Pan, who has taught German language, history, literature and culture at UC Irvine since 2006, is vying for the 46th congressional district represented by Democratic Rep. Lou Correa in a race that, so far, was on track to go uncontested.

It’s his experience in academia, Pan said, that caused him to switch parties.

“I have been frustrated with the way in which debates in the university have been somewhat constrained,” Pan said. “Particularly in terms of issues like affirmative action. We need to focus on merit, hard work and taking responsibility.”

“Those have increasingly become Republican values than Democratic ones,” he said, “and I really feel that I’ve been in the wrong party for several years.”

While he consistently voted for Democratic candidates for most of his life, over the last several years, Pan said he’d look at candidates and their values, not the party letter next to their name.

“My goal is to find some common ground between the parties to make real change,” Pan, an Irvine resident, said. “Opposition politics doesn’t make room for real change. We need to get moderates on both sides on board.”

“I’m by no means a conservative Republican,” he added. “The issues that I’m running on — public safety, school choice, bringing down inflation — they’re what everybody can sign on to.”

Pan said elected Democrats in the area, including Correa, have not pushed hard enough to rein in crime and homelessness or improve schools and academic performances.

“The 46th district is home to a lot of poorly performing schools, and that’s really upsetting to me,” Pan said. Several Santa Ana, Anaheim and Fullerton schools are rated low on academic performance by the California School Dashboard published by the California Department of Education.

Through a campaign spokesperson, Correa declined to comment.

Before moving to Southern California, Pan taught at Penn State University for several years. He’s the editor of Telos, a quarterly academic journal that focuses on politics, philosophy and cultural and societal issues.

And in the race, education reform remains one of the biggest components of his platform.

Pan supports education vouchers, state-funded scholarships that can be used to subsidize a student’s private or religious school tuition. California does not offer such vouchers, and an effort to establish a fund for students who opt out of attending public schools was defeated in the state legislature earlier this year.

“Parents deserve to make informed choices about the school to put their children in,” Pan said. “A system of school vouchers would help parents, not just wealthy parents, put their children in the school that will work best for them,” he said.

Pan said that giving parents an opportunity to choose where to send their kids will induce “healthy competition” between schools, improving school quality. He said he would introduce legislation in Congress to push for a federal school voucher program.

Another focus of Pan’s is government spending — something he sees as a bipartisan issue.

“The Trump administration wasn’t able to control spending, either,” Pan said, pointing to the national debt level’s $7.8 trillion increase during former President Donald Trump’s time in office. “I want to have a serious discussion about government spending and ways to reduce that. I don’t think either party has really been serious about that because in both the Biden and the Trump administrations there has been deficit spending.”

Before entering academia, Pan briefly found work as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm. From 2019 to 2020, Pan, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, served on the U.S. State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, a group of academics, philosophers and activists tasked with providing the secretary of state “advice and recommendations concerning international human rights matters.”

The 46th congressional district, represented by Correa, a four-term congressman, covers Anaheim, Santa Ana and Stanton and parts of Orange and Fullerton. Democrats have a stronger voter registration advantage: 49.25% to Republicans’ 21.7%. (No party preference voters are at 23.59%.)

Pan sees his longshot bid as an opportunity to offer CA-46 residents another choice on the ballot next year and says that through canvassing, he has found more conservative residents than what the numbers might indicate.

“Sitting down and having serious discussions about how we should try to govern,” Pan said. “I’d like to have that kind of discussion with people and get that debate moving.”

For 59 Holocaust survivors from Orange County and San Diego who came of age during war or in the years of tumult after and never had the opportunity to affirm their faith through the sacred rite-of-passage, a b’nai mitzvah (the term for a ceremony for multiple people) held Sunday, Nov. 5, at the Merage Jewish Community Center in Irvine was described as an “overdue celebration” of their “Jewish identity and heritage that was robbed from them during their youth.”

When Walter Lachman, 95, was to have his bar mitzvah in 1941, the ceremony had to be held in a schoolhouse because all the synagogues in the community had been destroyed by Nazi violence. His mother died of leukemia when he was 7 and his father of tuberculosis just four years later.

“Mad at God” for all he had lost, Lachman, who had been born in Berlin, refused during the ceremony to read from the Torah. The next year he was put on a train with his grandmother and taken to the first of three concentration camps he survived before being liberated on April 15, 1945.

The Laguna Niguel resident said he found closure properly commemorating the belated rite of passage with Sunday’s celebration.

“I don’t know what got into my head as a 13-year-old kid,” Lachman said, having regretted his decision later in life. “I’ve been looking forward to this event.”

The ceremony was sponsored by the Honig Family Foundation, a nonprofit started by Newport Beach philanthropist and entrepreneur Ken Honig, and featured survivors who immigrated to the U.S. from 14 countries, including Algeria, France, Germany and Ukraine.

“Their Holocaust-era experiences vary tremendously as does their country of origin, age and stage of life at the time of WWII,” said Honig, a student of the Holocaust who helped build the Merage Jewish Community Center in Irvine and fund Chapman University’s Holocaust Studies Program.

“Their’s is a tapestry, a big picture made up of many different individual stories threaded throughout that time in history,” he said during Sunday’s ceremony. “We have here those who were young adults and those who were infants or in utero and who may not have their personal memories, but whose lives were imprinted during the years following the war as they came to understand their collective losses.”

The oldest survivor to be celebrated in Sunday’s b’nai mitzvah was 102-year-old Helen Weil of Laguna Woods.

