Venezia: Moorlach’s steady record of accomplishment

Taking my little rescue dog, Stasha, for a walk Tuesday night, I decided to stop into John Moorlach’s state Senate campaign headquarters, since it was right down the street in Santa Ana Heights.

About six weeks ago, the former county supervisor set up shop on the grounds next door to the Village Crean, an estate owned by Jim and Johanna Townsend.

The Townsends go way back with Moorlach, to his days before public office when he worked as a certified public accountant. They were his clients and grew into friends.

“Jim actually drove me to the registrar’s office the first time I ran against Citron,” Moorlach told me. Bob Citron was Orange County’s treasurer-tax collector when it declared bankruptcy in 1994.

The Townsends gave the recent Moorlach campaign use of office space and a conference room on the property.

“It was an in-kind donation, and I reported it,” Moorlach made sure he told me.

It’s kind of interesting that he set up in Santa Ana Heights, because that’s really where his career as supervisor began.

In the months before then-Supervisor Jim Silva left office in 2006, I contacted Moorlach since he was the heir apparent to the seat.

I urged him to get involved with the Santa Ana Heights Redevelopment Agency, since redevelopment agency projects had been belabored for decades.

As chairwoman of that organization’s project advisory committee, I explained the bureaucratic roadblocks we’d experienced, some of which Silva had created.

Moorlach jumped in with both feet.

During his time as supervisor, the redevelopment agency would close, but not before he achieved East and West Santa Ana Heights’ annexation to Newport Beach, construction of the Santa Ana fire station and Mesa Birch park, the undergrounding of wires, a partial Mesa/Cypress Street recreational trail and more.

Tuesday night, in this same neighborhood, Moorlach took the lead to become our next senator and opened a new chapter. About 3,000 ballots remain to be counted, but at this writing he had enough of an edge to avoid a runoff against state Assemblyman Don Wagner (R-Irvine.)

Eagerly anticipating election results, Moorlach was surrounded by supporters from all over the county, including Supervisor Shawn Nelson, county Treasurer Shari Freidenrich, former Newport Beach Mayor Rush Hill, Newport Councilman Scott Peotter and former Assemblyman Allan Mansoor, to name a few.

When I got there the place was packed, and excitement was high as first results came in at 8:30 p.m.

Though Moorlach was happy he had a lead of 49%, and guests were congratulating him on the early returns, if that number didn’t get to 50%, plus 1, this race was far from over and he’d still have to face Wagner in a runoff.

“I was dreading two more months of this,” he told me later.

As the night progressed, and Moorlach inched up every round, the energy at campaign headquarters was electric.

And when the last tally showed he’d achieved over 50%, cheering and yelling erupted. Though outstanding ballots remain, and a runoff remains technically possible, my hunch is he will pull this through.

The next morning I called Moorlach to see how he was faring.

He says he and his wife, Trina, were up till the wee hours talking and were excited about the likely win.

Wednesday morning he was overwhelmed with texts, emails and calls from well-wishers.

I asked if he’d heard from Wagner.

He said no and added, “If he’d won I would have called him.”

I’m not surprised. Wagner’s attack mailers were ferocious.

After that sort of behavior, what can the guy say?

Gee, no hard feelings, it’s only politics?

Even hardcore politicos I have talked to behind the scenes were uncomfortable with the level of nastiness exhibited by Wagner’s campaign. In the end, it would be a strategy that apparently didn’t work.

But that’s all water under the bridge.

Moolrach, if his lead holds, will have to figure out everything from when and where he’s sworn into office, to new digs in Sacramento. He also has to hire staff. He’s already getting resumes for the 10 positions he’ll need to fill.

He tells me he’d like to be sworn into office in Orange County, rather than in Sacramento, and will contact the county to see if an appropriate place is available.

“Maybe the Muth Center or some place more centrally located in the district,” he said.

As we spoke, I could sense he was experiencing many different emotions.

He was happy and deeply appreciative to everyone who helped, relieved the campaign was over and eager to get to work fixing our state.

A little bit of trivia about Moorlach – he’s a California history buff.

He loves this stuff and is like a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the state.

Now he finds himself in a unique position.

“I’m sitting here pinching myself,” he said. “I’m now part of California history.... And after reading all the history, this is incredible.”

It certainly is.

BARBARA VENEZIA lives in Newport Beach. She can be reached at bvontv1@gmail.com.