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Orange County Legislative Watch — New AAOC Legislative Scorecard — Voting in our Best Interests
New AAOC Legislative Scorecard — Voting in our Best Interests
By Bill Christiansen, viCe PresiDent of government affairs
This summer the Legislative Committee of the Apartment Association of Orange County (AAOC) is working on a scorecard that will evaluate and rank how our state legislative representatives and local city council members have voted on key issues to the rental housing industry. The scorecard, which will be released this fall, will help to ensure AAOC members have as much information as possible regarding their elected officials before filling out their ballots in the next election. The AAOC Legislative Scorecard will be released annually at the conclusion of each year’s state legislative session, in both election and nonelection years.
The AAOC Legislative Committee already publishes a list of endorsed candidates each election year prior to the November General Election, but this new legislative scorecard will be designed to help hold our elected officials accountable for their votes on rental-housing industry issues every year. To be fair, we will let our elected officials know our positions on key legislation and policy proposals before they vote. Both AAOC and our state organization, the California Rental Housing Association (CalRHA), already take positions on state legislation that affects our industry. We send letters of support or opposition to our legislative representatives, depending on the position AAOC takes on the bill, and we do the same with our city council representatives as local issues arise.
The AAOC Legislative Scorecard will be heavy on state legislation, as we are fortunate that major issues that directly affect our members are rare in the cities that AAOC represents. That said, when it comes to the association endorsing local candidates, we do require them to complete a candidate questionnaire, so we can gain insight into their personal positions on the issues that matter most to our members and the rental-housing industry.
Issues can often be vague, and it is sometimes difficult for our members to stay up-to-date on their local state representatives’ or city council members’ voting behavior, so AAOC will try to make it easy to see where these officials stand.
There may also be certain elections where the AAOC recommends a candidate who may be the better of two less than optimal candidates in a specific race. All politics is local, but all local politics is not the same in every city AAOC represents. We will endeavor to keep explanations as simple as possible for the elected official and for our members.
Finally, the U.S. Census Bureau is set to release its in-depth 2020 Census demographic statistics by August 16, which will be used to redraw legislative voting districts at all levels of government. This is good news for California and for Orange and Riverside Counties because it will allow enough time for the California Citizens Redistricting to release the preliminary new legislative district maps in early December. Candidates in Orange and Riverside Counties for the June 2022 California Primary Election will need to start declaring their candidacies by early next year, and the AAOC Legislative Committee will be ready and eager to begin evaluating these candidates and making sure our association members are kept well-informed.
If you have any questions about this article, please contact AAOC Vice President of Government Affairs Bill Christiansen at (714) 245-9500 or BillC@aaoc.com.
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