Born in Germany in 1921, Weil’s parents and older sister were deported to a concentration camp in 1938, where they died. With help, she managed to escape to England and stay with a family in the Yorkshire region before eventually obtaining a visa to come to the United States at age 20. She never had the chance to have a traditional bat mitzvah.

“Now I’m here to still enjoy life,” Weil said, describing the “wonderful” feeling of participating in a b’nai mitzvah. “It’s a holiday we are celebrating today.”

Laura Breitberg, 83, was just 8 months old when war broke out in Russia and her family fled to Siberia.

“And on the way we were bombed several times and some of my relatives were killed,” said Breitberg, a San Diego County resident.

“I think that today, it’s a great thing,” Breitberg said of the b’nai mitzvah held for the survivors. “And especially very symbolic for me personally because I’m getting bat mitzvah to celebrate, to be proud of being Jewish, to celebrate this thing and to show the younger generation how important it is to keep your Jewish identity.”

Honig said he was inspired to organize the b’nai mitzvah during a trip to Jerusalem in January, when he made a pilgrimage to the Western Wall, also known as the “Wailing Wall.”

For centuries, the wall has served as a symbol of faith and a place for prayer and reflection for generations of Jews.

“After witnessing many of the elderly praying there, I started to think about how many of these people had a bar or bat mitzvah in their past,” said Honig, a former wrestler, rugby player and real estate developer who retired at age of 37 to engage in charity work.

When he returned to California, Honig said approached the Jewish Federation communities in San Diego and Orange County about finally giving Holocaust survivors the opportunity. With the help of local Jewish Family Service programs, which provide support and services to survivors, the offer to participate went out.

There are about 400 Holocaust survivors in Orange and San Diego counties, said Carole Yellen, senior director for the Center for Jewish Care at Jewish Family Service of San Diego.

Though planning for the b’nai mitzvah started earlier this year, the recent attack of Israel added new meaning to the day, said Carole Yellen, senior director for the Center for Jewish Care at Jewish Family Service of San Diego.

“In the midst of the heartbreak that we’re experiencing as a Jewish community, we have to take moments to celebrate loudly and proudly our Jewish identity and opportunities to celebrate in the Jewish community,” she said. “And that, I think, is giving a lot of people healing at this time.”

Once she arrives, she goes straight to the kitchen, puts on a red apron and gets right to work chopping vegetables, cutting deli meats, packing Caesar dressing and scooping hundreds of containers of soup.

Vo, a second-year student at UC Irvine, is part of College Corps, a state initiative that provides undergraduate students at 45 public and private colleges and universities across California the opportunity to earn $10,000 for committing to one year of service focused on three key issue areas for the state: K-12 education, climate action and food insecurity. The program, which began last school year, is slated to run until 2026, according to the Governor’s Office.

At UCI this year, 91 students were chosen as fellows; 42 of those spots filled by undocumented students. That’s a slight increase from last year’s inaugural cohort of 75 fellows, said Student Affairs deputy chief of staff Sherwynn Umali, who helms the program at UCI.

“Our community partners ensure that they have sites where students are learning and developing. They’re not there to just stock shelves,” Umali said. “They’re learning about what it means to be food secure. They’re learning how the environment is impacting their daily lives. They’re coming out of it with their eyes open to the work of public service.”

Bracken’s Kitchen, where Vo spends 10-15 hours volunteering per week, is one of 23 community host sites where UCI places College Corps fellows.

Vo, who is majoring in environmental science and policy and minoring in civic and community engagement, said the food insecurity-focused nonprofit, is a perfect fit.

Vo, born and raised in Orange County, said she was searching for ways to continue her volunteer work within the community when she came across the College Corps program. She had done a lot of volunteer work in high school and wanted to get involved in something hands-on, she said.

“I’m really interested in looking at our food system and seeing how we can mitigate food waste since food waste that ends up in landfills releases a high amount of methane, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions,” Vo said.

Bracken’s Kitchen addresses food insecurity in Orange County through several different ways, said volunteer coordinator Travis Bannerman. The first is through “food rescue,” in which Bracken’s Kitchen intercepts food on its way to the landfill through partnerships with local farms, meatpacking plants, grocery stores and restaurants, Bannerman said.

“85% of what we use here is rescued food that’s donated,” he said.

Community feeding, which Vo helps out with, is the nonprofit’s primary function, said Bannerman.

“This is a grand production of approximately 8,000 meals every single day,” he said. “We also have a food truck that goes out around two to three times a month to different low-income communities as well as churches, elementary schools (and) anywhere that needs help.”

The thousands of meals prepared every day with the help of Vo are picked up or delivered to local food banks, shelters and pantries, including the UCI Basic Needs Center.

Bracken’s Kitchen relies heavily on volunteerism, and Vo and several other UCI fellows have been an integral part of its operations, said Bannerman.

“We’ve really depended on them to show up every day and make an impact,” Bannerman said. “They’ve really been the lifeblood of maintaining our operation here in Garden Grove as well as our satellite kitchen in Costa Mesa.”

Nearly a quarter of all College Corps fellows from year one have come back to serve this year, said California Chief Service Officer Josh Fryday. That indicates the program’s success and its value within the local communities students serve, he said.

Matthew Margrave, a fourth-year anthropology major at UCI, is one of those returning fellows.

After volunteering at the Newport Beach Bay Conservancy last year, Margrave said he applied again to further his experience in the environmental sector. For 10-15 hours each week, Margrave takes on a variety of tasks, from cultivating native plants to writing short articles for pamphlets.

