ORANGE, Calif. () — Orange County’s 45th congressional district race is one of the most competitive in the region and one of a handful that could change the balance of power in the House of Representatives.
The fight between incumbent Republican Rep. Michelle Steel and Democratic challenger Derek Tran also features the highest level of independent spending among competitive races in the region, leading to a heavy rotation of television ads.
Steel spent some of Monday at her headquarters in Buena Park, making calls from the phone bank and thanking volunteers.
“I just want to say thank you to all of my volunteers here. We have over 400 volunteers,” Steel said. “We hit over 215,000 houses.”
Tran, a trial attorney and veteran, argues it’s time for someone of Vietnamese background to represent Orange County’s Little Saigon area. He spent some of Monday knocking on doors. In an interview with Eyewitness News, he sought to tie Steel to a former colleague of hers, former Supervisor Andrew Do who resigned from office and agreed to plead guilty to corruption charges.
“I’m not part of this corrupt institution of Michelle Steel and Andrew Do,” Trans said. “They sat on the supervisory board together. They were each other’s chair and vice chair, voted against transparency laws when it came to COVID funding.”
Tran referred to allegations in an LAist article published this past week, which said Steel directed $1.2 million in taxpayer dollars to her campaign mail printer in 2020 when she was a county supervisor, to provide dinner meals to seniors in her district. But the company contracted had no prior experience in such work and was awarded the contract without public votes or competitive bidding.
The 45th congressional seat comes with an expensive price tag. According to the nonprofit OpenSecrets, the $34 million in independent PAC spending on the two candidates is the highest among competitive races in the area.
Voter turnout in Orange County based on early voting has already exceeded 46%, according to the registrar.
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