Republican Club

By Brian Harmon

LW contributor

The election to fill congresswoman-elect Michelle Steel’s OC Board of Supervisors seat will be held in March 2021. LW Republican office holders are throwing their support around State Sen. John Moorlach for the position.

Moorlach recently lost the election for his state senate seat, partially due to concern about the senator’s sometimes effective campaign to limit increases in public employee retirement benefits.

One reason raising pension benefits for public employees is a problem is that the courts ruled that once pension benefits have been promised, they cannot be taken back.

Another reason public employee pensions have created challenges is that raising pensions is much more politically attractive to local officials than pay increases. Giving large pay raises would put the current officials in trouble because pay increases would require dramatically increased current taxes or huge decreases in public services.

In 2013, the legislature passed a state employee retirement reform act, incorporating many of the ideas Moorlach had been advocating for a number of years. Although the law affected mainly newly hired employees, it set limits on payouts and limited the rate of increase in the future. It also allowed municipalities to require larger employee contributions to the state retirement pool.

Moorlach’s first run for public office was a run for county treasurer in 1994. He warned that the county was in serious financial danger because of the reckless investment decisions of his predecessor.

The county treasurer at the time had been successfully investing in high-risk bond derivatives, or options, betting that interest rates would continue to go down. It worked for years, but then interest rates suddenly began to skyrocket.

Moorlach lost the election primarily because voters did not believe him when he said the county was in financial trouble.

A month after the election, the OC Board of Supervisors decided to declare bankruptcy, due to the disastrous state of county finances. It was the first time a county had declared bankruptcy in America.

After the county treasurer had left office, the board appointed Moorlach to the empty position on March 17, 1995. In 1996, he won election to the office, and he was re-elected in 1998 and 2002.

In 2006, Moorlach ran for county supervisor for District 2 and won 70 percent of the vote. He ran unopposed for re-election in 2010.

Moorlach then won the election to fill the term of State Sen. Mimi Waters when she was elected to Congress.

LW Republican Club President David Harlow is cautiously optimistic about Moorlach’s chances. He hopes to have Moorlach as the speaker at the January club meeting.

Harlow said that this election is so important he wants to put up at least a slimmed-down Republican Club booth, but not open as many hours as it was in the recent election.