GOP hopefuls set for primary

Republicans Dianne Harman, Mike McGill and Jim Silva will be running for the state assembly seat in the June 6 primary and the winner will face Democrat candidate Ray Roberts in November. Here’s a look at the three Republicans campaigning for the first time for state-level elections.

The 67th District Assembly includes Alamitos, Anaheim, Cypress, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Stanton and Westminster.

Dianne Harman

Age: 61

Residence: Huntington Beach

Party: Republican

Family: Married to Assemblyman Tom Harman; two adult children.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in English literature from UCLA.

Career: Antiques and art appraiser, health and wellness instructor, small-business owner for 25 years.

Community Involvement: California Task Force on Youth and Workplace Wellness, board of directors of Coalition of Orange County Community Clinics, Council on Aging, the Bolsa Chica Conservancy, West Orange County YMCA and Community Care Health Center. Also a member of Huntington Beach Tomorrow, Bolsa Chica Land Trust, Amigos De Bolsa Chica and Friends of Shipley Nature Center.

Hobbies: Cooking, travel.

Dianne Harman may depend on her husband for name recognition, but environmental positions have given her strong backing in the community.

Harman doesn’t have any experience in elected office, but that’s not deterring her from running for the 67th District Assembly seat.

Politics for Harman is about relationships and issues. “You can be much more effective if you know the people to go to,” she said.

And she says she already has a network of connections in the capitol: “With me, there’s no learning curve.”

Harman is the wife of Republican Tom Harman, former Huntington Beach mayor and city councilman, who has been termed out of the Assembly seat his wife now seeks.

Tom Harman is the Republican candidate for the 35th state Senate district seat.

Huntington Beach Tomorrow, an organization founded by Tom Harman, has chosen to support Dianne Harman despite her lack of experience.

“We have a governor who just walked in from being an actor, we had a president who walked in from being an actor,” said Ed Kerins, the group’s president.

Her promise to protect the Bolsa Chica wetlands has earned Harman the support of three City Council members, Huntington Beach Tomorrow, the Bolsa Chica Land Trust and other organizations.

A 34-year resident of Huntington Beach, she doesn’t claim to know it all. In fact, she says, “Any politician who says they’ve an answer for everything, I would say run the other way,” she said.

Harman returns to her conservative roots on the issue of illegal immigration. She wants a secure border and some type of a guest-worker program.

“If we were to not bring in workers, we would have to raise wages,” she said.

Affordable and accessible healthcare is Harman’s other big priority. She worries working-class people could be left out of the loop with rising health insurance costs.

Harman believes in a balanced budget and is against using eminent domain for private use.

MIKE MCGILL

Age: 46

Residence: Cypress

Education: Bachelor’s degree in accounting, Cal State Long Beach.

Family: Married to Nanette; two teenage sons.

Career: Owner of a small insurance company for 18 years, two terms as Cypress mayor and City Council member, member of Marine Corps for 20 years on active duty and reserve.

Community Involvement: Board member on the Orange County Fire Authority, Cypress Boys & Girls Club, Tri-community Interfaith Council.

Hobbies: Reading history, golfing and travel.

Mike McGill is the dark horse of the race, and that suits him fine. To improve his odds, he’s walked almost half of the district trying to meet as many of the 450,000 voters as possible. His volunteers have walked almost twice that far, and plan to complete another round before the June 6 primary.

A Marine for more than 20 years, he gets up at 5 a.m. and works out at least an hour before having breakfast and heading out for the day. “I am ready to do battle every single day,” he said.

“I have the energy and the knowledge to do it,” McGill said of the Assembly race.

He said that if elected, he would invest local property taxes ? now sent to the state ? in funding education reform. “State control of education is wrong,” he said.

Control of education at the local level would make schools fiscally responsible and get parents involved with their children’s education. He is pushing for more emphasis on math and science classes.

McGill helped lobby Sacramento lawmakers to lower workers’ compensation rates to prevent businesses from leaving Southern California.

The Cypress city councilman has criticized Orange County Supervisor Jim Silva for voting for a $300 billion union pension plan.

“Jim’s votes [on the pension fund] and Dianne’s experience made me decide to run,” McGill said.

Some conservatives have attacked McGill for going along with the Cypress City Council’s threat to use eminent domain to force Cottonwood Christian Church to move to another location to make way for a Costco store.

The issue was about zoning, according to McGill: The church stood on a parcel zoned for retail use, and a Costco was a more appropriate use and would bring tax revenues to the city.

McGill, however, is now against the use of eminent domain for private businesses.

JIM SILVA

Age: 62

Residence: Huntington Beach

Education: Bachelor’s degree in business management, San Jose State University; Master’s degree in education, Chapman University.

Family: Married to Connie; two adult children.

Career: Economics teacher in the Garden Grove Unified School District for 28 years; holds a real estate broker’s license; serving last term on the Orange County Board of Supervisors, 2nd District.

Community Involvement: Member of the Orange County Transit Authority, Orange County Sanitation District, South Coast Air Quality Management District and Local Agency Formation Committee.

Hobbies: Sailing, golfing, bicycling.

Silva has raised about $550,000 in campaign donations in his bid to win the June 6 primary, about $200,000 more than Harman and McGill.

He has many supporters in Huntington Beach, where as mayor he oversaw the rebuilding of the Huntington Beach Pier in 1992. Council members Cathy Green, Gil Coerper and Don Hansen have endorsed his candidacy.

Silva went on to join the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 1994, where he’s now serving a third and final term. He’s well regarded for helping the county emerge from its 1995 bankruptcy without raising taxes.

“I’ve a very good understanding of finance,” Silva said. “The most important job of local and county officials is to balance a budget.”

The $1.7-billion financial disaster came about because of high-risk investments.

But Silva’s vote in favor of a county pension plan in August 2005 has drawn flak from several quarters, including County Treasurer John Moorlach.

Moorlach has said Orange County could face a second bankruptcy due to unfunded pension liabilities.

Silva points out that the county has one of the best debt ratings in the state.

He defended his decision to vote for the pension fund as a way to give county employees the raise they didn’t receive during the 1994 financial crisis.

“It [the plan] was with the understanding that employees would contribute 9% to 15% of their salary,” he said.

Silva takes a tough stance on illegal immigration, starting with sealing the borders. He says he favors business over “radical environmental regulations” that drive jobs out of the state, and he also vows to protect property owners from eminent domain abuse.

He said the only disadvantage of working in Sacramento is “being a Republican and working in an Assembly controlled by Democrats.”