Most Incumbents Win Easily; Spitzer Cruises

The drama definitely was elsewhere Tuesday as Orange County’s congressional and legislative incumbents won reelection by huge margins.

The only open seat -- to replace Assemblyman Bill Campbell (R-Villa Park) -- became a slam dunk months ago, when no other candidate chose to take on Supervisor Todd Spitzer for the Republican nomination.

Spitzer got 73% of the vote Tuesday in the GOP-dominant 71st District. He’ll be sworn in next month, setting up a February special election to replace him on the board.

Gratified by his 77% showing in Orange County, Spitzer acknowledged that only about 60% of voters in Riverside County voted for him. “There’s a healthy skepticism about someone from Orange County,” he said of the county’s eastern neighbors.

Spitzer will spend the rest of this week and next in Sacramento for orientation meetings before he’s sworn in next month. Campbell has declared that he’ll run for Spitzer’s board seat. Other likely candidates: Councilman Michael Alvarez of Orange and Tom Coad, policy chief for his wife, Supervisor Cynthia P. Coad.

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Incumbents easily reelected to represent the county were Reps. Ed Royce, Gary Miller, Dana Rohrabacher, Chris Cox and Ken Calvert, all Republicans, and Democrat Loretta Sanchez. In the state Senate, Democrat Joe Dunn and Republican Bill Morrow cruised to reelection. Rejoining the county Assembly delegation were Republicans Tom Harman, Ken Maddox, John Campbell, Lynn Daucher, Rod Pacheco and Pat Bates, and Democrat Lou Correa.

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The results were dismal for several comeback attempts around the county by former elected officials.

Ex-Anaheim Councilman Bob Zemel fell short in his attempt to win back his seat. In Fountain Valley, former Orange County Supervisor Roger R. Stanton also failed to become a member of that city’s council.

Comeback attempts by former council members failed elsewhere in Orange County. Joy Neugebauer lost in Westminster, Phil Schwartze came up short in San Juan Capistrano and Mike Eggers was defeated in San Clemente. Chuck Conlosh lost in Fountain Valley and Jack Mauller was defeated in Buena Park.

Having better luck were Melody Carruth, elected again to the Laguna Hills City Council, and former Irvine Mayor Christina Shea, who has a razor-thin lead for an Irvine council seat.

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Several incumbent council members also were defeated Tuesday. They were Steve Vargas in Brea, Harold Kaufman in Dana Point, Jan Flory in Fullerton, Sherri Butterfield and Susan Withrow in Mission Viejo and Scott Diehl in San Clemente. Expensive campaigns fueled by money from interests outside Orange County emerged in the Dana Point and Mission Viejo races.

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Lan Nguyen was about 800 votes short of becoming the first minority representative on the Garden Grove Unified School District board. He came in third in voting for two seats, which were won by incumbents Bob Harden and Terry Cantrell.

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Times staff writer Claire Luna contributed to this report.