DGI Straw Poll: Pope is Endorsed for Mayor; Khan and Abazajian are Top 2 for City Council

The Democrats of Greater Irvine held their summer BBQ/Potluck Sunday, ahead of the DPOC endorsement, and conducted a straw poll of the candidates. Military Veteran and former Teacher Ed Pope got 80% of the 73 counted ballots for Mayor, which should speak volumes to voters in Irvine.

Pope led the successful No on Measure B campaign to stop the FivePoint landswap, despite being outspent more than two to one (I’m still waiting on disclosure reports of actual spending). More interestingly, Pope is not seeking the DPOC endorsement tonight because, frankly, he doesn’t need it. I’ve invited Pope to be my guest at the party meeting, but I don’t expect him to show.

No candidate got the required 60% of the vote for DGI endorsement for city council. Farrah Khan came closest with 42 of the 73 votes for 57.5% and Kev Abazajian got one fewer vote with 41 for 56%.

Lauren Johnson-Norris scored a disappointing 27 votes for 37%, and we’ll note from friends in attendance that she showed up at the meeting with 15 UCI Democratic club students wearing her candidate T-shirts who signed up for DGI that day to cast a ballot for her. Over the weekend, Johnson-Norris invited members of the “Keep Irvine, Irvine” Facebook group to the picnic to cast a ballot for her and a significant number of members of this social media group are not DGI members and are openly supporting Republican Anthony Kuo. So with this context and without these students, Johnson Norris would have received only 12 votes for city council. So remove the 15 from the 73 ballots cast, and Johnson Norris would have gotten 12 of 58 or 20.6%.

Abazajian did not make the recommended DPOC endorsement list and it’s largely due to a number of Johnson Norris supporters on the interview committee for the Irvine races. But his DGI showing is promising among those who really matter — the voters of Irvine. Johnson Norris comes up to the Party before Farrah Khan tonight and I will not be pull LJN’s name if someone pull’s Khan’s name because of timing.

DGI did not take a position on Measure B prior to the June primary while the DPOC endorsed a Yes on B resolution — and as I am reminded — joined every elected official in Orange County to support the Land Swap. But Irvine Democrats are frequently at odds with the Party on issues affecting the city.