On April 21, former Cerritos Mayor Joseph Cho, Ph.D. officially announced to friends and supporters his candidacy in the June 5 special recall election of State Senator Josh Newman (Senate District 29). He is one of six candidates running to succeed Newman should voters choose to recall Newman from office. Three of the six candidates are Republicans and the other three are Democrats. Cho is one of the three Democrats running.
Cho moved into Senate District 29 (SC29) in 2015, soon after retiring from the Cerritos City Council. State SD29 encompasses communities in the tri-county area of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino Counties. Orange County cities in SD29 include all of Brea, Cypress, Fullerton, La Habra, La Palma, Stanton, and Yorba Linda, as well as portions of Anaheim, Buena Park and Placentia. Los Angeles County cities in the district include all of Diamond Bar, Roland Heights and Walnut, as well as portions of West Covina. The district also includes the entire city of Chino Hills in San Bernardino County.
Cho is running a very unique campaign under very unique circumstances. Cho is strongly against the recall of Newman. Cho believes that recall elections should only be used as a last resort for voters to remove corrupt politicians from office. There are no allegations of any wrongdoing against Newman. Cho sees the recall election targeting Newman as an abuse of the recall process by special interest forces from outside the district organized to annihilate the will of the voters who elected Newman to represent them in the State Senate in Nov. 2016.
Being against the recall implies that Cho is against being elected. That would actually be his preference. After retiring from the Cerritos City Council, Cho had anticipated that his career in elective office would be over. Although no longer in elective office, Cho has continued to be strongly involved in public policy. In 2017 Cho founded the non-profit organization KUSPI, which stands for Korea-US Peace Institute. The organization’s mission is to educate the public about the roots of the conflict on the Korean Peninsula and offer solutions to bring peace to Korea. He has also been working as a commentator on Radio Korea in Los Angeles, giving the listeners his perspective on the global political situation.
The reason Cho decided to throw his hat into the ring and run as a replacement candidate in the Newman recall election is that he believes voters who are against the recall should have the opportunity to vote for a candidate who would continue with the same progressive policies of Newman, should the misguided recall against Newman succeed.
Due to the unique nature of his campaign in which he is publicly calling on voters to vote against the recall, Cho is not seeking any public endorsements for his candidacy. During his prior elections for City Council, Cho ran more traditional campaigns. He sought and received endorsements from many elected officials and organizations. Some of the high profile endorsements that Cho received in his previous campaigns for City Council include the official endorsement of the Democratic Party, as well as the endorsement from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.
Prior to the recall election against Newman being called, Cho had anticipated spending the election cycle helping his son, Tony Cho, in the younger Cho’s campaign for judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, Seat #60. Tony received his law degree from George Washington University School of Law in 2001 and has been serving as a deputy Los Angeles County district attorney since 2005. Since 2012, Tony has been working in the Elder Abuse Section within the District Attorney’s office, specializing in prosecuting those who prey on the vulnerable elderly.
Tony Cho running for the judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles adds another dimension of uniqueness to the already unique campaign that Dr. Joseph Cho is running. The nearly 83,000 voters in the Los Angeles County portion of SD29 will have the opportunity to vote for both father and son on the same ballot. This condition is very rare and unique in American politics. Although nearly 83,000 voters will see both father and son on the same ballot, the two candidates are running separate campaigns with separate messages for the voters.
