{"id":424301,"date":"2026-08-05T08:10:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T08:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/424301\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T08:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T08:10:07","slug":"can-diane-dixon-paint-oc-red-again-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/424301\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Diane Dixon paint OC red again? \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Nov. 1, 1988, as he was about to leave office, at a campaign rally in Fullerton, President Ronald Reagan quipped<\/a>, \u201cOrange County is where the good Republicans go before they die.\u201d<\/p>\n

But since the 2022 election, Democrats have enjoyed a 3-2 majority on the Board of Supervisors. Diane Dixon<\/a>, currently an assemblywoman<\/a> from Newport Beach, aims to flip the board red again. She\u2019s running against incumbent Democrat Katrina Foley<\/a> for the 5th District<\/a>. It covers most of the county\u2019s southern coastal region and part of Irvine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working hard every day, all over the district,\u201d Dixon told me. \u201cI think people are pleased I performed well in the June 2 primary. Foley was supposed to win outright,\u201d meaning a majority of the votes would have precluded the Nov. 3 runoff. Instead, Foley received<\/a> 46.98% to Dixon\u2019s 46.81%, with 6.21% going to Lucy Vellema, an educator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dixon says her top issue is affordability, including building more housing, which could help her with Democratic-leaning voters in the district.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s going to be a close race. I should know. Foley<\/a> first was elected to the board in 2021, beating former Supervisor John Moorlach in a special election for the 2nd District. I had been his press secretary when he was a state senator, from 2017 to 2020. And I helped with and contributed to his Senate re-election and supervisor campaigns, which he lost, before launching back into journalism.<\/p>\n

After redistricting, in 2022 Foley ran in the 5th District and beat former state Senator Pat Bates, 51.3% to 48.7%. She has strong support from the Democratic Party and the public-employee unions.<\/p>\n

My main concern is finances. Foley joined the other four supervisors in February 2025 in stripping the county\u2019s investment portfolio from elected Treasurer-Tax Collector Shari Freidenrich and giving<\/a> it to County CEO Michelle Aguirre. In June 2026, Aguirre retired<\/a> and the board replaced her with interim CEO K.C. Roestenberg.<\/p>\n

In a March op-ed, Moorlach charged<\/a> the board \u201chas pirated the Treasurer\u2019s office and is now plundering it.\u201d In the June 2 election, 71% of voters resoundingly reelected<\/a> Freidenrich.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe office is our independently elected treasurer-tax collector and the portfolio should be restored to her and her successors,\u201d Dixon said. \u201cShe was elected to safeguard the public funds, and we shouldn\u2019t get emotional about this. I highly regard Shari.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freidenrich\u2019s control of the portfolio was removed when she was accused of fostering a \u201ctoxic atmosphere\u201d in her office. She denied the accusation, and details remain confidential. Dixon said, once on the board, \u201cI\u2019ll look into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the key selling points for Foley and the other two Democrats on the board is they are more plugged into the Democratic supermajorities \u2013 more than two-thirds of seats \u2013 in both the Assembly and state Senate. That means they can get more benefits for the county.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dixon countered that, despite being a Republican, she has worked across the aisle. \u201cThe Democrats respect me and I get things done,\u201d she said. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed \u201c18 of my bills the past four years, with five more pending in the Senate.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of May 18, the OC Registrar of Voters\u2019 report<\/a> to Secretary of State Shirley Weber clocked the 5th District 37.8% Republican, 32.8% Democrat, 22.2% No Party Preference and the rest third parties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Foley<\/a> and Dixon<\/a> last filed campaign disclosures for the period through June 30. Foley raised $270,382 and spent $538,429 so far this year, nearly two dollars out for every dollar in. For Dixon, it was similar, $297,608 raised and $419,451 spent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the primary campaign ended, Orange County Republican Chairman Will O\u2019Neill estimated<\/a> to City News Service the unions backed Foley with $900,000, while the Republican Lincoln Club gave Dixon $300,000 and the county party another $200,000. The spending for Nov. 3 is just getting started and will rise into the millions on each side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dixon\u2019s main problem will be energizing Republicans at a time when President Donald Trump\u2019s approval rating, according to the New York Times\u2019 Aug. 4 aggregate<\/a>, is 38%, with 59% disapproval. Even the ghost of the Gipper might not be able to help overcome that.<\/p>\n

John Seiler is on the SCNG Editorial Board<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Nov. 1, 1988, as he was about to leave office, at a campaign rally in Fullerton, President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,975,2082],"class_list":["post-424301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}