$100,000 in Independent Spending for Incumbents Ignites Laguna Beach Council Race
Challengers pressed the incumbents over a $100,000 independent-expenditure committee funded by Regency Properties. Filings confirm the money, and the incumbents say they want nothing to do with it.
Nine candidates are running for three seats on the Laguna Beach City Council, but the loudest argument in the race's final month is not about any candidate's platform. It is about $100,000 that never touched a campaign account.
During the South Laguna Civic Association's candidate forum Tuesday night, challenger Ashley Cintas raised a $100,000 contribution from Regency Properties, L.P. to an independent political committee backing the three incumbents on the ballot: Sue Kempf, Alex Rounaghi and Mark Orgill. Cintas challenged the incumbents to explain the spending and invited them to a press conference the next day to denounce it.
Rounaghi responded at the forum, opposing the independent expenditure and asking the committee not to spend the money. Kempf, the only incumbent to answer Cintas directly, said she runs her own campaign, knows her donors and does not like PACs. "You can't do anything. You can't talk to the PAC; it's against the law," she said, rejecting the suggestion that an outside committee's support establishes corruption or a connection between a candidate and its donor.
On Thursday morning, Cintas and fellow challengers Nick Aronoff, Karen Martin and Laura Parisi held the promised press conference. About 30 people gathered as the four raised concerns about the influence of large financial interests in Laguna Beach elections and called for greater transparency. "Legal is not the same as appropriate," Cintas said, questioning whether a single business interest should be able to spend so heavily in a small-town election. She emphasized that she was not alleging illegal activity or any exchange of political favors.
The incumbents did not attend the press conference.
The money trail is real and publicly documented. Filings with the city's electronic campaign-finance system show that on Sept. 30, Regency Properties, L.P. contributed $100,000 to the "Laguna Beach Good Leadership Committee Supporting Kempf, Rounaghi and Orgill for City Council 2026, Sponsored by Regency Properties LP and Affiliated Entities." A separate major-donor filing lists the donor's Laguna Beach address as 1555 S. Coast Hwy. The committee is not affiliated with the candidates' own campaign accounts.
Filings submitted Oct. 3 show the spending has begun: a combined $61,465.39 in independent expenditures, split nearly evenly among the three incumbents, about $20,488 each, for consulting, mailers, newspaper and digital ads, and a slate mailer. The committee's filings identify the spending as independent, which by definition means made without coordination with the candidates or their campaigns.
The distinction matters because of how Laguna Beach regulates campaign money. The city's $500 contribution limit applies to contributions made directly to candidates and their controlled committees. It does not impose that same limit on independent political spending.
The committee's filings contain no indication that Kempf, Rounaghi or Orgill solicited the spending or coordinated it. Rounaghi publicly asked the committee not to spend the money during Tuesday's forum, and Kempf publicly distanced herself from PACs.
The Nov. 3 election fills three City Council seats. Nine candidates are on the ballot: the three incumbents plus Aronoff, Joy Berry, Cintas, Martin, Parisi and Edward Bayuk, who missed the forum on business.
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