While Republican candidate Scott Baugh and Democrat Rep. Dave Min are two radically different people politically, they find themselves doing the same thing every day.
Dialing for dollars.
The push for fundraising – to afford things like media ads on television, YouTube and Facebook along with mailers – is what’s often called the “Mothers Milk of Politics.”
All this money – nearly $10 million between both candidates – generates hit pieces from each campaign on the other, which will reach a fever pitch in this last stretch before Nov. 5.
While the tactic works to get politicians elected – because the same national formula gets rolled out every election cycle on key races – it does a terrible job of letting voters know the truth about each candidate’s background and voting record,
Much less spur any kind of substantive community discussion on issues.
When it comes to tight congressional races like the 47th District, national parties seem squarely in charge of a process that produces more guarded candidates, much less likely to engage each other or field questions in public.
Note that not one OC institution had any luck getting Min and Baugh to engage each other in a public debate.
It’s the same for the other congressional race in OC with national implications, the 45th district in central OC, where incumbent Republican Congresswoman Michelle Steel is being challenged by Democrat Derek Tran, a local attorney.
Voice of OC did get a chance to interview both Baugh and Min individually during brief phone calls, with the aim of offering residents a basic breakdown of where the two candidates stand on several key issues and how they respond to questions about their personal controversies.
To read the candidates’ take on key issues, click here.
The District
The seat for the 47th District – redrawn after the 2020 census – opened up last year after Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) announced she was running for the U.S. Senate, a race she lost.
The district runs along the coast from the OC line at Seal Beach and goes as far south as Laguna Beach. It also includes inland communities like Costa Mesa, Irvine and parts of Laguna Hills and Laguna Woods.
While political observers see the district as leaning Democratic, I see purple with Republicans actually hanging onto a slight voter registration advantage of just under a percentage point.
Democratic voter registration advantages in Irvine are challenged by a large number of Republican voters from Newport Beach and Huntington Beach – making the district a hotly contested seat.
There’s about 450,000 registered voters in the district, split principally among 159,287 Republicans another 159, 079 Democrats and 100,000 independent voters.
Dave Min
A Harvard Law school graduate with experience on economic policy at the national level, Min was a business law professor at UC Irvine when he first ran for Congress in 2018 for the seat that former Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez left open when she ran for U.S. Senate, a race she lost.
Min lost that race to Congresswoman Katie Porter, but later in 2020 successfully ran to represent the 37th State Senate District.
As a state senator in Orange County, Min has been most visible for legislation banning gun shows at the OC fairgrounds and offshore drilling in addition to recent legislation related to the County Supervisor Andrew Do scandal, requiring elected officials to disclose when their children get government contracts and abstain from votes.
Scott Baugh
An attorney from Huntington Beach, Baugh first entered OC politics in 1995 as a replacement candidate in the recall election against Assemblywoman Doris Allen for the 67th State Assembly District.
Baugh was wrapped up in an investigation by then OCDA Mike Capizzi in that election race – an investigation that was later thrown out by a local judge who took issue with prosecutors’ ethics. Baugh later paid a fine in 1999 to the FPPC.
Baugh was elected by his colleagues in the State Assembly as Republican leader from April 1999 until he was termed out in December 2000.
In 2004, Baugh would take over as chairman of the OC GOP, succeeding the late Tom Fuentes, a post he held until 2015. During that time, he also worked as a lobbyist for the County of Orange with the firm, Platinum Advisors in Sacramento.
Baugh unsuccessfully ran against former Congressman and fellow Republican Dana Rohrabacher in 2018 for the 48th Congressional District and lost to Porter for the 47th Congressional District in 2022.
Campaign Finance Rundown
So far, Min has out fundraised Baugh on the fundraising blitz, according to Sept. 30 federal campaign disclosures, raising roughly $5.7 million to Baugh’s $3.9 million.
But after factoring in spending, which featured a primary battle for Min, he entered the last quarter with less cash on hand – $915,805 – compared to Baugh’s $2.2 million.
There’s also been sizable sums spent by outside groups both supporting and opposing each candidate – largely through a host of liberal and conservative political action committees.
Since June, Min’s seen $3.2 million in spending against him and $2.4 million supporting him.
Baugh meanwhile, had $5.7 million spent against him, compared to $1.2 million supporting him.
Both candidates got the majority of their donations from large individual contributions. Most of their individual contributions come from inside California but outside the 47th district.
Min got significantly more donations from the communications/electronics sector than Baugh did.
Baugh got more from finance, insurance and real estate interests.
Min got more in health, lawyers and lobbyists.
Baugh got more from single-issue ideological sectors.
To see a complete breakdown of the money in the race, check out the Opensecrets website.
Candidate Controversies
For Dave Min, it’s a DUI
“My biggest mistake,” Min said of last year’s DUI conviction as a state senator in Sacramento trying to drive himself home after too many drinks.
Min was arrested by the California Highway Patrol last May for being over the legal limit after running a red light without his lights on at night.
He was convicted of a misdemeanor last August and sentenced to three years of informal probation.
“It was a mistake that is not characteristic of who I am,” Min said when I asked him about it.
Min was upfront about the issue and took responsibility, saying he was drinking socially earlier in the night at a series of receptions with “constituents and stakeholders” and miscalculated in thinking he was ok to drive.
“I screwed up. I thought I was good to drive. I was not,” Min said, disputing some allegations that he tried to use his position to avoid a ticket.
“I did not try to get out of it,” he said.
“It is what it is,’ Min added.
Scott Baugh grappled with a different kind of controversy at the start of his political career in the 1990s – facing a OC District Attorney investigation for allegedly scheming to split the Democratic vote in a state election – charges he denied at the time and still denies today.
Baugh criticized the charges against him as part of a political vendetta – noting correctly that the charges were eventually dismissed by a local judge who ruled that the district attorney had engaged in “prosecutorial misconduct.”
“I was cleared of all those allegations,” Baugh said of the election interference investigation by former District Attorney Mike Capizzi.
Baugh does acknowledge what he describes as “subsequently, in a different action,” his treasurer campaign paid a fine.
It came after the local charges against him were referred to the state Attorney General after Capiizzi was thrown off the case.
The state AG then referred the matter to the Fair Political Practices Committee, which issued a ruling in 1999 where Baugh did agree to pay a civil fine of $47, 900 for nine violations of the state Political Reform Act.
Baugh at the time denied any intentional wrongdoing, a stance he maintains today. At the time, he was quoted in press reports as having spent $350,000 to fight the allegations.
“It was proven to be a complete political jihad against me,” Baugh said of the case.
Four campaign aides eventually pled guilty to misdemeanors for other election law violations related to helping qualify a decoy candidate in the state election. They received probationary sentences and fines.
Baugh decried that prosecution effort as an early form of what many Republicans now call “Lawfare” – referring to the ongoing array of prosecutions against former President Donald Trump.
“When we see people we don’t agree with,” Baugh said, “we give the benefit of the doubt to the prosecutor.”
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