orange

EASYJET’S well-loved Big Orange Sale has returned – and there are some VERY cheap flights and holidays on offer.

More than 780,000 seats are on sale with up to 20 per cent off.

The sale is on until September 15, although the sooner you book, the better deals you will find.

And you can plan ahead as the flights in the sale are for anytime between September 14, 2026 to March 18, 2027.

But where can you go?

Some of the cheapest flights include Edinburgh to Belfast for £14.99, but lots of flights to Europe are under £20.

TAKING OFF

EasyJet launches famous Seat Sale TODAY – cheapest flights under £35 to book now

JET SET

EasyJet to launch 13 new flight routes to Europe and Africa

For example, you could fly to Alicante from London Gatwick from £18.99.

Over in Bristol there are flights to Malaga for £18.99, or go to Amsterdam from Glasgow for £18.49.

Or head over to London Luton and you could fly to Antalya or Barcelona for £18.99.

Other airports you can fly from in the UK include Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle, with destinations across Spain, France, Morocco and Portugal are also on offer.

EasyJet has 30 new flight destinations too, including Newcastle to Marrakech and Tenerife, and London airports to Sharm el Sheikh and Pristina.

The sale also includes easyJet holidays too, with up to £400 off.

Using the cost ORANGESALE, it can be used on any holidays that depart before October 31, 2027.

The biggest saving is for holidays that cost £4,000 or more, with £400, although you can also get £50 off holidays worth at least £500.

WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS

City Section

Arroyo 38, MSAR 0

Arroyo 28, MSAR 0

Birmingham 20, Venice 0

Brio College Prep 47, Belmont 0

Camino Nuevo 18, Animo De La Hoya 13

Cantwell-Sacred Heart 36, South Gate 12

Fairfax 6, San Fernando 0

Foshay 21, New Designs University Park 0

Franklin 12, Los Angeles Roosevelt 6

Franklin 28, Santee 0

GALA 12, Sotomayor 0

Jefferson 13, Verdugo Hills 6

Los Angeles Roosevelt 24, Santee 0

Los Angeles Wilson 41, Jefferson 13

Los Angeles Wilson 25, Verdugo Hills 6

Orthopaedic 14, Alliance Levine 0

Rise Kohyang 24, Smidt Tech 0

Roybal 20, Diego Rivera 0

San Fernando 12, Contreras 6

San Pedro 49, Legacy 0

SOCES 7, Chatsworth 6

Stern 6, Collins Family 0

Torres 45, West Adams 0

Southern Section

Alemany 19, Louisville 0

Aliso Niguel 31, Corona Centennial 6

Anaheim Canyon 14, La Mirada 12

Azusa 38, Arroyo 6

Baldwin Park 30, Norwalk 14

Bishop Montgomery 28, Artesia 6

Bonita 32, Sierra Vista 0

Burbank Burroughs 6, Thousand Oaks 0

California 12, Warren 7

California Military 32, Arrowhead Christian 14

Cathedral City 14, Desert Hot Springs 0

Cerritos 33, Katella 0

Compton 31, Dominguez 6

Compton Early College 10, Long Beach Cabrillo 0

Corona del Mar 44, Marina 7

Costa Mesa 20, Capistrano Valley Christian 6

Covina 35, El Monte 0

Downey 28, Gahr 6

Duarte 37, Edgewood 6

Eastvale Roosevelt 27, Lakeside 0

El Dorado 14, Chino 12

El Modena 18, Rialto 0

El Rancho 27, Pioneer 0

Fountain Valley 32, Garden Grove Pacifica 18

Fullerton 52, Placentia Valencia 24

Gabrielino 26, La Canada 25

Godinez 8, Estancia 6

Glendora 38, San Dimas 20

Huntington Beach 16, Edison 15

Irvine 7, Laguna Beach 6

JSerra 36, Corona Santiago 0

La Habra 6, Bishop Amat 0

Lakewood St. Joseph 25, Long Beach Poly 6

La Serna 27, Bellflower 0

Millikan 26, Villa Park 0

Mountain View 48, Entrepreneur 0

Murrieta Mesa 60, Rancho Christian 0

Newport Harbor 47, Los Alamitos 6

Norco 13, Riverside Poly 6

Ontario 12, Nogales 6

Ontario Christian 31, Xavier Prep 14

Pomona d. Sacred Heart of Jesus, forfeit

Portola 19, Irvine University 12

Ramona Convent 30, La Puente 6

Redlands 28, Palm Springs 14

Rowland 35, Montclair 0

Saddleback 19, Santa Ana Valley 12

San Clemente 60, Oceanside 0

San Marino 28, Temple City 6

Santa Ana Foothill 19, Long Beach Wilson 12

Segerstrom 13, La Palma Kennedy 6

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 14, Harvard-Westlake 6

Sonora 40, Santa Fe 0

South El Monte 26, Rosemead 6

South Hills 26, Charter Oak 7

St. Lucy’s 14, Valley View 6

Sunny Hills 21, Brea Olinda 8

Temecula Prep 51, Nuview Bridge 0

Tustin 18, Orange 8

Upland 6, Shadow Hills 0

Western Christian 13, Linfield Christian 12

Intersectional

Agoura 14, Cleveland 13

Ayala 25, Paso Robles 18

Cantwell-Sacred Heart 26, South Gate 12

Garfield 7, Montebello 6

St. Paul 33, South East 0

Taft 25, Calabasas 0

Vasquez 13, Rosamond 0

Wilmington Banning 14, Torrance 0

THURSDAY’S RESULTS

City Section

Carson 26, Los Angeles Marshall 0

Eagle Rock 41, Bell 6

Garfield 19, North Hollywood 7

Hollywood 18, WISH Academy 0

LACES 20, USC Hybrid 13

Lincoln 20, Jefferson 18

Los Angeles Marshall 20, Arleta 12

Manual Arts 20, LACES 6

Torres 12, Huntington Park 6

Southern Section

Agoura 46, St. Bonaventure 0

Alhambra 8, Whitney 0

Aliso Niguel 31, Etiwanda 20

Burbank Providence 52, YULA 7

Castaic 6, Canyon Country Canyon 0

Culver City 30, Beverly Hills 6

