Last Friday was the candidate filing deadline for the June 8 election. When you look at your sample ballot, which is still a while off, you will be confronted with a myriad of decisions to make. While it might be tempting to make selections on the very limited information included in the sample ballot, at www.OC180NEWS.com, we will attempt to provide some additional useful information for those decisions. In this our first such report, we cover the Orange County District Attorney.
As last Friday’s candidate filing deadline came to pass, the Orange County Registrar of Voters reported “We had about 10 people in line when the door was closed and locked with the assistance of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department at 5:00 p.m., Friday. Yes, some people can be very passionate about being let in after the deadline so we use a Sheriff’s Deputy to keep the peace.” At about the same time, up in Silicon Valley, the California Republicans were kicking off their convention with dueling press conferences between governor hopefuls Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner.
In the federal races—the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Barbara Boxer, and all 6 Orange County U.S. representatives—the Republicans are looking to do as much damage to the current Democratic majority in Washington DC as possible. In what could be one of the strongest challenges of her career in the U.S. Senate, there are three Republicans vying for the nomination to go against Boxer in November.
On the U.S. House of Representatives side of congress, all but 1 of the 6 Orange County representatives are Republicans. They will be working to hold on to all of those seats, plus they would love to unseat the one Orange County democratic representative, Loretta Sanchez from the 47th Congressional District.
In addition to the much publicized state and federal races, West Orange County citizens will make selections in several other races. While these other races might not receive the press coverage as more prominent contests, they still could significantly impact our lives. We will be voting on everything from school board members to judges, to party central committee members. Often, we have very little information about some of these more obscure choices. Between now and the June 8 election, stayed tuned to www.OC180NEWS.com. We will try to cover each of the races where our local voters are asked to make a choice.
One of those choices will be for Orange County District Attorney. Elected for a term of four years, the OCDA is one of Orange County’s seven independent elected department heads, all of whom are elected by the county at-large, not by district. These offices are what are called “non-partisan” because they do not go through the political party nomination process. These offices will not be on the ballot again in November, as will be the partisan offices, like State Senate, or U.S. Representative. The results for June 8 will determine who holds these jobs for the next 4 years.
As the sole countywide law enforcement agency in Orange County, the Office of the District Attorney represents the People of California in some civil and in most criminal proceedings. Headed by the District Attorney, the Office has a budget of $80 million and a staff of 650 including executive managers, attorneys, investigative staff, paralegals, legal support staff, and administrative staff. The Office’s 250 attorneys annually prosecute over 80,000 cases. Office personnel are located in six Justice Centers (Central, Harbor, North, South, West and Juvenile) throughout the county. Through the department’s staff, the DA decides which cases to prosecute, which cases to drop, what sentences to ask for, how much bail to request, and which plea deals to accept.
The incumbent, Tony Rackauckas, born March 18, 1943, has served in the post since he was first elected in 1998. He ran unopposed in 2006, his last election. He will be opposed by Kenneth P. Bush on June 8. Although the Registrar of Voters lists Bush as a candidate, he has not yet been officially qualified. As of our deadline, Bush had not filed a candidate statement and we could not find any information about him in our web search. Maybe he was one of the ten people shut out of the Registrar’s office when the Sharif’s Deputy locked up shop on Friday.
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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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