Category: Election

Irvine’s Democratic Congresswoman — and former UCI Law Professor — Katie Porter is heading back to Washington D.C. after easily defeating her Republican opponent Greg Raths.

In nonpartisan races, Irvine voters elected current Councilwoman Farrah Khan to be the City’s new Mayor.  Irvine voters also elected former Mayor Larry Agran, Irvine City Finance Commissioner Tammy Kim and appointed Councilman Mike Carroll to the City Council.

On Tuesday (November 3rd), Irvine voters elected Councilwoman Farrah Khan to replace Christina Shea as Irvine’s Mayor. Khan received 47% of the vote while Shea received 36%.

With late arriving mail-in ballots still being counted, Irvine voters appear to have also returned former Mayor Larry Agran to the City Council, and elected a new Councilmember — Tammy Kim. Kim currently serves as an Irvine City Commissioner.

The allegations of misappropriation and misuse of $72,000 of Irvine taxpayer dollars for his own political purposes continue to damage appointed Councilman Mike Carroll more than two months after the story first surfaced.

Now, in an article published in The Epoch Times,  appointed Mayor Christina Shea has rescinded her endorsement of Carroll, noting: “He has violated city protocols and practices by running up a $70,000 mail room expenditure without proper authorization, which he will need to personally repay.  Irvine deserves better.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, voting is a bit different this year.

If you prefer voting in-person, 14 Vote Centers are now open in Irvine.

It’s election season in Irvine and all across America…and you know what that means: Your mailbox is likely to be full of political campaign mailers. 

Some of the mailers will be positive, coming from legitimate campaign committees. But more and more of the political mail you receive will be negative, so-called “hit pieces” that come from groups and committees you never heard of.

After a 6-year hiatus, Larry Agran, former Irvine Mayor and Councilmember, is running for City Council because, in his words, “I want to restore good planning, safeguard our City-owned parklands, get COVID-19 under control here in Irvine, and implement the mandate of the voters to immediately begin construction of the Veterans Memorial Park & Cemetery at the ARDA site in our 1,300-acre Great Park.”

The Shea-Carroll plan is to bring office, commercial, and industrial development to the Great Park…and thousands of cars to the site every day.

The City of Irvine has a small annual budget for mail communications between City Councilmembers and residents. Historically, Councilmembers have been frugal with their use of the City’s taxpayer-funded mail budget, spending no more than a few hundred dollars annually.

During this same time period, the four other members of the Irvine City Council, including Mayor Christina Shea, spent only $220 on mail.

Unelected Mayor Christina Shea and unelected Councilman Michael Carroll — both on the Nov. 3rd City election ballot — are required by State law to include the word Appointed in their ballot designations.  The law requires that voters are informed that the positions Shea and Carroll now hold in Irvine City government came by way of controversial political appointment and not through an election by the people.

Shea is complying with State law, running as “Appointed Irvine Mayor.”  But Carroll, who is a lawyer, refused to put Appointed in his ballot designation. 

Attention, Irvine Voters!  Mark your calendars.  There is yet another important election on the horizon — and Irvine voters may again make the decisive difference in who actually wins.

Over the past couple of weeks, ICNV has encouraged readers to take our online Irvine Community Poll to let us know who you support in the March 12th special election for Orange County Supervisor (Third District). Here are the results.