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A dozen candidates fill field for three OC supervisor seats in June primary

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All three races for Orange County supervisor seats on the June 7 ballot will be contested, with three to five candidates running for each seat in the first election since supervisorial district boundaries were redrawn.

The period to file for those offices, and most others in the primary election, closed Friday.

The five-person Board of Supervisors will see at least one new member this year, representing the reconfigured District 2. Supervisor Katrina Foley was elected to that seat a year ago, before the boundaries changed, but she’s seeking election in District 5, which now includes her home city of Costa Mesa.

That means the seat in District 2, the first-ever Latino majority supervisorial district, is essentially up for grabs.

The contest for that office, which represents Santa Ana plus parts of Anaheim, Garden Grove, Orange and Tustin, will be among Orange Councilman Jon Dumitru; Cecilia Iglesias, a former Santa Ana councilwoman and policy director; Garden Grove Councilwoman Kim Bernice Nguyen; Santa Ana Mayor Vicente Sarmiento; and Juan Villegas, a former Santa Ana councilman and special officer with the OC Sheriff’s Department.

In District 4, Supervisor Doug Chaffee is seeking a second term, but will have to defeat challengers Sunny Park, the current mayor of Buena Park, and Brea Councilman Steve Vargas.

The contest for District 5 could be bruising, with four past and present elected officials vying for the seat, including state Senator Pat Bates; Foley, an attorney and the current District 2 supervisor; Diane Harkey, a financial consultant and former state assemblywoman; and Kevin Muldoon, a businessman and current mayor of Newport Beach. The district is largely coastal, stretching from Costa Mesa and Newport Beach to the San Diego County line, but also including several inland communities.

While some residents may not know who their county supervisor is, the board wields considerable political and financial power. It oversees a budget of more than $7 billion, as well as 60,000 acres of public parks, beaches and open space and the public health department that’s been leading the local COVID-19 response. Over the past two years, supervisors helped decide how to spend more than $800 million in federal pandemic aid.

Although supervisor seats are nonpartisan, Orange County’s Republican and Democratic parties also are expected to be involved in the race. The GOP hopes to maintain a majority on the board (the current board is a 3-2 split), while Democrats hope to wrest control in what was until recently a solidly red county.

Ballots will be mailed to every registered voter in districts 2, 4 and 5 starting May 9, and polling places also will open for in-person voting several days ahead of the June 7 election. In each race, if no candidate receives at least 50% plus one of the votes cast, the top two will head to a November runoff.

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