By Paul Rosenberg, Senior Editor
Right-wing wacko Dana Rohrabacher was finally whacked out of the House by Orange County voters on Nov. 6 — after three decades, not three terms, as he had promised when he first ran for office as a proponent of terms limits. The end came slowly for Putin’s favorite congressman. His opponent, first-time Democratic candidate Harley Rouda, led by 2,682 votes on election night, then by 3,602 on Nov. 7, by 4,756 on Nov. 8, and 7,328 on Nov. 9, before Rouda finally claimed victory the next morning.
“After careful consideration of the data provided by the fantastic team at the Orange County Registrar, my staff and I are now confident that we have won the congressional race in California’s 48th District,” Rouda announced via Twitter.
“This victory has been powered by voters across the political spectrum, hailing from all corners, and all communities, of the 48th district. I am deeply humbled and honored to have the opportunity to serve in Congress.”
Associated Press called the race shortly after. It was a model race, according to Louise Larsen, media chair for the 72nd Assembly District Alliance, who said it “set the bar” for all other races in her area.
But Rohrabacher’s defeat in CA-48 was only part of the story of how the nationwide Blue Wave hit Orange County.
In CA-49, covering southern Orange County and northern San Diego County, Democrat Mike Levin handily beat Republican Diane Harkey to replace Darrell Issa, who saw the writing on the wall and retired. The other two Orange County congressional races first appeared to favor Republicans, but by Nov. 13, Mimi Waters fell behind her challenger, consumer protection attorney Katie Porter, by 261 votes in CA-45, while Republican Young Kim’s lead in CA-39 over Democrat Gil Cisneros fell to just 711 votes.
But it wasn’t just congress that saw the Blue Wave, either nationally or locally, as noted by Rachel Potucek, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Orange County. The party saw 65 percent of its endorsed candidates win — a record high.
“It’s very very exciting for us and we have a lot of incredible firsts,” Potucek told Random Lengths News. “Harvey Rouda would be the first Democrat elected to the 48 congressional district. We’re very excited about that,” she said. But there was much more to celebrate.
“We elected our first LGBT Muslim in the United States, with Ahmad Zahra in Fullerton City Council. We elected the first Latinos and the youngest councilmember ever to Costa Mesa City Council. We elected the first clean energy engineers in Orange County history, two of them. We elected the first majority-women city council in Costa Mesa, and we elected the first LGBT La Habra city school board member,” Potucek said. “We ran a young, diverse slate of endorsed candidates, and we won a slate of young, diverse elected officials. It was very exciting.”
As Potucek’s list suggests, Costa Mesa was the epitome of the change seen in this election — change that was driven from below by activists, in response to opportunity driven from the top, as laid out by Brandon Love of the Costa Mesa Democratic Club.
“This is all a backlash to Trump, and it trickles down from that top,” Love said. “We don’t just live with the national embarrassment of Trump, we’re stuck with the local congressional embarrassment of the great Dana Rohrabacher, arguably the singular most embarrassing member in a 435-person House.”
This didn’t square with how the district thinks of itself. “You have this gradual trickle down effect that starts with Trump gets down to Dana, but it doesn’t stop there,” Love said. “Our local assembly representative is just as embarrassing as Trump and Rohrabacher. So I think you start adding up these pieces and collectively a lot of people on the left, a lot of people in the center start realizing, like, come on guys we can do a lot better than this.”
It took awhile, but “Once we started having some nominees to coalesce behind, it just gradually snowballed. And the inspiration level started improving and increasing on an hourly and daily basis,” Love enthused. There was one driving demographic force, he noted: middle-age women.
“I bounced around to so many different meetings of so many different groups, and there’s one constant, at every single one of those meetings, every night, every group,” Love said. “The room is 95 percent female, over age 40 that says, ‘Not anymore, I’ve had enough. I’m going to do something about this.’ And they really just hit a critical mass.” There were some men and some younger activists involved, but experienced middle-age women were the overwhelming activist majority that “got off the couch and got in the game.” The results feel pretty good. With a Democratic mayor and three Democratic councilmembers, Costa Mesa became just the second city in Orange County with a Democratic majority in control.
“I don’t think it’s the end of anything. It’s the beginning. I think people are empowered there. [They’re] emboldened. They seen the fruits of their labor and they see how hard work pays off,” Love said. “I think they’re going to get greedy, in the best possible way with this taste of victory, this taste of success. And they’re going to work even harder next time.”
In the 72nd assembly district, Larsen saw a mixed record of success, citing the Rouda campaign as the most successful, with both the outside support of people from across the country and grassroots groups inside the district, especially Indivisible 48 and the Huntington Beach Huddle. Many more local campaigns seemed to struggle with outreach to the Vietnamese community centered in the Little Saigon area of Westminster. Larsen cited improved outreach to them along with outreach to younger voters as two top priorities for Democrats in her part of Orange County.
“I think that kids are starting to wake up, but even as of a year ago there was a lot of apathy,” Larsen said.
Since then, “There is a growing number of younger students that are very motivated by the Parkland shootings,” she said, and she hopes they’ll start making other connections. “Hopefully they’re paying attention to their older brothers and sisters paying outrageous sums of money for college,” she noted.
Thinking of her own children, Larsen said, “That’s one reason I fought so hard this year. I don’t want my children cursed with debt forever. For the rest of their lives. So I think kids are coming out more for those reasons, and LGBT issues.”
“You probably can cite a lot of our media superstars — Lady Gaga, people like that who have made it socially acceptable and a moral mandate to be more inclusive. I think there has been a shift of kids waking up to that as well.”
In short, politics is in flux in Orange County, just as it is across the country.
“We do have a lot going for us in Orange County in terms of changing demographics and the incredible rise — it’s been the year of the women and will be even more so: in 2020,” said Steve Pierson, Swing Left’s Southern California co-ordinator during the primaries. “All of that could be a perfect storm of really getting our power back and harnessing this movement,” he said. “But it’s going to take a lot of work and I’m excited. I feel like were right at the beginning of something.”