“I would say this program is a connector because not only does it connect you to resources you need — it allowed me to pay for housing last year — it connects you to the community around you. I would not know as much about this area or the environment if I wasn’t in this program,” he said.

Margrave and Vo both expressed a desire to continue working in a public service setting.

“What I’ve learned so far is that there’s just so many opportunities, especially in the environmental sector,” Vo said. “Right now I’m focused on exploring the opportunities that are out there and seeing where that takes me.”

Of the students who went through the program in the first year, Fryday said over 90% said they want to pursue a career and a life in public service.

“Because the program is creating service opportunities in the community, it’s really connecting these young people to their campus and to their community in a whole new way,” Fryday said. “And because of that, they’re gaining a really important sense of agency where they’re able to create and shape and change their community on issues that they’re passionate about.”

Two Orange County districts, in particular, may play an outsized role in determining who runs the House after 2024: Rep. Katie Porter’s open seat in the 47th congressional district and Rep. Michelle Steel’s seat in the 45th.

Porter’s seat is rated “lean Democrat” by The Cook Political Report, which analyzes elections, while Steel’s seat is considered to “lean Republican” in its latest analysis with just a year to go before the general election.

Steel, a Republican, may hang onto her seat this go-round, said Matt Lesenyie, a political science professor at Cal State Long Beach, but this race could set up a “real nail-biter” of a contest in 2026.

“She’s got experience, she’s going to have a ton of money from the national party coming in,” said Lesenyie. “But whoever emerges from the primary is going to get all the brand credibility and start the next time with those campaign notes and some name familiarity.”

So far, Steel is up against Garden Grove Councilmember Kim Bernice Nguyen, attorney Derek Tran, Brea resident Aditya Pai and UC Irvine Law grad Cheyenne Hunt.

And for Porter’s race, her absence on the ballot as a congressional candidate — she is vying for the U.S. Senate seat — tips the scales in favor of Republican Scott Baugh, Lesenyie predicted.

“Porter’s held that seat because she has cultivated a personal brand: ‘I’m a Democrat, but I’m different.’ It’s pretty hard to lump her in with ‘the Squad’ or with a backbencher,” he said. “Democrats need somebody that everybody knows and that can win a fairly conservative electorate in that district.”

While that coastal district, which includes Irvine and part of Huntington Beach, has slightly more registered Democrats than Republicans — 35.6% to 33.93% — it has a conservative streak, said Lesenyie. The share of voters in CA-47 who do not identify with a party is also the highest in Orange County at 24.62%.

Baugh, said Lesenyie, has name recognition. He represented Orange County in the state Assembly from 1995 to 2000, serving as the GOP Assembly leader in the last year. After his tenure in Sacramento, Baugh chaired the county Republican Party for more than a decade.

“The other things that work structurally for Baugh is that this area in particular is going to be wealthier, economically conservative, slightly more nonpartisan,” he said. “And those folks, the wealthier and older voters, just tend to turn out at higher rates.”

State Sen. Dave Min, a Democrat who has Porter’s endorsement, also comes into the race with name ID and having represented a large swath of Orange County in the legislature.

And with an anticipated larger voter turnout this year, given the coinciding presidential election, it may be Democrats who have the leg up in this race, predicted Christian Grose, a professor of political science and public policy at USC.

“If Porter were stepping down in a midterm year, it’d be a really good pickup opportunity for Republicans,” Grose said. “Even with Baugh running, who Porter beat by only several points, you usually get higher turnout among Democrats in a presidential year.”

“In California, I think a Democratic wave election is more likely (this election year). The big question is, does that trickle down to Orange County like it did in 2018,” said Grose. “The possibility of competition in those districts is really the big question mark. And we might get surprised.”

Other candidates in that race include Democratic community organizer Joanna Weiss and Republican businessman Max Ukropina.

And then there’s the recent turmoil among House Republicans as they spent several weeks fighting over who to elevate as House speaker after the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Bakersfield Republican, from the position. Republicans finally chose Rep. Mike Johnson, a staunch conservative from Louisiana.

Democrats have already launched an effort to tie vulnerable Republicans to Johnson, who rallied his party around former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, but political analysts familiar with California House races believe that will only “matter marginally.”

“Steel, in particular, may be a little more conservative than her district, and so that could be an issue,” said Grose. “But on the other hand, I don’t know if voters know who (Johnson) is.”

“I don’t think anybody turns out for an election thinking about (the) speaker,” said Lesenyie.

If anything, it’s McCarthy vacating that powerful speakership that could be detrimental to California Republicans, said Grose.

“McCarthy being from California helped these Orange County Republicans because obviously, he doesn’t want to see his party colleagues lose in California,” he said. “I don’t know if Johnson is going to be thinking of California as much.”

Elsewhere in Orange County, the 40th district, where Rep. Young Kim is running for re-election, is ranked “likely Republican” by The Cook Political Report. Rep. Mike Levin’s 49th district is considered “likely Democrat.”

The seats held by Reps. Linda Sánchez and Lou Correa are deemed by as unlikely to become closely contested.

Selleck, a U.S. Air Force veteran who runs a wholesale building products distribution business, is making a bid for the 37th Senate district. But he says he does not plan to run for multiple terms, if elected, because he does not want to make a career out of politics.

“Watching what’s happened in the last few years has taken me to a place to say whether I want to be a politician or not, I need to get involved,” said Selleck. “But there’s no part of this I want to make a career.”

