Starting this week, there’s a host of political debates kicking off across Orange County heading into November’s election.
Residents and potential voters for a host of city council and school board seats can get a front row seat to see how candidates plan to tackle municipal issues like homelessness and housing or address educational issues like charter schools and ethnic studies requirements.
Whilecongressional and presidential races get most of the mainstream print and TV news coverage, for many OC residents, local debates have a more direct connection to quality of life issues in their backyard.
And while national politics are often more focused on broad ideological differences, local races typically focus conversations on much more bread and butter issues like public safety, transportation, after school programs, senior services, open space, the drug abuse crisis and a myriad of other hyper local community issues.
City Council and School District Debates
This week, the county seat of Santa Ana will see two debates along with a host of debates across North Orange County cities.
Tonight, the Santa Ana Chamber of Commerce and Santa Ana College kick off the debate season, hosting a city candidate forum on campus at 4:30 p.m. in the Johnson Student Center for mayoral and city council candidates.
The active residents running the Com-Link forum in Santa Ana also have organized a candidate forum on Thursday starting at 6 p.m. at the Community Room next to the Santa Ana Police Department at 60 Civic Center Plaza.
Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua is seeking re-election and is scheduled to debate City Councilman Benjamin Vazquez.
Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Thai Viet Phan is seeking re-election to her Ward 1 seat and is scheduled to debate Julie Tran.
Santa Ana Councilwoman Jessie Lopez is seeking re-election to her Ward 3 seat and is scheduled to debate Jeffrey Katz.
Santa Ana Councilman Jonathan Ryan Hernandez is seeking re-election to his Ward 5 seat and is scheduled to debate Mario Alvarado.
The League of Women Voters of North Orange County stepped up – as always – taking a leadership role in organizing debates across North County through next month.
The League just held a question and answer forum for Fullerton City Council candidates on Monday, when the council hopefuls pitched different ideas on how to stabilize the city’s budget and increase affordable housing.
[Read: Fullerton City Council Hopefuls Offer Different Ideas on Fixing Roads, Budget]
In the upcoming weeks, the League will be hosting city council debates in La Habra, Brea and Buena Park.
Their kickoff fundraising event for the debate series will be on Saturday, Sept. 28 from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Coyote Hills Golf Course in Fullerton, costs $35 a person and requires rsvp.
A forum is slated for Villa Park City Council candidates at 7 p.m. tonight, held by the Villa Park Community Services Foundation
Fountain Valley City Council Candidates are also slated to speak at a Thursday evening forum, held by the local chamber of commerce.
San Clemente candidates are slated to debate on Oct. 13 at the Dorothy Visser Senior Center.
Huntington Beach City Council candidates debated last week.
Newport Beach candidates weighed in at a debate last month.
Congressional Debates
Despite two key races potentially deciding the balance of power in the U.S. Congress, it’s unclear whether there will be any debates for OC’s congressional candidates.
This week, Democratic State Senator Dave Min’s campaign sent out a press release that Republican challenger, former State Assemblyman Scott Baugh, had bowed out of debates in the 47th Congressional district.
“I have no idea what Mr. Min is referring to,” Baugh said in a statement sent through a spokesman about Min’s press release saying Baugh refused to debate.
Voice of OC didn’t have much luck coordinating a debate in the 47th Congressional District.
[Read: Santana: Setting Orange County’s First Congressional Debate of The Season]
Min and his campaign team failed to connect with Voice of OC board member Barbara Venezia for a pre-interview for the event. Baugh did conduct a pre-interview.
“I agreed with Barbara to do a debate with Mr. Min but he never responded,” Baugh said in his statement.
“Not sure where the communication breakdown happened,” said Min Spokesman Orrin Evans in a voicemail message late Tuesday in the midst of a flight layover, “But the Senator is happy to debate anytime, anyplace that Scott Baugh will step up to the plate.”
Given the late nature of the election cycle, the Voice of OC newsroom chose to bow out as event organizers and focus on journalistic coverage of the races instead.
It appears Min and Baugh will not go on to debate each other at the OC Forum, which was also seeking to host a debate but confirmed they couldn’t get the candidates to agree on a debate despite a community partnership seeking to hear a discussion on the race.
It’s also unclear whether Republican Congresswoman Michelle Steel and her Democratic challenger, Derek Tran will debate.
I haven’t heard details on any other debates in congressional races.
People should ask themselves hard questions about candidates who won’t debate.
[Read: Santana: OC Voters Deserve Election Debates]
If readers know of other debates occurring throughout OC cities and school districts, or ones developing in ensuing weeks, reach out and I’ll update this column to include the latest links and listings to relevant events.
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