Dos Pueblos 46, Oxnard Pacifica 0

Eastside 12, Palmdale 0

El Segundo 28, Wiseburn-Da Vinci 7

Knight 70, Littlerock 0

Lancaster 7, Highland 6

Lawndale 19, Hawthorne 13

Mater Dei 25, Capistrano Valley 0

Newbury Park 39, Fillmore 6

Oaks Christian 21, Hart 20

Orange Lutheran 31, Beaumont 13

Oxnard 52, Channel Islands 0

Quartz Hill 13, Antelope Valley 0

Santa Margarita 33, Tesoro 6

Santa Monica 7, Torrance 6

Santa Paula 9, Buena 6

South Torrance 19, North Torrance 12

St. Margaret’s 32, San Juan Hills 7

Village Christian 12, Brentwood 6

Westlake 33, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 19

West Torrance 7, Peninsula 6

Woodbridge 24, Fountain Valley 6

Intersectional

King/Drew 12, Mayfair 0

Merced 44, Hacienda Heights Wilson 6

HIGH SCHOOL FLAG FOOTBALL

TUESDAY’S RESULTS

Southern Section

Adelanto 26, Arroyo Valley 0

Alemany 42, Immaculate Heart 0

Anaheim 27, Nogales 0

Arlington 20, Ramona 8

Azusa 19, Pomona 0

Bonita 25, Eastvale Roosevelt 0

Burbank Providence 32, Shalhevet 15

California Military Institute 34, Rancho Mirage 13

Calvary Baptist 7, Keppel 6

Castaic 19, Hart 6

Chaffey 25, Arrowhead Christian 6

Colony 18, Chino 13

Colton 12, Bloomington 8

Corona 20, Canyon Springs 14

Crean Lutheran 12, Sunny Hills 6

Dos Pueblos 31, Santa Barbara 0

Downey 33, Mira Costa 13

Eastside 9, Lancaster 0

Elsinore 24, Tahquitz 0

Gardena Serra 41, Culver City 12

Garey 21, San Gabriel 0

Grand Terrace 19, Carter 6

Great Oak 33, Rancho Cucamonga 12

Heritage 21, Perris 15

Highland 14, Knight 0

Hillcrest 12, Valley View 6

Imperial 37, La Quinta 0

Indian Springs 12, Victor Valley 6

Indio 12, Miller 0

Jurupa Valley 43, Rubidoux 0

Kaiser 33, Jurupa Hills 13

Lakewood 19, Santa Fe 14

Lakewood St. Joseph 34, Beckman 13

Lawndale 7, Compton Centennial 6

La Sierra 28, Lakeside 0

Liberty 19, Rancho Verde 6

Long Beach Wilson 52, Orange 0

Los Altos 34, La Puente 0

Millikan 51, Cerritos Valley Christian 13

Moreno Valley 12, Temecula Prep 6

Newbury Park 41, Rio Mesa 14

North Torrance 19, El Segundo 14

Nuview Bridge 19, Highland Entrepreneur 7

Nuview Bridge 31, Highland Entrepreneur 0

Oaks Christian 20, Village Christian 7

Orange Lutheran 20, Aliso Niguel 7

Oxnard 49, Buena 13

Oxnard Pacifica 35, Hueneme 12

Pacific 12, San Bernardino 6

Paloma Valley 26, Rancho Christian 6

Quartz Hill 18, Palmdale 0

Redondo Union 12, Etiwanda 6

Riverside King 45, Riverside North 0

Royal 18, Agoura 14

San Gorgonio 20, Rialto 13

San Marcos 34, Channel Islands 0

Santa Margarita 39, Dana Hills 0

Saugus 14, Golden Valley 0

Sierra Vista 2, Rowland 0

Sonora 37, Norwalk 6

South Torrance d. Peninsula, forfeit

Temescal Canyon 40, West Valley 6

Thousand Oaks 28, Oak Park 6

Trabuco Hills 39, Corona del Mar 19

Vasquez 14, Fillmore 0

Western Christian 20, El Toro 13

Westridge 25, Rio Hondo Prep 12

West Torrance 21, Wiseburn-Da Vinci 20

Woodbridge 59, Northwood 12

Intersectional

Cleveland 40, Calabasas 0

MONDAY’S RESULTS

City Section

Arleta 20, Sylmar 12

Arleta 52, Bernstein 0

Contreras 32, Camino Nuevo 0

Contreras 19, West Adams 0

Foshay 27, Orthopaedic 6

Fremont 14, South East 0

Granada Hills Kennedy 45, Chatsworth 0

Granada Hills Kennedy 24, Verdugo Hills 0

Huntington Park 13, Hollywood 2

Jefferson 6, Los Angeles Marshall 0

Los Angeles Marshall 6, Bell 0

Los Angeles Wilson 31, Garfield 20

Manual Arts 19, Hawkins 18

Manual Arts 7, SOCES 6

Panorama 34, Sun Valley Magnet 0