The 37th Senate district — represented by Democratic state Sen. Dave Min who earlier this year launched a bid for California’s 47th congressional district — encompasses a wide swath of Orange County, including Laguna Niguel, Costa Mesa, Irvine and Orange.

Selleck said his top priority in the legislature would be advocating for more school choice options, meaning giving parents the option to send their children to schools outside of the ones they are automatically zoned into based on where they live.

He supports education vouchers, which are state-funded scholarships that can be used to subsidize a student’s private or religious school tuition. California does not offer such vouchers, and an effort to establish a fund for students who opt out of attending public schools was defeated in the legislature earlier this year.

“Parental rights for me is a big deal,” Selleck, 57, said. “The solution is charter schools and vouchers. You have to give competition to public schools and the unions.”

Originally from rural Indiana, Selleck said he moved to California in 1987 to manage a business, first settling in the Sacramento area. He then moved down to Southern California nine years ago, and in 2019, started his wholesale business BuildersMax, headquartered in Anaheim.

Selleck, who said his business is primarily in the Inland Empire, serves on the Board of Directors for the Lake Elsinore Valley Chamber of Commerce.

As a business owner, public safety is another priority, Selleck said.

“Crime and theft cause insecurity, inflation and problems for families and businesses,” he said. “People walk in and just start stealing off the shelves. I never thought I’d see this in my lifetime.”

High-end department stores and residences in Orange County this summer were hit with flash mob-style thefts and burglaries. In August, an estimated $100,000 worth of designer handbags were stolen during a mob theft from a Gucci store in Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza. That incident followed a string of similar robberies in July when representatives of Kay’s Jewelers in Irvine Spectrum lost over $55,000 worth of merchandise, and Jewels By Alan in the Irvine Park Place shopping center told police that it lost more than $1 million worth of merchandise during separate mob-style thefts at its stores.

Homelessness is another priority he wants to tackle in Sacramento, Selleck said. He sees it more as a mental health issue, rather than a housing issue.

“I’ve interacted with a lot of homeless people, and every time I come across someone, it’s mental health and drug addiction for the most part,” Selleck said. “We need more mental health resources. Certainly, we need to start involuntarily admitting people to mental health facilities because it’s not ok to have people on the street.”

“We round up dogs and take them to the Humane Society, but we won’t help people on the street,” he said. “That’s an issue.”

So far, Selleck will be up against Irvine resident Alex Mohajer, Santa Ana College professor Ali Kowsari, Villa Park Councilmember Crystal Miles, former Irvine Councilmember Anthony Kuo and former Assemblymember Steven Choi in the primary. Sen. Josh Newman, D-Fullerton, who was drawn into SD-37 during the redistricting process, is also vying for the seat.

Newman and Mohajer are the only Democratic candidates while Selleck, Kowsari, Miles, Kuo and Choi are running as Republicans.

“Glad we got to shut it down with you, Irvine,” the band posted on its official Instagram account along with photos and video from the final show. “Honored to have been the last band to play the @fivepointamphitheatre stage last night. Where should we play next time we’re in SoCal?”

ALSO SEE: FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine hosts its final show

The temporary 12,000-capacity space was constructed in 2017 after the 2016 demolition of the long-running, 16,000-capacity Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, which was located on the opposite side of the 5 Freeway.

Brown was just as shocked as the fans were to learn this news. And Tom See, president of Venue Nation, who oversees 150 venues including amphitheaters, theaters and clubs at Southern California concert production company Live Nation, said he was pretty surprised, too.

“I thought we had a 2024 season at FivePoint Amphitheatre and that came to a screeching halt,” See said during a recent video call.

Despite the ongoing back-and-forth between Live Nation and the city of Irvine — which have worked together for more than four decades to bring live music to the area until the city abruptly ended its partnership with the company and scrapped proposed plans for a permanent amphitheater inside the Irvine Great Park back in July — See said he was confident they’d be able to continue on since there certainly wouldn’t be a permanent venue constructed in less than a year. However, because of the ongoing FivePoint residential development, there’d be no way to continue producing shows in the current space.

“It was one of those bittersweet weekends,” See said of the final two shows with Zac Brown Band, while also noting that the group later posted the song it recorded live at Irvine Meadows, a cover of “The Way You Look Tonight,” with more kind words about playing in Irvine.

“I had to give Zac a heads up on Friday night (Oct. 20) and he was blown away and instantly started thinking about all of the times he’d played in Irvine,” See said, adding that the band had performed a total of seven times between the two venues. “He took photos from this last show and melded them with the live song from Irvine Meadows and continued to reiterate how sad and sorry he is to see live music go away in Irvine and this was days after the final show. That just goes to show how important a connective audience is to these artists. They don’t take it for granted.”

What happens now

During a City Council meeting on July 25, city officials effectively ended the agreement with Live Nation to build a new, 14,000-capacity amphitheater inside the Great Park. With all of those plans suddenly scuttled, City Manager Oliver Chi was tasked with coming back to the council in 90 days with a new proposal and timeline for an amphitheater — which would replace the temporary FivePoint Amphitheatre — and include up to 10,000 seats an an in-house speaker system to reduce residential noise impacts.

“Right now, the situation at hand with FivePoint Amphitheatre now closing down is creating a lot of uncertainty for music fans in Orange County,” Dave Brooks, Senior Director of Live Music and Touring at Billboard said in a recent phone interview. “Not only that, but fans are now questioning if the City of Irvine can even pull off bringing back a new amphitheater.

