One week from today will mark the first election in Orange County of the new decade. This is the election to replace disgraced state Assemblyman and family values crusader, Republican Mike Duvall, who resigned after he was caught on tape bragging about his sexual exploits with Sacramento lobbyist.
The traditionally Republican 72nd California Assembly District includes Portions of Anaheim, Yorba Linda, Orange and La Habra, all of Brea, Fullerton and Placentia.
Voters will choose from Republican Chris Norby, who is currently an Orange County Supervisor, Democrat John MacMurray, and Green Party Jane Rands.
The Los Angeles Times called Norby the “overwhelming favorite to win the seat”.
He was the top vote getter from the primary election held last November and he won decisively over the other two Republicans in the field. Norby got a total of 14,946
Votes, compared to 10,776 for MacMurray.
Only 40,199 of the district’s 219,961 registered voters voted in the November primary election. Thus, the small advantage from that election held by Norby amounts to only 1.9% of the electorate. But, there were three Republicans in the primary and MacMurray was the only Democrat.
If you make the assumption that the people who voted for any of the three Republicans in the primary will vote for Norby and the handful who voted for the Green Party will vote for MacMurray, the gap then represents about 7.4% of the registered voters. Thus, if the MacMurray campaign launches a successful major get-out-the-vote effort during the next week, they have a chance. But, it might be too late for such a move. Of the 40,199 people who voted in the primary, only 9,453 did so on election day. Most of the ballots were mailed in.
A visit to Norby’s web site provided a hint of his political point of view. His site indicates that even though many people seem to think the state is short on cash, “Even in these tough economic times, the state has sufficient funds to provide public protection and essential services.” His solution: “State finance needs streamlining and simplification. Local governments need more reliable revenue sources.”
His site acknowledges that “K-12 education is the state’s biggest expenditure…”
But the only solution he offers is to reallocate money from some unidentified places to teachers. Since he has 16 years as a public school teacher, that solution should not be surprising.
He suggests that all we need to do to fix public education is “reorganizing our schools, allowing school districts real independence on setting priorities. The cumbersome education code and complex categorical requirement must be reformed.”
Democrat John MacMurray has been a public school teacher since 1990 and has not previously run for elected office.
His web site identifies jobs, taxes, and education as the primary issues.
Although he presents retaining jobs in the district as The “heart and cornerstone of our campaign”, we could not locate any specific proposals on the site which explain how he plans to accomplish this.
The closest he comes to this, that we could find, is “let’s look in new directions like the projected $200+ billion green energy generation industry, using a tailored mix of solar, wind, and tidal energy to power our homes and industries. And create good new jobs while we clean our air.”
If those proposals are a little lacking in substance, what he has on taxes is even worse. There is a brief reference to “people and companies who under-report and just don’t pay.” But, we could find nothing more on his site than a statement which reads “California State agencies are doing a good job of collecting this money and plugging the leaks. Let’s support these State efforts and maybe we can lower our tax bills.”
The third major issue identified on his web site is education, but, just like jobs and taxes, we could find no substantial ideas on the site. He offers this: “Let’s take this opportunity to bring in new funding ideas so our educators can finally have the rest of the tools they will need to produce our future leaders.”
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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