HUNTINGTON CIVIC CENTER with voting drop box in foreground (OC Tribune photo).
With most of the nation’s attention focused on the race for the White House and the control of Congress, voters in our West Orange County area will also be deciding who will serve as leaders and lawmakers in local offices.
A new mayor will be selected in Garden Grove and ballot measures will face voters in Huntington Beach and Stanton.
In Garden Grove, long-standing Mayor Steve Jones is finishing his service as the top elected official in that city.
Garden Grove’s race has seven candidates including current city council members John O’Neill and Stephanie Klopfenstein. Also on the ballot are Musaab Mughal, former council member Phat Bui, school board member Lan Nguyen, former council member Diedre Thu-Ha Nguyen and Thomas Thai Nguyen.
Deeply divided city councils in Huntington Beach and Westminster may get a shake-up … or maybe not. In Surf City, a conservative majority (four members) elected in 2022 will not be displaced, but three liberal incumbents –Rhonda Bolton, Dan Kalmick and Natalie Moser – are seeking re-election.
If any of the liberals are defeated, it would likely solidify the conservative hold on city policies. If they prevail it might be seen as a backlash against the majority’s sometimes controversial measures.
Westminster’s five-member council is not divided so much by politics as by faction. The sole member of the majority on the ballot is Carlos Manzo, elected in 2020. He’s got two challengers for the District 2 seat. Vice Mayor Kimberly Ho – currently in the majority – chose not to run for another term .
Ballot measures of local interest are Measure HH (Stanton) a two-full-term lifetime limit on service as mayor starting with the 2024 election and Measure U in Huntington Beach which would amend the city charter to require voter approval of “city-initiated general plan amendments or zoning changes when such items present significant and unavoidable negative impacts to the environment.”
For a complete list of candidates and races, go to ocvote.gov/elections .
