California’s newly redrawn 70th Assembly District is lining up to be an interesting race, with four main contenders campaigning to win the seat.
The new seat largely lies in North Orange County—centered around Westminster—and also includes Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, and even stretches into Los Angeles County.
The district is largely represented by incumbent Assemblywoman Janet Nguyen, who was elected in 2020. Nguyen is on the June 7 primary ballot as a candidate for state Senate.
Six candidates are running for the seat, with four in leading positions, based on campaign donations, including Republicans Ted Bui, a Fountain Valley Councilman, Kimberly Ho, a Westminster Councilwoman, Tri Ta, the current mayor of Westminster, and Democrat Diedre Nguyen, mayor pro tem of Garden Grove.
According to Jim Lacy, an election lawyer, political consultant, and author of “Taxifornia,” a book on the over-taxation of Californians, Democrats have a slight advantage in the district at 36 percent compared to Republicans at 34 percent, though he said he believes the winner will be a Republican.
“If you look at the voting history of this Assembly District, between Biden and Trump in 2020, it was very close,” Lacy told The Epoch Times. “There was probably less than [a] 1,000 votes difference out of over 200,000 votes cast. What this suggests is if this is going to be a red wave year, this should be a district that the Republicans keep.”
Bui has one of the strongest campaigns, according to Lacy, and also good endorsements, including Nguyen, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a plethora of state Senators and Assemblymembers, and more.
If elected, Bui’s campaign website said he wants more funding for public safety, to get homeless off the streets through social service and employment programs, will oppose tax increases, including “slash[ing]” the California gas tax, and make it easier for businesses to open and thrive without “crazy regulations.”
According to campaign donation filings through May 17 Bui has raised about $234,000.
Ho could give Bui a run for his money, consultant Lacy said, who noted out of transparency that she is pictured on the political mailers of his company, Landslide Communications, which technically makes her a client. Mailers, also known as slate cards, show like-minded candidates and are mailed to prospective voters in an effort to persuade them to vote for those candidates.
“Kimberly presents very well,” Lacy said. “She’s an attractive candidate and she’s done a good job and if she can energize the Vietnamese community over to her side, she'll be a fighter.”
Ho recently dodged a recall in early March after proponents of the effort alleged she consistently voted against the interests of the community.
According to Ho’s campaign website, she is running to end what she calls corruption in Sacramento, increase public safety, fight for parental rights, encourage economic opportunity by “cutting wasteful spending” spending, and will oppose all COVID-19 mask and vaccination mandates.
Ho has raised the most out of any candidate with $386,000.
Nguyen, will likely receive a high number of votes just because she is the only Democrat in the race, according to Lacy.
“If you’re a Democrat and you see that there’s only one Democrat on the ballot, then that’s a reflexive vote,” Lacy said. “So she'll do well whether she campaigns or not because there’s so many Democrat [voters] in the district.”
Nguyen has raised $191,000 according to campaign filing records through May 27, 2022, for her 2022 assembly campaign.
Ta has raised $169,000 in his campaign.
According to Ta’s campaign website, he is running on helping small businesses by reducing taxes and fees, increasing transparency and efficiency in government, tightening border security, and will, if elected, demand accountability and a full audit of the over $7 billion the state spent on homelessness in the past year, despite the problem getting worse.
Lacy said it’s possible that Republicans Bui and Ho will face each other in the November general election. If not, he predicts Bui or Ho will face Nguyen November 8.
Election day is June 7, with the top two vote-getters moving onto the general election.
