Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley looks poised to become the first Democrat in more than a century, and the first Democratic woman, to hold the Second District Orange County Board of Supervisors seat, based on returns Tuesday, March 9, in a special election.
The election night returns – including more than 90,000 mail ballots and more than 5,600 in-person votes – showed Foley leading the pack of of five candidates, which included former supervisor and state senator John Moorlach, Newport Beach Councilman Kevin Muldoon, Corona del Mar attorney Janet Rappaport and Fountain Valley Mayor Michael Vo.
Just before 10:15 p.m., Moorlach said in a text message that he’d conceded to Foley.
OC Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said late Tuesday that he must still count about 7,800 ballots, plus an unknown number that may still be in the mail and some that were deposited in drop boxes after a pickup at 4 p.m. on election day. Any ballots postmarked by election day will still count if he receives them by Friday.
With about 395,000 registered voters in the second district, turnout stood just above 24% late Tuesday, which Kelley said is higher than special elections in 2015 for District 1 and 2019 for District 3.
The outstanding votes don’t look like they could be enough for second-place Moorlach, or any other candidate, to overcome Foley’s lead. Assuming those results hold, Foley would fill the supervisor seat until late 2022 – the rest of the term Michelle Steel left when she was seated in Congress in January.
Reached shortly after initial results were posted, Foley said she interprets the outcome to mean “voters want somebody who’s going to lead with science in mind, who’s going to care about community health, who’s going to use practical, pragmatic decision making and be somebody who’s transparent and accountable to residents.
“I ran on a platform of recovering from COVID, particularly getting this vaccine distributed in a more efficient manner so we could get back to our normal lives – I think that is what people want overwhelmingly.”
Some observers saw the race mainly as a contest between the Republican Moorlach, a long-serving and well-known OC political figure whose penchant for pension reform earned the ire of county employee unions, and Foley, a Democrat and attorney who has served on the Costa Mesa City Council and Newport-Mesa school board and has been critical of the county’s pandemic response.
Moorlach attributed his loss to the crowded field of Republicans – including Muldoon and Vo – in the race.
“When two other Republicans jump into a special election, they only hurt their party,” he said in a text message.
Muldoon and Vo could not be immediately reached Tuesday night for comment.
Though the GOP has a nearly five-point registration advantage in the district, OC party officials were so worried about splitting the vote and opening the way for a Democrat that once the ballot was set, they sent out an email chastising two of their own for running.
OC Democrats, meanwhile, pinned their hopes on Foley to be the first of their party to represent the second district since 1894 and to shift the board from a 4-1 to a 3-2 party split.
Fifth District Supervisor Lisa Bartlett will term out in 2022, which could flip the board majority if Democrats are able to win that seat and hold the Second District. Supervisor seats are technically non-partisan and party designations do not appear on the ballots with the candidates’ names.
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.
The five-member Board of Supervisors oversees a more than $7 billion budget, which in 2020 included more than $554 million in federal pandemic aid funds.
The county’s Health Care Agency has led the local public health response to COVID-19, its social services workers help thousands obtain benefits such as food and housing assistance, it manages 60,000 acres of public open space, and supervisors represent the county and its residents on regional boards and agencies such as the Orange County Transportation Authority.
Supervisors are paid about $168,000 annually, plus health and other benefits.
Now that it appears the Costa Mesa mayor’s seat will be vacant, Foley said the council must appoint a replacement within 60 days or a special election is triggered.
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