Thu. Apr 18th, 2024

Karina Onofre

From the OC Politics Blog

Karina Onofre ran for Ward 5 on the Santa Ana City Council last year as the sole challenger to Roman Reyna, who beat her by over 12,000 votes according to Smart Voter.

Now Onofre, who recently announced on Facebook that she was going to law school, has instead decided to run for the 74th State Assembly District. And apparently she now lives in Irvine, according to her Facebook page.

The incumbent in the 74th A.D., Assemblyman Allan Mansoor, is moving on next year as he is running for the O.C. Board of Supervisors instead of running for re-election.

Onofre’s announcement stated “Becoming a lawyer has been an inevitable lifetime dream for a woman like me.. Yet, because fate has awoken me to the opportunity of making a powerful impact as a State Legislator, with the knowledge of an open seat in my district, l am throwing in my hat in the race and declaring that l, Karina Onofre, am ON FIRE and aggressively ready to win Assembly District 74. I will need your support!!!! God willing, together, we will WIN and bring Legislative Fire to Sacramento!!!!”

Onofre has worked as a part-time district representative for State Senator Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar). Huff is the leader of the Republicans in the California State Senate. Will Huff back Onofre for the 74th?

There will be several Republicans running for the 74th. They might include Huntington Beach Councilman Matt Harper, according to the H.B. Independent.

The OC Political blog mentioned a few additional candidates in their post about Onofre’s announcement: “AD-72 staffer Emanuel Patrascu, and former CRP Treasurer Keith Carlson have already expressed an interest in this race. Harper is the early front-runner in this race since Huntington Beach is the second-most populated city in AD-74 (Irvine is the most populated, but no current candidate is based out of Irvine). Patrascu is not very well-known in AD-74 and hails from Laguna Beach (only about 6% of the population in AD-74), but he does work for Travis Allen and might get some decent help from his boss, who would want to get an ally elected to the Assembly. Carlson will likely have a ton of establishment support and will be able to raise quite a bit of money through his connections as former CRP Treasurer.”

And of course there is the possibility that Supervisor John Moorlach could switch gears and run for this seat instead of running for the 45th Congressional District, which would make him the top dog in the race for the 74th A.D.

The 74th A.D. includes portions of these cities:

  • Costa Mesa
  • Huntington Beach
  • Irvine
  • Laguna Beach
  • Laguna Woods
  • Newport Beach

Only 15% of the voters in this district are Latino, according to Wikipedia. The GOP holds a distinct advantage with 42% of the vote versus 29% of the vote for the Democrats.



By Editor

The New Santa Ana blog has been covering news, events and politics in Santa Ana since 2009.

16 thoughts on “Santa Ana transplant Karina Onofre running for the 74th A.D.”
    1. She has a college degree from an Ivy League women’s college. She works as a tax and real estate consultant. I don’t believe she has served on any commissions but as I noted she has worked for the GOP State Senate Leader here in CA.

      1. Allegheny College is not a women’s college, it’s coed, exclusive, and rated the #1 liberal arts private college in the U.S. because of its curriculum and required Thesis to graduate.

  1. Exactly what kind of fire is she going to be taking to Sacramento?
    Fire and Brimstone?
    Is she going to burn down the temple and throw out all the money exchangers-launderers?
    AWESOME!

  2. This is a much better route than the city council. Like the intelligent Robin Cook likes to point out, except for Jose Solorio, Santa Ana politicians don’t have a real good track record for high achieving office, despite their upward mobility.

      1. No manufacturing needed given the current city council Matt.

        As much as it may pain Art Pedroza to look at it, the Liberal OC with help of perennial “good guy”/political nobody Paco Barragan did a pretty good job of picking apart Michele Martinez’s employment record. to paraphrase Fransisco “It looks like a shell game”.

        Meanwhile the Voice of OC(EA) is chasing Pulido’s response to fallen tree’s.

        I heard that Benavides is chasing a Mexican “Applebee’s” from Phoenix with the new city managers help. Just what your beloved independent downtown needs is a Sonoran El Torito knock off.

  3. The only thing on fire is her hair…. last time i didnt vote for her she was a brunette and lived in Santa Ana.

Leave a Reply to EditorCancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Verified by MonsterInsights