Seven candidates qualify to run in Orange County special election


In California, seven candidates are running in the nonpartisan special election for the vacant District 3 seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. The candidate filing deadline passed on January 28, and the election is scheduled for March 12.
 
The vacancy was created when former District 3 representative Todd Spitzer was sworn into office as the county’s new district attorney. He was elected to the new position on November 6, 2018. Spitzer had held the District 3 seat since 2012.
 
Among the candidates running for the seat are three current or former officeholders: Irvine Mayor Don Wagner, former Anaheim City Council member Kris Murray, and former U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez. Sanchez served in the U.S. House from 1997 to 2017; in 2016, she ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary against Kamala Harris for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Barbara Boxer.
 
Wagner, Murray, and Sanchez are joined on the ballot by Katherine Daigle, Larry Bales, Kim-Thy “Katie” Hoang Bayliss, and Deborah Pauly.