MacMurray Has Solid Chance to Win A.D. #72 Special Election On January 12th

I just returned from mailing in my and my husband’s absentee ballots for Assembly District #72’s January 12, 2010 runoff Special Election between Democratic John MacMurray, a public-school civics teacher, and Republican Chis Norby, Orange County Supervisor.

The three-mile route along Imperial Highway to our local post office was liberally (!) dotted with MacMurray 4 Assembly signs, but nary a sign in support of Norby. Per the ever-conservative Orange County Register, Norby has campaigned “with mailers and phone banking.” MacMurray, of course, also used volunteer phone banking.

Holiday season 2009 put an unusually strong damper on political fervor of all partisan stripes. As writer/editor for the past five years of Liberal Politics at About.com, which is part of the New York Times Company, I can tell you that political readership and activism hit a four-year low in 2009 for the last two weeks of December.

Although A.D. #72 registered voters total 34% Democratic vs. 43% Republican, Chris Norby’s reputation was embarrassingly, and rightfully, tarnished during the run-up to the November 17, 2009 primary race leading to next week’s special election. (Also see Chris Norby: Opportunist or Revolutionary?)

Especially after Norby’s bitter primary race against Republican rival Linda Ackerman, one has to wonder if the majority of district Republicans are energized to vote for the termed-out Orange County Supervisor.

Polls are open all day next Tuesday, January 12, 2010. Remind family, friends, and neighbors in A.D. #72, which encompasses Fullerton, Placentia, Yorba Linda, and portions of Brea and La Habra, to vote and get out the vote!

Democrat John MacMurray has a solid chance of winning this important Special Election, despite what the Republican-adoring Register would have you think. And A.D. #72 finally has a decent chance to send a Democrat to the state Assembly, rather than another squalidly behaving Republican.