“What’s most interesting about what’s going on here is that concertgoers in Orange County and overall in Southern California, they know what they are losing right now, they just don’t know what they are even getting,” Brooks continued.

Recent calls to connect with Chi have gone unanswered, but councilmembers Tammy Kim and Kathleen Treseder, who voted against the original proposed venue and agreement with Live Nation, were available to discuss some possibilities for a venue for next season. Since these processes and decisions have historically worked very slowly in Irvine, Kim pointed to setups at some local music festivals as examples of a temporary venue that Irvine could emulate.

“Look at Coachella or even Head in the Clouds. That just comes up and then goes back down,” Kim said. “It’ll take maybe a week to build a stage. … We could totally do that.”

A potential spot that’s been brought up is near the sports complex at the Great Park, said Councilmember Treseder. A temporary venue, Treseder said would most likely be bare-bones — just enough to ensure noise mitigation, safety and performances, she said.

“I’m not expecting it to be amazing design-wise. I just want to make sure we have continuity of musical programs,” she said.

Treseder and Kim both said being able to host the Pacific Symphony in a temporary venue is most important.

“We need to figure out a temporary solution for next summer,” Kim said. “Pacific Symphony has no place to play for the Fourth of July. They typically will do four or five shows for the season. They’re left without a home right now.”

City leaders are still moving forward to construct a permanent venue within the Great Park. Irvine is looking at a 10,000-seat venue that provides flex space and an in-house sound system to mitigate residential noise impacts. Several design consultants have already looked at the site, Kim said, and she’ll be having additional meetings with them next week. Kim said the ideal venue would be one that is large enough to attract A-list talent but not so large that it scares off smaller talent, and it should “tap into the diversity that is Irvine.”

“We want to provide a place where we can have various music festivals across all genres,” Kim said. “Opportunities for Pacific Symphony, opportunities for a jazz festival, K-pop, a Bollywood festival, a Farsi music festival. There’s a proven market for world music that quite frankly hasn’t been accomplished in the FivePoint Amphitheatre.”

She added: “We need the common denominator bands that work for everyone. The Goo Goo Dolls, Dave Matthews Band. That’s great because those are draws, but we also need to have opportunities where creative promoters can book their acts.”

Other potential locations

While no longer partners, See said that Live Nation would continue to support the city of Irvine and the company is open to working together in the future.

“They have the ability to get it done and I’m sure it will be a wonderful venue and we’ll be there to support them in any way we can,” he said. “We’re open to dialogue, too, if they all of a sudden say ‘Hey, we want to reopen our conversations with Live Nation and talk about what the future might look like.’ There’s no ill will here, we’re all open ears.”

While there’s no ill will, it’s still business and since parting ways with Irvine, See said neighboring cities have reached out with interest in bringing an amphitheater to their area.

“First and foremost we were committed to Irvine,” he said. “We weren’t dating, we were in a very long-term relationship and one that we thought through and had mutually agreed upon the venue, the size, and had got two approvals through the City Council and then there was a right hand turn all of a sudden and we weren’t dating any longer. Since the world has been advised of that, our phone has been ringing and our emails have been lit up. We know a permanent amphitheater takes time, it takes years, but we’re also sitting on the assets of FivePoint and are actively in conversations to determine what’s next. We can’t get into details of who, where or when. … That will come in time.”

What’s special about Irvine

For more than four decades See said that major artists have included Irvine, and the temporary FivePoint Amphitheatre, among their massive tour stops including Dave Matthews Band, Miranda Lambert, Darius Rucker, Iron Maiden, Brad Paisley, Incubus, Pitbull, Weezer, The Offspring, Snoop Dogg and more.

“Irvine has been on the back of concert T-shirts for more than 40 years, almost putting Irvine on the map and getting people to learn what Irvine is all about over all of those years,” he said.

It’s also important, he said, that a venue in the area have the ability to accommodate a certain number of fans, which is why the original concept for the permanent venue included a capacity of 14,000. This make it financially and economically possible for those big acts — usually with semi trucks full of staging and gear — to come to the area.

“Irvine and the Orange County market is a massive market with millions of residents and concertgoers and the one thing we’ve learned over time is the less friction you can provide a fan to enjoy live music, the better,” See explained. “They don’t necessarily want to get in their cars or take mass transit, they want to go out within their community. Orange County is as big as some states within the U.S., so it’s important to an artist to spend time cultivating an audience in Orange County. And Orange County, San Diego and Los Angeles, those are three entirely different markets. You can go to San Bernardino, too, and have an entirely different market.”

In booking tour routes, See said that the artists look carefully at these markets and use curated data to see where they could potentially maximize their revenue since acts now make a majority of their income on the road and increasingly less from selling actual music.

“They know their worth,” he said. “A big act that’s historically played Irvine and can sell 10,000-plus seats is going to want to continue to generate that income in the market somehow or some way and if they can’t there, there are other markets they can play. They can wind up playing two dates in L.A., two nights in San Diego or end up in San Bernardino. They can go to Anaheim and play The Pond (Honda Center) or head to (Inglewood) to play The Forum. There are a lot of choices for an artist and it’s a highly competitive business.”

“Irvine is a great location when it comes to touring,” Brooks echoed. “It’s a known market, so artists who bring shows there have a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen, not to mention the great weather all year long. Most importantly, it’s just been a reliable stop when connecting both Los Angeles and San Diego residents. There’s nothing really else in the surrounding cities that features a great amphitheater experience.”

