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Central Committee Race Is Decisive The Central Committee for each political party is its countywide policy-making group. Committee members also oversee such party functions as voter registration, fundraising and Get Out The Vote activities. They recruit and organize volunteers to keep the party going. Six representatives from each Assembly District are elected to serve on their party’s Central Committee. In many elections, Central Committee candidates are scarce. On June 8, Democrats had only one contest in the entire county when seven candidates filed for six seats in the 72nd Assembly District. On the Republican side, the number of candidates filing for the June 8 race became such a countywide phenomenon that activists took note. In the 71st Assembly District (which includes Mission Viejo), 13 candidates ran for six seats. While the group of challengers didn’t talk about their connection to each other, word came out that a woman who lives in Irvine intended to take control of the Orange County GOP Central Committee with a slate of candidates in each Assembly District race. Activists generally didn’t support the challenger slate, partly because of the secrecy of the group. As an additional factor, the incumbent committee members appeared to be doing a good job. None of the slate of challengers won in the 71st Assembly District. Of the six incumbents (Todd Spitzer, Jack Anderson, Tony Beall, Marcia Gilchrist, Mark Bucher and John Williams), only Williams lost. Replacing him is Jon Fleischman, a longtime political activist and consultant who previously served on the Central Committee. Following are totals for Republican Central Committee candidates in the 71st Assembly District. The top six won seats. Todd Spitzer, 17,179, 16.1% Mark Dobrilovic, 7,008, 6.6% |
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