Port of Los Angeles 33, Gardena 0

SOCES 23, Hawkins 7

Sotomayor 32, USC Hybrid 13

Sylmar 21, Bernstein 0

Van Nuys 45, VAAS 0

Van Nuys 12, East Valley 0

West Adams 14, Camino Nuevo 6

Southern Section

Adelanto 40, Fontana 13

Alhambra 14, Cantwell-Sacred Heart 2

Alta Loma 8, Los Osos 6

Aquinas 47, Xavier Prep 7

Aquinas 12, Redlands Adventist Academy 0

Arlington 31, Hillcrest 7

Antelope Valley 42, Rosamond 0

Baldwin Park 6, Don Lugo 0

Beckman 33, Santa Ana Foothill 14

Bonita 18, Bishop Amat 7

Bloomington 12, Carter 7

Cajon 13, Etiwanda 6

California Military Institute 54, San Jacinto valley Academy 6

Century 25, Oxford Academy 12

Cerritos 20, Cerritos Valley Christian 2

Chaminade 24, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 6

Charter Oak 67, Bassett 0

Chino Hills 13, Claremont 0

Citrus Valley 27, Rancho Mirage 6

Colony 65, Jurupa Valley 0

Compton 22, Compton Centennial 0

Compton Early College 47, Environmental Charter 0

Corona Centennial 12, Eastvale Roosevelt 6

Corona Santiago 20, Corona 0

Costa Mesa 7, Paramount 0

Desert Hot Springs 33, Woodcrest Christian 0

Dominguez 7, Long Beach Cabrillo 6

Downey 44, Bellflower 0

Eisenhower 14, Colton 6

Edison 32, Los Alamitos 0

El Modeno 13, Anaheim Canyon 0

El Rancho 18, Orange 13

Elsinore 25, Valley View 0

Fullerton 34, La Palma Kennedy 0

Gabrielino 19, Burbank Burroughs 18

Gahr 6, Mayfair 0

Garden Grove Pacifica 12, Rancho Alamitos 6

Glendora 25, Covina 20

Grand Terrace 12, Rim of the World 6

Huntington Beach 32, Fountain Valley 0

Irvine University 32, Laguna Beach 14

Kaiser 22, Rialto 0

La Serna 14, California 0

La Sierra 13, Palm Springs 6

Linfield Christian 14, Murrieta Mesa 12

Long Beach Wilson 48, Artesia 0

Los Altos 12, Rowland 6

Los Amigos 32, Whitney 0

Mater Dei 33, La Habra 7

Mission Viejo 20, St. Margaret’s 18

Montebello 12, Schurr 6

Moreno Valley 12, Hemet 6

Newport Harbor 41, Marina 0

Nogales 21, Bell Gardens 6

Norte Vista 13, Vista del Lago 0

Orange Lutheran 13, Woodbridge 7

Palm Desert 14, Banning 7

Palos Verdes 47, Warren 12

Patriot 44, Temecula Valley 6

Placentia Valencia 20, Laguna Hills 7

Portola 20, San Juan hills 13

Rancho Cucamonga 25, Liberty 12

Riverside King 34, Norco 19

Riverside North 25, Citrus Hill 0

Riverside Poly 14, Chaparral 6

Saddleback 31, Bolsa Grande 13

Sage Hill 33, Rosary Academy 7

San Gabriel 14, Ramona Convent 12

San Gorgonio 33, Summit 6

San Jacinto ValleyAcademy 13, Desert Christian Academy 7

Santa Paula 7, St. Bonaventure 0

Segerstrom 21, Garden Grove 12

Serrano 26, Arrowhead Christian 6

Shadow Hills 14, La Quinta 0

Sierra Canyon 74, Flintridge Sacred Heart 6

St. Lucy’s 18, Azusa 6

St. Paul 26, Arroyo 0

Sunny Hills 42, San Dimas 6

Tustin 13, Santa Ana Valley 7

Victor Valley 13, Jurupa Hills 7

Villa Park 39, Norwalk 0

West Covina 38, Pasadena Poly 6

Western Christian 31, Hacienda Heights Wilson 7

West Valley 24, Lakeside 12

Whittier 18, Katella 6

Yorba Linda 41, Brea Olinda 0

Intersectional

Glenn 33, South Gate 25

Southwest EC 14, Indio 6

THURSDAY’S RESULTS

SOUTHERN SECTION

Nonleague

California 17, Sunny Hills 14

Citrus Hill 14, Miller 13

Citrus Valley 42, Los Osos 14

Colton 28, Eisenhower 6

Compton 28, Orange Vista 21

Corona 49, San Gorgonio 0

Desert Mirage 24, San Jacinto Valley Academy 6

El Toro 42, Marina 21

Fontana 64, Jurupa Valley 20

Glendora 41, Walnut 8

Granite Hills 28, Patriot 21

Hesperia 34, Jurupa Hills 0