Peppered among them were several strollers, representing the children kidnapped by Hamas.

“This entire situation is deep-rooted and complicated,” said Aaron Recter, an Irvine resident. “My main focus right now is on the innocent children who have lost their lives to this. As a father myself, I could never imagine the pain and hurt these families are feeling.”

The vigil took place at the corner of Culver Drive and Alton Parkway on the evening of Oct. 26, with about 100 people of all ages in attendance.

Many carried large Israeli or American flags in their hands. Attitudes were somber as shouts rang out with the names of the lives taken in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, but some were angered and upset over the events that have unfolded.

Genna Kirta, an Israel native, said all she wishes for is peace.

“It is unimaginable seeing your people experience this,” she said. “My hope is for calmness, for reconciliation and ultimately for the people causing terror to receive justice for their actions. Who knows when and how that will take place, but all I want is the people wrongly affected by these actions to be saved and out of harm’s way.”

“I just want peace,” Kirta said.

Julia Heiman said it’s important to her that people don’t misinterpret the rally as one that supports an Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Hamas will use the ceasefire to rearm and attack Israel again, she said.

“Of course, Israel wants peace, and our community wants peace with our neighbors,” Heiman, an Irvine resident, said. “But Israel can’t make peace with a terrorist organization that is bent on its destruction.”

A consistent stream of honks came from the cars passing by the intersection; some people even hung out of their vehicles to shout in support.

“I am thankful that this event was organized,” said attendee Michael Broder, who was in tears. “It gives the people who may not be too familiar with the Israeli perspective a chance to see the impact that this war is causing.”

“I get that there are two sides to the story, but my heart stands with those who have had family members pass or hurt,” he said. “My heart stands with the children who have been taken from this world. My heart stands with the 200 chairs that are placed on this corner.”

The event was organized by the Orange County chapter of the Israeli-American Council. Rallies for Israel organized by the IAC have been held coast to coast following Hamas’ attack on Israel earlier this month, the deadliest one in decades.

Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on sleepy Israeli towns on Oct. 7 from the blockaded Gaza Strip. A stunned Israel ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip, launching waves of airstrikes on the Hamas-ruled territory.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed — mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack, the Israeli military said this week — and an estimated 200 people were kidnapped and are being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.

Additionally, more than 7,000 Palestinians have been killed during the war, according to the Gaza-based Health Ministry, the only official source for deaths in Gaza.

Stephaney Avital, a Newport Beach resident and member of Orange County’s Jewish community who helped put together the rally, said the point of the vigil is to keep the kidnapped men, women and children at the “forefront of people’s minds.”

“We’re trying to keep awareness of the 200+ kidnapped victims that are in Gaza still because we feel like the international community is not giving it the attention it needs or not taking it seriously to get these people out of Gaza,” Avital said. “And so here in Orange County, we’re feeling helpless.”

Tragically, she and her husband, Asher Avital, have a deeply personal connection to the Israel-Hamas war. One of Asher Avital’s cousins, 33-year-old Or Levy who attended the Supernova music festival in the Israeli desert on Oct. 7, is missing. Or Levy’s wife, 32-year-old Eynav Levy, was killed at the festival.

Or Levy holds an executive role at a technology company. Eynav Levy was a product designer. They were just two people who wanted to live their lives, have fun and listen to music, Asher Avital said.

“They had dinner with their parents the night before leaving for a day of fun, to spend time with friends and listen to music,” said Asher Avital. “Or and Eynav were hiding in a bomb shelter with maybe 20 or 30 people. And the Hamas terrorists kept throwing grenades inside.”

“And you can imagine what happened,” Asher Avital said.

The family thought it would be a matter of hours before they heard about Or Levy’s death, Asher Avital said, but Israeli military officials informed them that they thought he was kidnapped. They had located Or Levy’s phone in Gaza, Asher Avital said.

“We need our men, women and children returned from Gaza. That’s the whole point of doing this,” said Stephaney Avital.

The Israeli-American Council is a group that spans over 22 regional offices, 73 communities and 104 campuses, each with the goal to engage a “coast-to-coast community that strengthens the Israeli and Jewish identities of our next generation.” The council began in 2007 and has been expanding ever since — the Orange County chapter was founded in 2018.

The organization’s mission, according to its website, is to “build an engaged and united Israeli-American community that strengthens the Israeli and Jewish identity of our next generation, the American Jewish community, and the bond between the peoples of the United States and the State of Israel.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story has been edited.

So the Westminster attorney last week dropped out of the race for California’s 45th congressional district, opting to endorse one of his former primary opponents, Garden Grove Councilmember Kim Nguyen-Penaloza.

And he set his sights on a different campaign: the 70th Assembly district, officially launching his bid on Friday, Oct. 20.

It took him several weeks to come to that decision, Pham said. Mentors and friends had reached out to him months ago telling him there was a need for a Democrat to run in AD-70, represented by former Westminster Mayor Tri Ta, a Republican.

“At first, I didn’t want to switch, because I was in the middle of a congressional race,” said Pham, who is of Vietnamese descent. “At that time, there were four people in the race. But when the fifth Democrat jumped in, it affected me.”

“There were now five Democrats running, and three were of Vietnamese descent,” he said.

The race for CA-45, held by Rep. Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach, has drawn several candidates, including Nguyen-Penaloza, Brea resident Aditya Pai, UC Irvine Law grad Cheyenne Hunt and attorney Derek Tran. Nguyen-Penaloza and Tran are of Vietnamese descent.

