Democratic Club

by Mary Larson

LW contributor

Thirty-six Orange County Superior Court incumbent judges will be running unopposed for another six-year term in the June Primary. Under the county’s election rules, these 36 judges will be declared the winners and will not appear on the ballot. No incumbent judge has lost in Orange County in at least a quarter of a century.

However, nine other judgeships will be on Leisure World residents’ Primary Election ballots. There are 25 candidates running in these contests, none of whom is an incumbent.

Claudia Alvarez is one of the those candidates, running for election to Office No. 5. Alvarez has been an OC Deputy District Attorney for over 22 years and a public official for the last two decades. She was a member of the Santa Ana City council from 2000-2012. (Santa Ana has a 12-year limit on the terms of City Council members.) Her website is www.alvarez4judge.com.

Most of Alvarez’s career has been devoted to working with youth, both in juvenile courts and in the community.

Alvarez’s candidacy for OC Superior Court Office No. 5 has been endorsed by a number of persons familiar to LW Democrats, including OC Supervisors Katrina Foley and Doug Chaffee, as well as State Senator Tom Umberg, who is also the chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Judiciary.

••• The LW Democratic Club’s next membership meeting will be held Wednesday, April 20, via Zoom. Club members and supporters can find login information in the club’s electronic newsletter or by calling (562) 296-8521. Information about the featured speaker, state Assembly candidate Judie Mancuso, can be found online at www.judiemancuso.com.

The LW Democratic Club encourages Leisure World voters who live in Los Alamitos School Board Area 4 to not sign a new recall petition directed against board member Scott Fayette, if and when it is certified for distribution.

The club urges voters not to sign petitions currently being circulated that would place a school voucher initiative on the November ballot. If passed, this initiative would eliminate California’s constitutional prohibition against public funding of religious and other private schools. It would require the state to provide a yearly $14,000 voucher payment per student attending such K-12 schools or being home schooled. The money would be paid directly to families, regardless of need or the level of their income. According to current estimates, these payments would cost California $4.7 billion to $7 billion a year.

••• LW Democrats and supporters can subscribe to the club’s free electronic newsletter for more in-depth political information by calling editor Mary Larson at (562) 296-8521 or emailing democraticclubsblw@gmail.com. People are asked to include their full name, address, phone number and party affiliation.