Hillcrest 34, Vista del Lago 20

Huntington Beach 31, Los Alamitos 15

Indio 28, Indian Springs 7

La Palma Kennedy 14, Woodbridge 10

Liberty 55, Sultana 7

Maranatha 30, Covina 22

Moreno Valley 52, Arroyo Valley 0

Norte Vidta 35, Rancho Christian 0

Palm Springs 35, Grand Terrace 0

Placentia Valencia 22, Santa Ana 13

Redlands East Valley 37, Perris 11

Ridgecrest Burroughs 40, Adelanto 0

San Dimas 44, Chaffey 8

South Torrance 33, Arroyo 10

Temple City 19, La Puente 14

Twentynine Palms 28, Riverside Prep 27

Villa Park 55, Western 20

Western Christian 56, Rim of the World 8

Whittier 41, Gabrielino 6

INTERSECTIONAL

Fallbrook 24, Canyon Springs 7

Fulton 34, St. Jeane de Lestonnac 0

Linfield Christian 46, Mountain Empire 21

Keppel 18, Mendez 7

Palos Verdes 21, Orlando Bishop Moore (Fla.) 18

Sierra Canyon 24, Hollywood Chaminade-Madonna (Fla.) 7

8-MAN

CITY SECTION

Nonleague

East Valley 50, Stella 6

INTERSECTIONAL

California School for the Deaf Riverside 58, Animo Robinson 8

Cuyama Valley 14, Tehillah Christian 12

Valley Oaks CES 42, Downey Calvary Chapel 0

A thick early morning marine layer on Saturday in Huntington Beach left players, coaches and fans arriving for the Battle at the Beach seven-on-seven passing tournament feeling cool and energized. New Servite coach Rick Garretson later joked that back at his former home in Arizona, the temperature was over 100 degrees.

Ray Fenton, the new head coach at Orange Lutheran after earning coach of the year honors at Los Alamitos, didn’t have to wear a hat to cover his shaved head. Neither sun nor one of the most talent-laden group of teams in the tournament history could disrupt where Fenton appears to be taking the Lancers.

“Are we playing selflessly or selfishly? Are we good teammates or not?” Fenton said about what he wanted to learn in the Lancers’ only appearance this summer in a passing competition.

Let’s just say the progress is impressive. Fenton brought along his up-tempo, no-huddle offense from Los Alamitos, and quarterbacks Ezrah Brown and Reagan Toki were executing it in midseason form. Looking on in street clothes was 6-foot-5, 305-pound offensive tackle Lucas Rhoa, a Texas commit who can’t wait to throw his weight around when the pads come on. The Lancers won their first four matches, including an opening win over two-time defending champion Mission Viejo.

They made it to the semifinals until a roadblock sent the Lancers home. St. John Bosco came in as the tournament favorite, and from start to finish, the Braves looked better than each opponent. It was only a matter whether coach Jason Negro was going to use his backups to spread playing time.

The Braves knocked off Corona Centennial in the championship game. Tustin won the other division title.

Junior quarterback Koa Malau’ulu, in his third year as a St. John Bosco starter, has new bulging biceps from his many hours in the weight room. The hard work shows. The ball is coming out quicker from his hand. His priority this summer has been trying to build chemistry with a new group of receivers.

“They’re all coachable,” Malau’ulu said.

Junior DJ Tubbs, one of the few returnees, remains a go-to target. “He may not be big but plays big,” Malau’ulu said.

St. John Bosco has six top defensive backs, giving the Braves options for the coming season.

One of the best players in California and the nation, Cathedral Catholic’s Honor Fa’alave-Johnson, a USC commit, got to show off his speed.