Pham said he ended his congressional campaign “to unify the party.”

“Steel is going to be one of the two to advance past the primary,” he said. “So why are we fighting against each other? Why is the Democratic Party, in this instance, so divisive?”

The 70th Assembly district includes Westminster, Garden Grove, Fountain Valley, Los Alamitos, Stanton and Rossmoor, plus parts of Santa Ana and Huntington Beach. It was redrawn last year in the decennial redistricting process with the goal of ensuring much of the county’s Vietnamese community could be clustered together and retain political clout.

Nearly 40% of voters in the district are Asian, with Vietnamese Americans comprising the largest segment of that population, according to Political Data Inc.

Ta, who is in the midst of his first Assembly term, in 2012 became the first Vietnamese American elected mayor in Westminster, home to the largest Little Saigon in the nation, as well as the country’s first Vietnamese mayor.

He plans to run for re-election, he said.

“I continue to be humbled by the trust voters have placed in me to represent them in Sacramento,” said Ta. “I look forward to a spirited campaign and the opportunity to discuss the fight to improve public safety, make California affordable for all and to create real solutions to the homelessness epidemic.”

Another reason for the switch, Pham said, was that he felt the congressional race was “too much” for him at the moment. He wanted to work his way up the ladder, he said.

“If I’m going to build my political career, maybe I jump to the state level,” Pham said. “I jumped from being a city council candidate to a federal congressional seat.”

Last year, Pham ran for Westminster City Council but did not get elected.

AD-70 “is a better fit” for now, he said. “It’s a less aggressive approach in my political career in that it is more attainable … because one, it requires less money.”

Pham, who stressed money wasn’t the central factor in his decision, struggled to fundraise for his congressional campaign, raising a total of $29,890. A bulk of that came from a personal loan, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

According to the most recently available data, Ta has raised $169,481 and has $144,613 cash on hand.

“Money was a concern, but it’s also going to be a concern for the AD-70 race. The AD-70 race is not a race that’s cheap,” he said. “And I’m going to still have to fundraise and money needs to still come in.”

Pham is an Orange County native and graduate of UC Irvine, and the only one of five siblings born a U.S. citizen. He said his family escaped Vietnam in 1975 via a refugee boat and found opportunity in the U.S.

“My father became one of the first Vietnamese dentists in the United States, opened a practice on Bolsa Avenue in Westminster and was one of the founders of the Little Saigon community,” Pham said.

Pham now serves as vice chair of Westminster’s traffic commission.

Several issues he wants to tackle in Sacramento are housing affordability, public safety and homelessness.

“We’ve had (multiple) smash-and-grabs in Little Saigon recently at the Asian Garden Mall,” he said. “Public safety is an issue; people are not respecting the laws. We also have to address homelessness. Westminster has a liaison team called Be Well. They have be more active in pulling homeless off the street. Most of these homeless are wounded and need a place to go.”

For now, Pham said he’s busy tying up loose ends and kickstarting his new campaign. His campaign staff has nearly doubled since dropping out of the congressional campaign, he said.

“I do believe I can win this race,” he said. “I’m already working to fundraise and get my name out there.”

In the third quarter of fundraising, which spans from July 1 to Sept. 30, Baugh raised $417,715 and spent $48,555.

The race features a crowded slate of candidates, among them Baugh, Democratic state Sen. Dave Min, Republican businessman Max Ukropina and Democratic community organizer Joanna Weiss.

Min raised $311,196 in the third quarter.

And in that same period, Weiss brought in $400,049, including the $100,000 she loaned her campaign. She loaned her campaign $95,000 in the second quarter as well.

Ukropina, who entered the race in April, brought in $121,218 during the third quarter, personally contributing a little over $2,000.

Breaking down the numbers

Like Baugh’s, the three other leading campaigns in the race for Rep. Katie Porter’s open congressional district have all hit a mid-campaign lull, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

A money slowdown at this stage of the election cycle is not all that surprising, said Dan Schnur, who teaches political messaging at UC Berkeley and USC.

“Most campaigns start out with a burst of energy and enthusiasm as candidates reach out to their closest friends and past supporters,” Schnur said. “The third quarter can often be the in-between period after the candidate has already picked the low-hanging fruit but before the campaign is more visible as the election gets closer.”

The coastal CA-47 — which includes Irvine, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach — is one of 33 Republican-held or open seats in the country that the national Democratic Party’s campaign arm is eyeing as a “critical battleground” to win a House majority. And Republicans, too, see the seat as a “top target” to pick up in 2024.

Porter launched a 2024 bid for the U.S. Senate in January.

Democrats have a slight upper hand in voter registration in the district: 35.6% of voters in the district registered as Democrats, 33.9% as Republicans and 24.5% list no party preference.

Spending habits

The two Democrats in the race and Ukropina blew through cash in the third quarter at a faster rate than Baugh did; all three spent more than half of what they raised.

Min doled out just over $191,000, 60% of his third-quarter haul. Of that, he spent $70,000 on various consulting services, including digital, fundraising, research and legal. The rest of his expenditures went toward air travel, office supplies, online advertising, software rental and staff salaries, among other fees.

Weiss spent close to $202,000, 67% of her haul minus the loan. She also poured over $70,000 into fundraising, digital and campaign consulting.

And Ukropina, a political newcomer, spent more than $80,000, close to 70% of what he brought in. Of that, he spent nearly $50,000 on consulting services and another $2,861 on ads.

