Frustrated by Democrat dominance of the city council in solidly Republican Huntington Beach, a GOP-led coalition has coalesced around four council candidates – former Assemblyman Tony Strickland, Pat Burns, Casey McKeon and Gracey Van Der Mark – in hopes of electing a city council majority they feel would be more aligned with the political views of city residents.
The four candidates are campaigning on platforms of support for lower taxes and small business, responsible environmental stewardship, prioritizing public safety and law enforcement, addressing homelessness and reclaiming public spaces, reviving the city’s economy, reining in city spending, and support for property rights while protecting neighborhoods.
The candidates and their backers hope to avoid vote-splitting among multiple GOP candidates in council elections where winners can be elected with just 10% of the vote.
Republicans Seek To End Infighting, Unite Behind Four Candidates
After Democrats won two of three seats in 2020 and then filled a council vacancy last year with another Democrat, GOP leaders, business owners, conservative activists and conservative advocacy organizations like the Lincoln Club of Orange County decided it was time to stop working at cross-purposes and unify behind a four-candidate slate in the 2022 elections.
“Not only party leadership and donors, but more important the grassroots activists and business community in HB came together and compromised,” said Whitaker. “Essentially, we united around a slate of candidates that has a mix of each part of the coalition.”
“The quality of life in Orange County degrades when Democrats take over and nowhere has that been more evident than in Huntington Beach,” said Whitaker.
“The Democrats in charge of the city council are pulling City Hall to the Left,” says Ed Laird, a long-time resident and businessman who is active in city politics. “What we need is a council majority that will bring common sense back to City Hall.”
Who Are The ”Unity” Candidates?
The GOP “unity” slate of Tony Strickland, Pat Burns, Casey McKeon and Gracey Van Der Mark share common support for business-friendly policies, coastline protection and a tougher approach to crime and homelessness. They oppose changing the City Attorney from an elected into an appointed office, and want to repair the repair relations with the Pacific Air Show, which have so deteriorated under the current council that the event may leave Huntington Beach.
Strickland, 52, is a former state legislator who served in the Assembly from 1998 to 2004 and the state Senate from 2008 to 2012, where he focused on health, environmental, energy and finance issues.
His council campaign is focused on homelessness, public safety, keeping taxes low, environmental quality and protecting neighborhood quality of life.
“We need to finally fill the Navigation Center to its intended limits and find regional solutions for any further needed capacity, so we can empower the police to take back our parks, streets, and beaches, said Strickland.
Strickland also said he would prioritize accessing state grants to purchase coastal protection equipment to protect the beaches against any future oil spill, and work to take the city out of the OC Power Authority, which he said has raised utility bills.
Strickland said he was proud to run as a slate with McKeon, Burns and Van Der Mark.
“I have played team sports my whole life,” said Strickland. “Our team has a plan from Day 1 to fix homelessness, ensure public safety, fight back against Sacramento mandates and spur the local economy.”
Casey McKeon is a third-generation commercial real estate executive who specializes in the acquisition and renovation of retail shopping centers. He served on the city’s Finance Commission until June of 2021, and also served on the Charter Review Commission. A co-founder of the Small Business Alliance of Huntington Beach, McKeon says support for small businesses is central to his candidacy.
McKeon notes the lack of council representation for southeast Huntington Beach, where he lives.
“We have major issues such as Ascon, AES Power Plant, Tank Farms, Poseidon and homelessness,” says McKeon. “It’s important for Southeast Huntington to have a seat and a voice on the City Council.”
Van Der Mark is a 21-year resident of Huntington Beach who has served on both the Planning and Finance commissions. She is a long-time conservative activist whose involvement has focused on education – such as supporting traditional curriculum and opposing school shutdowns and mask mandates for students – and quality of life issues.
Pat Burns is a retired Long Beach police lieutenant and a member of the Community and Library Services Commission.
“The residents and businesses of Huntington Beach deserve a high quality of life including clean beaches, safe roads, usable and inviting parks and an environment to attract beneficial businesses,” Burns says on his campaign website. “Our current council majority undermined the ability of our City Attorney to fight the state’s overreach and violation of our City Charter to protect local control and zoning and fight High Density Development.”
Critics Worried Democrat Candidate Slate Would Push City Council Further To The Left
On the other side of the aisle is a four candidate slate endorsed by the Democratic Party of Orange County: Gina Clayton-Tarvin, Oscar Rodriguez, Jill Hardy and Ken Inouye.
Hardy is a former city councilmember and is seeking to return for what would be a fifth term. Hardy was first elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006, and forced out by term limits in 2010. She then sat out one election cycle and ran again in 2012, winning election. Hardy was re-elected in 2016 and again forced off the council by term limits.
Hardy then sat out an election, re-setting her term limit clock and making her eligible to run again in 2022. Her campaign website is long on biography but says little about why she is running for council again.
Clayton-Tarvin is a high-profile member of the Ocean View School District Board of Education. During the pandemic, she was a vocal advocate of masking school children and urged those with skeptical about mask mandates to comply “instead of “complaining about losing freedoms.”
Tarvin was a scathing critic of the Orange County Board of Education’s opposition to the state’s draconian school closure measures during the pandemic.
28-year old Oscar Rodriguez is a member of the city’s planning commission and is active with Oak View CommUNIDAD, a progressive political advocacy group.
In June 2020, as riots engulfed cities following the George Floyd killing, Rodriguez posted on his Facebook page that “Hatred and racism is embedded in each and every one of our systemic systems; housing, education, economic, health care, law enforcement etc.”
“These systems don’t need reform, we have “done that”. They need complete overhaul and we cannot wait till our “elected leaders act” because we have done that sh*t too,” Rodriguez wrote.
In a comment on the same post, Rodriguez also embraced taxpayer-funded “reparation” payments to African-Americans as compensation for slavery, which was abolished in 1865 due to the Civil War and ratification of the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution.
Clayton-Tarvin, Rodriguez and their slate mates have garnered the heavy backing of public employee unions. Election watchers says the Democrat-progressive candidate slate is well-organized and well-funded.
“It’s difficult to imagine a starker choice facing Huntington Beach voters,” commented Laird. “These two candidate slates have very visions for the future of the city. Clayton-Tarvin and her crew will support liberal policies of the kind that are wrecking cities all over the country, producing more crime and driving out business investment and jobs.”
“Tony Strickland, Pat Burns, Casey McKeon and Gracey Van Der Mark believe in the kind of council policies that have made Huntington Beach such a great place to live, instead of self-destructive behavior like trying to chase the Pacific Air Show out of Huntington Beach,” said Laird.
Laird was referring to the city council’s last-minute decision to stop offsetting parking fees for the event, causing considerable consternation to organizers of the airshow, which is the largest in the country in terms of attendance and generates $105 million in economic value for the city.
Kevin Elliott, CEO of Code Four, which runs the airshow, told the Los Angeles Times last month that the “City Council has been trying to chop me at the knees.”
“For whatever reason, I couldn’t tell you … but they’ve caused us millions and millions and millions in dollars in financial damage,” Elliott told the Times. “This is about a lot more than the parking offset. That was simply just another punishment in a long line of punishments that’s been handed out by this council.”
Elliott said his company is considering moving the event out of Huntington Beach due to the city council’s antagonistic stance toward the Air Show.
“These are the kind of stakes for our community in this election,” said Laird. “It’s why we’ve finally been able to put infighting aside and bring together the various stakeholders among business, the Republican Party and among activists to unite behind this ticket.”
