Later this year California’s 34th State Senate District, in the heart of Orange County, will be ground zero in a statewide battle between Republicans and Democrats — hanging on the outcome will likely be whether or not Democrats will go into the next legislative session with our without the super-majority in the upper house. For those trying to envision where this seat is located, the cities within the district include Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Los Alamitos, Santa Ana, and portions of Anaheim, Huntington Beach, and Orange.
- Supervisor Janet Nguyen
The field is pretty much set — representing the Democrats will be termed-out Assembly, now Community College Trustee Jose Solario. Representing Republicans will be Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen.
Because of the significance of this seat for Democrats, there has been an all-out battle of accusations waged at Nguyen, attempting to smear her up in advance of the campaign season. Allegations are thrown around, and are then validated/amplified by the newsie Voice of Orange County website, which actually should prominently disclaim on their main page, in bold print, that the bulk of their funding is provided by the Orange County Employees Association — the largest public employee union in the county. Anyone care to guess where a public employee union comes down in a fight for control of the State Senate? Don’t answer – that was a rhetorical question.
Last Fall serious allegations were leveled at Nguyen by her political opponents, trying to make the case that the Supervisor violated conflict of interest statutes in her position as a member of the Board of Cal-Optima (this is the name of the entity in which the County of Orange has vested all of its responsibilities in terms of providing health care to those entitled to taxpayer assistance under federal and state laws). When the allegations were made, Supervisor Nguyen made it clear that she did not violate any laws. That said, the Orange County District Attorney’s office went ahead and opened an investigation into the matter — and for several months now that has been hanging out there, leaving some uncertainty in a very importance legislative race. Nguyen, while asserting that everything is okay, has been in the unenviable position of trying to disprove a negative — always a challenge.
Well, as of today, Nguyen doesn’t have to disprove anything anymore. The Orange County DA’s office has confirmed, in writing, that they have completed their investigation concerning conflict-of interest allegations against Nguyen. According to Senior Assistant DA Michael Lubinski, the DA has concluded — after conducting witness interviews and reviewing campaign finance documents, contracts, and voting record — that they found that no conflict of interest laws were violated by Janet Nguyen in her position as a Cal-Optima Board member.
And with this statement from the DA’s office, Nguyen gets something that not everyone who is investigated by the authorities gets — a definitive end to and investigation and full vindication.
Of course this doesn’t mean clear sailing for Nguyen into the State Senate — Solario will be an extremely strong candidate, despite the fact that the seat tilts a bit more Republican than the one currently held by the retiring Lou Correa. But it does mean that the Democrats and the public employee unions will have one less issue to use against Nguyen in their campaign to try and beat her.
No doubt we’ll have much more to say about this race in the coming months…