Orange County’s state Senate races draw $2.65 million in donations – Orange County

The 10 candidates competing in the June 7 primary for five state Senate seats that cover portions of Orange County raised a combined $2.65 million in 2021, according to campaign finance reports due to the state this week.

That figure is expected to shoot up significantly over the next four months, with no incumbent in three of the races and several clear swing seats up for grabs by either party after district lines were redrawn in December.

The local state Senate candidate who raised the most and ended last year with the biggest war chest so far doesn’t even have any serious 2022 challengers.

Freshman Sen. Tom Umberg, D-Santa Ana, is running for a second term to represent the newly drawn 34th District, which will now start in south Whittier in L.A. County and swing southeast to include parts of Fullerton, La Habra, Buena Park and Orange plus most of Anaheim and Santa Ana. The district favors Democrats by 25.9 points and is majority Latino.

Umberg raised $516,273 in 2021. With funds rolled over from previous years, he had $790,404 in cash as of Dec. 31.

The next highest total in terms of cash on hand is Sen. Bob Archuleta, D-Pico Rivera, who’s running for a second term in a redrawn 30th District that includes southeast L.A. County cities plus Brea and favors Democrats by 28.2%. Archuleta raised $329,855 in 2021 and was sitting on $356,773 cash at the end of the year.

Not far behind Archuleta is his SD-30 challenger, Henry Bouchot, a fellow Democrat who is now a Whittier City Council member. Bouchet raised $309,469 last year, though that includes $100,000 he loaned himself. He finished the year with $238,714 cash.

Another competitive local race is shaping up in the new 38th District, which covers south Orange County and north San Diego County and favors Democrats by 4.9 points. Sen. Pat Bates, who represents much of that area now, will term out at the end of the year. So fundraising for the open seat was nearly at a dead heat between the two candidates in the race in 2021.

With a slight lead in terms of donations is Encinitas Mayor Catherine Blakespear, who’s a Democrat. She raised $380,182 in 2021, including $5,000 of her own money. She had $282,956 cash as of Dec. 31, though she was carrying $40,662 in debt.

Republican challenger Matthew Gunderson, who’s a former car dealership owner from Mission Viejo, narrowly trailed Blakespear in fundraising, with $304,678 in donations, including a $3,000 loan from himself. But once debt is factored in, he had a bit more cash at the end of the year, with $282,495 in the bank and $5,694 in the red.

Two other SD-38 candidates – Joe Kerr, D-Coto de Caza, who’s a former fire captain, and Eleanor Juanita Evans, R-Oceanside, an Oceanside Unified School District board member – haven’t yet officially reported any fundraising. But Kerr’s campaign reports he has raised roughly $125,000 since entering the race.

Another local state Senate race that’s expected to be competitive this year is the new 36th District covering Cerritos in L.A. County, most of Little Saigon and all of coastal Orange County.

Assemblywoman Janet Nguyen, R-Huntington Beach, opted to run for the new SD-36, which favors Republicans by 2.2 points. She posted the second-highest 2021 fundraising total among local state Senate candidates, with $400,726 raised in 2021, which includes $10,000 loaned from a fund she has open to run for county supervisor in 2024. She had $315,945 in cash at the end of the year.

Nguyen is expected to face a serious challenge from Huntington Beach Councilwoman Kimberly Carr. The Democrat entered the SD-36 race a couple weeks after the Dec. 31 close of the filing period, but her campaign reports she’s raised roughly $100,000 since the start of the year and has a target of $450,000 by June.

One last state Senate district that includes just a slice of Orange County has attracted just one candidate so far.

Assemblyman Kelly Seyarto, R-Murrieta, raised $173,750 last year toward his bid for the new solidly Republican 32nd Senate District, which starts with Yorba Linda in Orange County and Chino Hills in San Bernardino County, goes through east Riverside County and ends in San Diego County. Seyarto had $144,771 in cash for his campaign as of Dec. 31.

State Sens. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, and Dave Min, D-Irvine, (and the districts they currently represent) aren’t included in this story because they aren’t up for election until 2024.

Candidates have until March 11 to file formal declarations to run for office. The next campaign finance reports, covering Jan. 1 through April 23, are due by April 28. And the top two vote-getters in each race during the June primary will advance to the November election.