Corona Centennial, which doesn’t usually perform well in passing competitions (the Huskies like to let their running game set up the pass), started the morning 4-0 and didn’t lose until its final game. Making the final means the Huskies could be very good this fall. The only other times they reached the Edison final was in 2015 when they won the Division 1 title and 2008 when they were undefeated state champs.

New quarterback Jaden Jefferson has lots of weapons at the receiver position, including his former Cathedral teammate Quentin Hale. Sophomore defensive back Koti Fultz had a big day on defense.

Hayden Koo of Tustin makes catch between two St. John Bosco defenders.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Palos Verdes has a four-year starter at quarterback, Ryan Rakowski, and he’s going to cause many problems for defenses this fall with his knowledge and accuracy.

Long Beach Poly, making its debut under first-year coach Travon Patterson, will have lots of options on defense because of its standout cornerbacks in Donte Wright and JuJu Johnson.

Tustin is loaded with skill-position players.

San Clemente won the Ocean View tournament. Culver City took its own tournament championship.

A dull yellow light peeks through a brooding sky looming over rolling Southern California hills. The oil painting “Approaching Storm” captures the kind of picturesque scene that would get fine artist Paul Grimm work in early Hollywood. Known for his plein air landscapes and masterful depictions of clouds, he turned to studio work to make money during the Great Depression.

He is one of many artists on display at a new UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art exhibition about set painters whose work would go uncredited or overlooked.

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“They weren’t making their living selling their paintings, but they were making their living working for the studios,” said museum director Kathryn Kanjo. “The artist would lose their individual credit and recognition, to be at the service of what was needed by the studio.”

Elsewhere in the “Staging California in Early Hollywood” exhibition, hangs an 18-by-25-foot painted backing for “The Sound of Music” (1965), a project led by the then-art director of 20th Century Pictures’ special effects department, Emil J. Kosa Jr. He’d be the only one to get credit at the time, not the five other contributing artists, including celebrated plein air artist Arthur Grover Rider, who are also noted in the museum description.

“In general, at the studios, they systematized the production design, so that it was fast,” Kanjo said, describing the rigid process as militaristic. “Five artists at a time work day after day to get these things done.”

It’s the museum’s first exhibition since UC Irvine acquired the Orange County Museum of Art last September, building a 9,000-piece collection dating back to the 19th century.

The exhibition, with about 50 pieces, is the first since Kanjo’s appointment in December. It’s a love letter to the film industry’s anonymous and little-known artists, whose works were vital to movies.

The exhibition opens with Paul Grimm’s Untitled, 1974, left, and “Approaching Storm,” 1974, right, which capture the essence of the Southern California landscape.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Take two of the most prolific set artists of the mid-20th century: Warren Newcombe and George Gibson. Newcombe was a Massachusetts-born, well-educated artist who started working on sets as early as 1920. He’d eventually join the MGM art department, where he perfected a visual effect technique called “matte painting.” For a time, it was simply referred to as the “Newcombe shot.”

Gibson was also at MGM around the same time. When the studio first hired the Scottish artist, he’d routinely miss shifts to paint plein air in Southern California. He and Newcombe would help craft “The Wizard of Oz” (1939), but when the credits rolled, both their names were missing.

Newcombe and Gibson would go on to be recognized and celebrated for their work. About a decade after “The Wizard of Oz,” Newcombe won two Oscars for special effects, for “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” (1944) and “Green Dolphin Street” (1947).

“He was really instrumental in the professionalization of artists at MGM,” assistant curator Michaëla Mohrmann said of Gibson. “His insistence on color saturation is something that really informs his work for ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ and it’s really that movie that cements his reputation as one of the masters of scenic art.”

Meanwhile, artists like Arthur Beaumont hardly got their due. Raised by a military family in England, the California transplant was particularly captivated by naval vessels. By 1933, he had painted maritime art for most of the U.S. Naval fleet. As a result of his work, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and recognized as its fleet’s official artist.

