Garden Grove Journal
Against a backdrop of the Republican Party winning back control of the House of Representatives, incumbent Democrat Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) fought and won a fierce political battle Tuesday in the 47th Congressional District with challenger Van Tran, a Republican Assemblyman based in Costa Mesa.
At our deadline Wednesday morning, Sanchez was holding to a lead over the former Garden Grove city councilman. The district takes in most of Anaheim, Garden Grove and Santa Ana, and is the only one in Orange County where Democrats have an edge in registration.
The very early results suggested a nail-biter with only a few hundred votes separating the two. But as more precinct totals came in, Sanchez began to pull away, building a lead of about eight percent.
Other legislative races in the Garden Grove-Stanton-Westminster area showed little drama. Ed Royce, Jr. (R-Anaheim) coasted to an easy victory, as did Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach).
In one of the most closely-contest races, Republican Alan Monsoor was defeating Democrat Phu Nguyen in the 68th Assembly District.
Incumbent Democrat Lou Correa of Santa Ana was easily outpacing Republican challenger Lucille Kring in the 34th State Senate District.\
In the neighboring 69th Assembly District, incumbent Democrat Jose Solario defeated Republican challenger Robert Hammond.