Baugh, on the other hand, spent just over 11% of his haul from July 1 to Sept. 30. A little over 30% of his spending, $16,091, went toward consulting, while the rest went to software, bookkeeping, travel, lodging and food.

“(Baugh’s) campaign is probably saving money for post-primary because there’s not as much pressure on them as there is with the two Democrats facing each other,” Schnur said.

In California, all candidates running for office are listed on a single ballot and only the top two vote-getters in the primary — regardless of party preference — advance to the general election.

Given Baugh’s status as the “only well-funded Republican in the race,” Schnur said, he’s likely to advance to the general election in November.

“That means Min and Weiss are fighting for that other spot,” Schnur said. “So it shouldn’t be surprising that they’re spending more aggressively given the more immediate stakes that they’re facing.”

“While the career politicians in this race will need millions of dollars to defend their failed records, our outsider campaign for new leadership has raised half a million dollars entirely from grassroots conservatives who know that I am the strongest candidate to win,” Ukropina said.

In 2018, Porter became the first Democrat to hold office in what was then the 45th congressional district after she defeated incumbent Rep. Mimi Walters. Last year, Porter won a tight race against Baugh.

Baugh entered October with the most cash on hand: over $1.3 million.

Min and Weiss closed out the quarter with $825,542 and $832,638 still left to spend, respectively, while Ukropina had $323,097 at the close of the reporting period.

Kate Monroe, a U.S. Marine veteran and Margarita Wilkinson, a longtime media executive, are the latest to jump into the race. There are now four Republicans vying for the seat as well as incumbent Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano.

Monroe, who launched her campaign in August, said the lack of “strong leadership at the head of the Republican Party” is one reason why she is running.

“It’s interesting, the dichotomy between the left and the right,” Monroe said. “On the left, whether they hate each other or not, they stay snugged in very tightly. On our side, we tend to break into little coalitions, and we don’t have a united front.”

The San Diego resident said her experience in the military and running a company — solving problems, respecting different perspectives, encouraging transparency — would help her unite members in Congress. Monroe heads VetComm, an organization she said helps veterans collect disability compensation that otherwise may go unclaimed.

“I’m a very strong leader. All of my employees are always rowing in the same direction,” Monroe said. “We may have differences, but we have a vision that we’re trying to accomplish, and I know without every single person, we can’t get it done right.”

Wilkinson, who threw her hat in the ring for CA-49 last month, said the Republican Party needs to unite as one.

“Having a functioning Congress is too important for everything that is happening today,” she said. “Some of the most important things is to unite the party, support each other and support the needs of your district.”

The 49th district is one of 37 California seats held by Democrats that the national GOP’s campaign arm sees as a “prime pick up” for Republicans.

Levin, who like other Democrats voted to oust McCarthy, said on social media that “it’s time for (Republicans) to put partisanship aside and cooperate with House Democrats to get back to work serving the American people.”

The coastal district, spanning both Orange and San Diego counties, runs from Dana Point and San Clemente to Solana Beach and Del Mar.

Wilkinson, who resides in Del Mar, is the senior vice president and general manager of Entravision Communications, which owns and operates Univision San Diego and broadcast affiliates in Tijuana.

“I understand the community very well. I deal and talk to community leaders on a daily basis,” Wilkinson said.

“Over the past 32 years, I’ve served as the eyes and ears to my community. My job is to provide meaningful content and information to our viewers,” she said. “Now I want to be the voice that represents each and every one of us in our district.”

Wilkinson said she’s seen firsthand economic struggles, and growing the economy will be one of her main priorities if elected.

Illegal border crossings, too, are another issue she wants to tackle in Congress, especially as an immigrant from Mexico who took the legal route to come to the U.S.

“I grew up in a border city, El Paso–Juárez, and now I live in another one,” Wilkinson said. “We have millions of illegal immigrants who have come in. We have the fentanyl crisis; we are one of the biggest ports of entry for that. We need a safe and secure border.”

Monroe, who said she has been closely following homelessness in San Diego, said she wants to push for building “base camps” that will shelter unhoused people and provide them with various services, including a cafeteria, shower facilities and drug rehab.

And Social Security, especially for the unhoused, should not be taxed, Monroe said.

“If you look at the amount of people that are homeless in the district, a lot of them are 65 and older, trying to live on Social Security. And they just can’t do it,” Monroe said. “They just don’t have the resources financially to afford to live here.”

Looking out for veterans is another top priority, Monroe said. As the representative of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Monroe said she will fight to untax military retirement pay.

“That would give (veterans) more income to spend in their states that would benefit the state,” she said.

Since launching their campaigns, Wilkinson and Monroe have each brought in a little over $1 million and $175,965, respectively, according to the most recent campaign finance reports.

About a tenth of Wilkinson’s $1 million haul was fueled by individual contributions, and she personally loaned her campaign $825,000. Monroe loaned her campaign $150,000.

Levin leads the field in fundraising. In the third quarter, he brought in $510,789 and has around $1.1 million cash on hand.

Two other Republican challengers, Matt Gunderson and Sheryl Adams, each raised $89,785 and $596,380, loaning their campaign $50,000 and $500,000, respectively. Gunderson ended the most recent filing period with $789,912 cash on hand while Adams closed out with $172,678 still left to spend.

On the speaker race, Gunderson said, “Washington is a dysfunctional mess.”

“Orange County families suffer back at home with inflation, high taxes, rising crime and other real-life problems,” Gunderson said. “I’m running for Congress to serve the people of the 49th District, not to feud with career politicians in the swamp.”