6/16/2015 at 12:46 PM EDT). The update shows no money raised, no supporters listed, no cash on hand and no IEs, but we reached campaign treasurer Jen Slater in Irvine who confirmed the committee is still live. Slater wouldn’t confirm if Schott in still in the race but said she hasn’t spoken to Schott in weeks. Slater said there’s no direction to close the committee. Slater also serves as the treasurer for the Lincoln Club of Orange County.
We’re told Schott may run because just about every prominent Latino Republican and several non-Latino Republicans who were approached to challenge for this seat has said no. The list includes Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait, Anaheim Council member James Vanderbilt, and SAUSD Trustee Ceci Inglesias; all have said no.
Ingelsias is seen as a political social climber who lost a bid for Assembly in AD-69 is heading the advice of some in the GOP to focus on getting re-elected. We reached out to Schott to confirm the calls we’ve received and she hasn’t responded to deny the information. And since the committee is still live and it hasn’t been removed so until Schott says she’s out, she’s in.
Having recently voted to repeal Irvine’s living wage ordinance over a complaint from a custodial firm that uses a lot of low income Latino employees, Schott’s explanation of cutting the pay of the working poor in front of CD-46 voters will be nothing short of great political theater.
The seat is open since Loretta Sanchez has announced for US Senate.
Let’s not forget that Alvarez and her fellow Rancho board members are also supporting a questionable agreement between the District and Saudi Arabia.
Questionable according to who? Last time I check, Saudi Arabia was an American ally helping to fight ISIS.