Today there is a lot of action going on in "The OC" — as I write this post, Assemblyman Van Tran is getting ready to announce his candidacy for the 34th State Senate District, setting the stage for 
quite a donnybrook between Tran and Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher – Tran being the more conservative of the two. I’m sure we’ll be writing plenty about this race as it shapes up.
But Tran’s candidacy isn’t ‘news’ at this point as he has been running an ‘exploratory effort’ for weeks — but here is something new, to satiate the appetites of those who "need to know" on a minute-by-minute basis what is happening.
Tran’s decision to run for the State Senate instead of for re-election leaves the 68th Assembly District up for grabs. Yesterday, fellow FR contributor Adam Probolsky talked about how Garden Grove Councilwoman Janet Nguyen was actively courting support for the seat, and how perhaps Garden Grove Councilman Mark Leyes would throw his hat into the ring…
Today, I spoke with businessman Jim Righeimer, who confirmed for me that he is definitely 
running for the GOP nomination in the 68th. Righeimer’s entry into the race immediately makes him a strong front-runner to succeed Tran. For those who do not recall, five years ago, Republican primary voters in the 67th District selected Righeimer as their nominee to replace the term-limited Assemblyman Scott Baugh. However, that was the one season where the ill-fated ‘Open Primary’ initiative was in play, allowing Tom Harmon to win the nomination with the cross-over votes of Democrats.
For years now, Righeimer has been living in the 68th District, and is very excited to have a chance to run for office again. Jim, a co-author of the unsuccessful Proposition 226 in 1998 ("Paycheck Protection I") was assaulted by tons of union money. Unions gloated over defeating Jim. As a matter of fact in the California Educator (the newsletter of the California Teachers Association), right after the election, the CTA boasted, " Orange County teachers were particularly pleased to help Tom Harman, a Republican Assembly candidate win his race against Jim Righeimer, the co-sponsor of the anti-union Prop. 226, which CTA successfully fought in 1998."
Since his successful-yet-unsuccessful-bid for office, Jim has had some major events in his life. Clearly the most tragic and somber was the sudden untimely loss of one of his daughters to a fluke, rare health condition. Attending her funeral was one of the saddest days of my life. Our hearts still go out to Jim and his wife and family.
Jim has focused much of his time and energy into his real estate business, where he has been very successful (we’re talking millions of dollars in profits here). Because of this, we can expect Jim to be able to plant a substantial amount of money into his account — something he could not do at this level five years ago.
But Jim’s strength won’t come from his finances, it comes from being someone who has worked in the GOP trenches in Orange County for decades. Every rallying cause, whether the Doris Allen recall, working hard to elect our Republican Sheriff and District Attorney, or being there for conservatives in every primary in the county. His rolodex has thousands of names, and you can be sure he’ll be calling everyone. It also helps that he is a co-founder and board member of the Family Action PAC, one of the major funders of conservatives in legislative races in California.
For me, Jim’s candidacy is especially meaningful because when I was Executive Director of the State Republican Party, we tried (unsuccessfully) to have Jim seated as the GOP nominee. While that didn’t work out, we did get the ballot measure overturned ultimately, taking it to the U.S. Supreme Court. Jim was cheated out of his nomination, and now there is a chance for Republicans (and not Democrats) to weigh his candidacy in a primary, and I think they will like what they see and hear. It won’t take long before Jim will be boasting a very impressive list of endorsers.
There will be other opportunities to talk more about Righeimer, but for now, as we handicap the 68th Assembly GOP primary in tennis parlance — "Advantage, Riggy!"
