In just under two months, political action committees and candidates for a spot on the Orange County Board of Supervisors have spent more than $1.5 million to influence the outcome of the race.
Five candidates are running for the Second District seat left open when Michelle Steel was elected to Congress in November: Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley, former supervisor and state senator John Moorlach, Newport Beach Councilman Kevin Muldoon, Corona del Mar attorney Janet Rappaport and Fountain Valley Mayor Michael Vo.
The election is Tuesday, March 9, and voting has already begun by mail and in person, with more voting locations opening this weekend.
While a majority of the money in the race has been spent by the candidates’ campaigns, about 43% of it – nearly $668,000 – was by political groups not working directly with candidates.
Most of the mailings to voters that spending paid for were negative, most of it came from two groups and most of it targeted one candidate.
The political arm of the Orange County Deputy Sheriffs Association has sent at least three mailers critical of Moorlach (spending nearly $265,000), and the Orange County Employees Association’s political committee funded at least six mailers opposing him (for close to $198,000).
Deputies association President Juan Viramontes declined to comment when reached Tuesday, March 2.
In a statement Wednesday, OC Employees Association General Manager Charles Barfield said, “The next supervisor will help lead the entire community in the aftermath of the pandemic. Our county needs someone who respects public servants and will support nurses, social workers and public safety officers, not someone who without any remorse smears a former staffer who bravely came forward with sexual assault allegations.”
Barfield was referring to criticism of how Moorlach responded when a former employee in his state Senate office said she had been raped by then-assemblyman Bill Brough. A Sacramento police investigation of her allegation is ongoing; Brough has not responded to the accusation. When discussing the situation in December, Moorlach described her as a “disgruntled employee.”
This week, Moorlach reiterated he was not told about the rape at the time it allegedly occurred, he did not participate in any cover up, and as to the suggestion that he smeared the former employee, he said, “That’s not the case.”
Moorlach, who had to ease back on campaigning after contracting COVID-19, said the unions are trying to defeat him because, “I don’t take money from them and I’ve just been independent and I’ve tried to represent taxpayers, and so they don’t appreciate a strong negotiator.”
During Moorlach’s previous tenure as a county supervisor (2007 to 2014), he led the board in filing a lawsuit to challenge a retroactive retirement benefit for deputies that helped balloon the county’s pension debt. Moorlach ultimately lost, but said he doesn’t think the union has forgotten the case.
“I represent the taxpayer, so I did my best to make sure that whatever I voted for was affordable,” he said.
The next most significant chunk of outside spending was opposing Foley. The conservative Atlas PAC and Orange County Freedom Fund spent nearly $50,000 on opposition efforts, including negative mailers.
Foley said mailers criticizing her “have contained false, misleading information about me and my record,” but she’s not particularly worried about the attacks.
“I’ve run a positive campaign. I try to focus on what I’m going to do for the residents and the businesses,” she said.
Some money from outside groups went in support of candidates: a PAC funded by Unite Here Local 11 spent about $30,000 backing Foley, Taxpayers for Ethical Government dropped almost $5,000 in favor of Muldoon, and the Lincoln Club of Orange County – typically aligned with the GOP – gave $2,000 to help Rappaport, who is a registered Democrat.
Rappaport said she doesn’t know why the GOP group backed her and added with a laugh, “Perhaps because I’m a fiscal conservative, they realized that and supported my campaign.”
With voter participation anemic just a week before election day, some of those outside contributions could end up an expensive investment with only a potential modest return. On Wednesday, a few more than 68,000 votes had been cast in a district with about 395,000 registered voters.
The Second District 2 includes Costa Mesa, Cypress, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Newport Beach, Seal Beach, Stanton, the unincorporated area of Rossmoor, and portions of Buena Park and Fountain Valley.
Political observers on both sides of the aisle predict a low-turnout election, which means fewer voters who might be influenced by mailers.
Republican pollster Adam Probolsky, who called the negative Moorlach mailers a “gross attack,” said such hits aren’t likely to sway the politically plugged-in voters who are most likely to turn out.
Democratic consultant George Urch said the unions may worry that Moorlach will take up the cause of pension reform again, but “in this case the negative stuff is not as effective as it is in a general election,” when the audience of people casting ballots is typically much larger.
Rappaport said she was “a little bit shocked” by how much money has been spent in the race by special interest groups and unions that seek the board’s approval of contracts and department budgets.
Those groups will later have to negotiate with the board, and “the voters in Orange County are now the only people who are not at that table,” she said.