Orange County Legislative Watch — General Election Recap

By Bill Christiansen, viCe President oF government aFFairs

The 2020 General Election brought some significant change to the Orange County political landscape. Upon the Orange County Registrar of Voters certifying the county-wide election results by December 4, our new state legislators will be sworn-in to office in Sacramento on December 7 and Orange County’s 34 cities will seat their new city council members within the first three weeks in December.

Orange County welcomes four new members to its state legislative delegation.

In the State Senate, former Senator Josh Newman will again represent the 29th Senate District after defeating Senator Ling Ling Chang. You may recall that Newman lost the seat to Chang when he was recalled from office in June 2018 after voting to increase the state gas tax (SB 1). Additionally, UC

Irvine professor Dave Min will now represent the 34th Senate District after defeating Senator John Moorlach. Not surprisingly, shortly after conceding the senate race, Moorlach signaled his intention to run for the soon-to-bevacant Second District County Supervisor seat currently held by Michelle Steel. Supervisor Steel won her election to Congress, representing California’s 48th District, after defeating Congressman Harley Rouda. You may recall that Moorlach served as Second District Supervisor immediately preceding his election to the State Senate.

In the State Assembly, former Garden Grove city councilmember, county supervisor and state senator Janet Nguyen won her election against current Garden Grove councilmember Diedre Nguyen to represent the 72nd Assembly District. Nguyen replaces outgoing Assemblyman Tyler Diep. Additionally, Laguna Niguel Mayor Laurie Davies defeated local business owner Scott Rhinehart to represent the 73rd Assembly District. Davies replaces outgoing Assemblyman Bill Brough.

AAOC is already making arrangements to meet and forge new relationships (or continue existing ones) with these legislators as we move into the 2021 state legislative session which convenes on January 4, 2021.

Members of the State Legislature were frustrated at the end of the 2020 session by the Capitol closures due to the COVID-19 shutdown of the state government. By summer, only COVID19 related bills were moving through the legislative process and many were killed due to the fractious infighting of Senate and Assembly Democrat leaders. Pent-up tensions from the 2020 session may very well spill over into the 2021 session, and many unresolved housingrelated bills this year may be reintroduced quickly. Also, there is the looming January 31, 2021 expiration deadline for AB 3088’s eviction moratorium which was enacted as a stopgap measure in the final hours of the 2020 session. We expect the State Legislature to weigh-in on this issue early in January, so keep your eyes open for RED ALERT emails from AAOC, keeping you apprised of any early activity in Sacramento.

The election also resulted in some significant changes at the municipal level in Orange County. Notably, the city of Anaheim will have a solid, prohousing and pro-business majority, while the city of Santa Ana will have a more progressive council majority. The cities of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach and Irvine are also three rental-property heavy jurisdictions where AAOC will be looking to forge relationships with the contingents of newly elected and primarily first-time city council members. In South Orange County, AAOC was fortunate to retain many pro-housing city council members with

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