As expected, Sanchez seems headed for rout

U.S. Rep Loretta Sanchez appeared headed for an easy victory Tuesday evening over Republican challenger Tan Nguyen, in a race that attracted little attention until a letter meant to keep Latino voters from the polls was linked to Nguyen’s campaign.

Few gave Nguyen much chance of defeating Sanchez (D-Santa Ana). Nguyen had made cracking down on illegal immigration the centerpiece of his campaign, in a district where Latinos make up 35% of registered voters.

After the letter, sent to 14,000 Latino Democrats, was traced to his campaign, Nguyen’s chances dwindled further. The letter incorrectly asserted that immigrants couldn’t vote and that the state had developed a computer system that would allow the names of Latino voters to be turned over to anti-illegal immigration groups.

State investigators tracked the letter to Nguyen’s campaign and raided the home of a Los Angeles police officer who is a close friend of Nguyen’s. The challenger maintained the letter did not violate the law.

Reached at her election party Tuesday evening, Sanchez said she was pleased by the early returns and expected the margin to grow.

“I’m not really sure what kind of support he has out there,” she said of Nguyen. “Frankly, certainly not enough to win.”

Sanchez sounded most enthusiastic about Democrats regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives, which means she will become chairwoman of the House Committee on Homeland Security.

“I’m pretty excited,” she said.

Nguyen, who had previously lost a race for Congress as a Democrat, ran a largely self-funded campaign that received little support from the Republican Party, and Sanchez had successfully beaten back several challengers in recent years.

Still, he refused to concede defeat early in the evening. “The events of the past couple weeks have damaged us, but I’m optimistic and I’m confident that we’ve bonded with the voters,” he said from his campaign headquarters.

Measure M, the countywide ballot measure to renew a half-cent sales tax to fund transportation improvements, also was leading in early balloting, receiving slightly more than the two-thirds majority needed for renewal. The campaign for Measure M was one of the most closely watched races in Orange County this year. The initiative, which would provide an additional $12 billion over the next three decades to pay for transportation projects, faced tough sledding against Orange County’s notoriously anti-tax attitude, but it was championed by a variety of business and civic leaders.

In the race for the county’s 5th Supervisorial District, former Assemblywoman Patricia Bates appeared on her way to victory over Laguna Niguel Mayor Cathryn DeYoung. The runoff between Bates and DeYoung generated little of the rancor, attention and spending of the primary, as attention turned from national issues such as illegal immigration to local ones, such as transportation and quality of life. The pair spent a combined $3 million in the primary. The 5th Supervisorial District covers a mostly white, affluent coastal area stretching from Newport Beach to the San Diego County border.

In the race for the 34th Senate District, Republican Lynn Daucher jumped ahead of Democrat Lou Correa early on, but the race remained tight. It was one of the most bitterly fought in the state, with each side spending more than $2 million as of last week. The district is one of the state’s most competitive, with Democrats holding a registration advantage of less than 3%, with 17% of the voters declining to state their affiliation.

In Costa Mesa, Mayor Allan Mansoor took an early lead in a field of six candidates seeking election to two seats on the City Council. Mansoor became a polarizing figure in the city, which has waded into the national debate over illegal immigration under his watch. Under Mansoor’s leadership, the council has voted to abolish a day labor center, shut down the city’s human relations commission and seek federal permission for local police to enforce federal immigration law.

The moves have won him fans from across the region but resentment as well, as some think his actions have divided the city where parks and schools, rather than national issues, dominate local politics. The police and fire unions, as well as powerful business interests, funded campaigns to unseat him.

A committee that unsuccessfully tried to recall the entire Capistrano Unified School District last year appeared to be heading toward victory. Its slate of Ellen Addonizio, Anna Bryson and Larry Christensen was leading two incumbents and five other challengers.

“After all the hard work of hundreds of volunteers and the leadership of the recall committee, this is a mandate that there is a need for change at CUSD,” said Tom Russell, spokesman for the CUSD Recall Committee.

The 10 candidates were vying for three seats on district’s board of trustees, which oversees 50,000 south Orange County students and a $563-million budget. Though many of the district’s 56 schools are ranked among the state’s best academically, critics have grown increasingly dissatisfied with the district’s leadership.

The seven-member board has been shaken by controversies in recent years, including the attempted recall of all seven trustees, an ongoing criminal investigation and the resignation of the superintendent following allegations that he kept an “enemies list.”

In the Vietnamese hub of Westminster, two controversial incumbents of the Westminster School District were struggling in their bids for reelection. Board members Blossie Marquez and Judy Ahrens were lagging a field of nine candidates vying for three board seats.

Challengers K. David Bridgewaters, Mary Mangold and Andrew Nguyen held the early lead.

The district faced an uproar this summer when the board offered the superintendent post to a Vietnamese American educator, then rescinded the offer a week later. Marquez and Ahrens supported the offer, but Ahrens reversed her vote at the next meeting, creating a majority bloc that canceled the offer, leading to accusations of racism.

The incident was the second embarrassment for the district in as many years, after nearly losing $8 million in annual state and federal funding when Marquez, Ahrens and an ex-board member balked at adopting a state-mandated policy allowing employees and pupils to define their gender.

Elsewhere in Orange County, the Anaheim Union High School District race was a referendum on how trustees handled a construction bond fiasco that came to light in January. In 2002, voters approved a $132-million bond program to build, expand and refurbish 22 schools, but district officials announced earlier this year that only eight projects would be completed.

The eight-candidate race, which included incumbents Robert Stewart, Thomas “Hoagy” Holguin and Denise Mansfield-Reinking, was too close to call in early returns.

christian.berthelsen @latimes.com

seema.mehta@latimes.com

Times staff writer Kelly-Anne Suarez contributed to this report.