Fullerton Mayor Doug Chaffee won election to the Orange County Board of Supervisors on Friday, becoming the first Democrat to hold that office in 12 years.
The contest for the board’s 4th District had slim margins, and in the end, Chaffee defeated La Habra Mayor Tim Shaw by less than 1 percentage point. Chaffee trailed Shaw, a Republican, on election night, more than three weeks ago. But Chaffee took the lead as provisional and late mail-in ballots were counted post-election, and he held that advantage as the final votes were tallied Friday evening.
“It’s a great job and a great opportunity to take care of people’s needs on a pretty grand scale,” Chaffee, 74, a retired attorney, said of his victory.
Chaffee framed his candidacy as a chance for the district to reshape the makeup of the all-GOP board, pointing out that Shaw was endorsed by four sitting supervisors. Chaffee said his first goal as supervisor will be working to ensure the district gets its “fair share” of the county money earmarked for public parks. He also ran on the platform that he’d press other parts of the county to do more to address the region’s homelessness problem, particularly South County and Irvine. He’ll be sworn in on Jan. 8.
The 4th District spans Fullerton, La Habra, Brea, Placentia and parts of Anaheim and Buena Park. It has been represented for the past eight years by Republican Supervisor Shawn Nelson, who was termed out this cycle. Despite its past Republican leadership, Democrats hold a 10.6 percentage point voter registration advantage there, making it one of the most left-leaning seats in the county.
The district saw a large voter turnout this election, spurred by the competitive contest for the 39th Congressional District, which overlaps significant portions of the board seat. Democrat Gil Cisneros won that House contest.
Chaffee almost entirely bankrolled his campaign, loaning himself $650,000 and spending nearly the same amount, dwarfing the $327,000 Shaw raised and spent. Chaffee’s ties to labor helped him increase that spending advantage after the Orange County Employees Association, the county’s largest municipal labor union, dropped $545,000 in the contest on mailers supporting Chaffee and opposing Shaw.
On Friday, Shaw noted Democrats’ high spending and recent voter registration surge when assessing his loss. While races for supervisor are billed as nonpartisan and candidates aren’t listed by party designation, Shaw said he thought Chaffee had managed to make the board race a partisan contest. Shaw said he thinks that strategy worked to the Fullerton mayor’s benefit.
“I’m proud of how well I did, all things considered,” Shaw said.
Democrats haven’t had a party member on the county board since Lou Correa left in 2006 to join the state Senate and, eventually, Congress. The party will have another shot at flipping a GOP-held seat in the upcoming special election to replace Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who will become the county’s next district attorney in January. That special election will be held in early March.