He also began producing promotional materials and storyboards for Paramount Studios’ naval films as early as 1935, first for a movie titled “Mutiny on the Bounty.” In 1942, he would do the same for “Wake Island” in the midst of World War II. His work was later etched into metal plates and used to mass-produce publicity prints.

Museum director Kathryn Kanjo stands between Arthur Grover Rider’s “Ortega Highway” (1974), left, and Emil J. Kosa Jr.’s “How Marvelous Thy Works” (1928).

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“They were participating [in the military and war] in different functions and not always credited for that kind of work,” Mohrmann said. “I think there was an act of generosity [during wartime] in general — everyone was really patriotic.”

The exhibition also features a silent film titled “The Life and Death of 9413: a Hollywood Extra,” a 1928 short highlighting the plight of a background actor known as “9413.”

“It’s all like him being shoveled around and underappreciated and not even given a name, right?” Kanjo said. “Everybody thought it was funny because it was kind of meta, but it was pointing out real issues.”

Beyond giving credit where credit’s due, the exhibition aims to uplift background art.

“Back then as well as now, people question the artistic merits of these works because they were made for films that were for profit,” Mohrmann said. “When in reality there was a ton of talent and artistry and critical thinking.”

Quincy Bowie Jr. contributed to this report.

On election night, Santa Ana City Council member Jessie Lopez found herself in third place, far behind fellow Democratic council colleague David Penaloza and Republican business owner Mayra Ruiz in the race to represent Orange County’s 68th Assembly District.

Tearful supporters at a California Working Families Party shindig at the Mission Control bar and arcade in downtown Santa Ana hugged Lopez, gifted her flowers and wished her well.

If the 37-year-old was sad, she didn’t show it. Lopez had seen this game play out before.

In 2023, the councilmember decisively beat back a recall attempt funded by Santa Ana’s police union and apartment owners who didn’t like her unabashedly progressive views in a city where centrist Democrats have dominated politics for decades and lefty ones were long ostracized.

I wrote a column shortly after, heralding Lopez’s overwhelming victory as a new era for Latino politics in Orange County, where Latinos make up a third of the population but still wield little power.

Lopez spent the next three years along with her fellow progressive Santa Ana council members shoring up the city’s rent control policies and its immigrant defense fund. Nevertheless, few gave Lopez a chance in her assembly race.

Penaloza — who declined to vote when the council deadlocked on whether to cancel Lopez’s recall election — had the backing of the Orange County and California Democratic Party establishment, from current 68th District Assemblymember Avelino Valencia (who’s running to represent the 34th Senate District) to Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas to Katie Porter, a former Orange County congresswoman who ran unsuccessfully for governor this year.

Penaloza’s campaign mailers and video ads were so ubiquitous these past few weeks that they filled up my mailbox and interrupted my binging of Hulu’s “Vanderpump Villa.”

So did anti-Lopez mailers and commercials, funded by nearly $2.7 million in independent expenditures. Yet Lopez once again beat back her well-funded opposition.

As of Wednesday evening, the latest Orange County Registrar of Voters election results had her in second place — less than 1,000 votes away from Penaloza.

“Voters proved that while money can influence politics, it can’t buy community support,” Lopez said this week as she unsuccessfully tried to enjoy tacos and guacamole at Lola Gaspar in downtown Santa Ana, where well-wishers kept calling her or congratulating the candidate in person. “This race is about the future of California — whether we answer to corporations and insiders or to the hard-working people we’re elected to serve.”

With Orange County Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento easily winning reelection and Unite Here Local 11 co-president Ada Briceño currently coming up short in her bid to represent the 67th Assembly District, which includes parts of Los Angeles County, Lopez may be the sole O.C. Latino progressive running in November for a seat beyond the local level.

Expect Lopez versus Penaloza to become a referendum on whether the leftward trend of Latino voters in Orange County continues — or whether its center holds.

“I’ve chosen my side,” Lopez told me. “I’m proud to stand with working people.”

Then she excused herself — someone else wanted to say what’s up.