Taryn Palumbo is tired of the crazies

The Huntington Beach resident is fed up with her city's city council. So why is she running to join it?

Taryn Palumbo outside Coffee Nature in Huntington Beach.

So recently I was able to sit down for drinks at Coffee Nature with Taryn Palumbo, the Huntington Beach resident who has announced her candidacy for a spot on the city council. As we speak, Surf City is dominated by a 7-0 majority of MAGA nuts, including a QAnon supporter (Gracey Van Der Mark), a damaged former Navy Seal (Chad Williams) and a vile ex-cop (Pat Burns).

Palumbo is a married mother of two, as well as a Chapman University School of Law grad who has spent much of her career working for philanthropic enterprises. As we speak, she’s the executive director of Orange County Grantmakers.

To meet Taryn is to sense some legitimate decency and goodness. She’s clearly not running for glory or the perk of a good parking spot. No, she’s fed up by her hometown’s carnival city council, and seeks change.

She’s the real deal …

JEFF PEARLMAN: “So you’re running for a seat on the Huntington Beach City Council—which, as we speak, is made up of seven MAGA nuts. But I wonder, do you think people care? Or are citizens sorta like, ‘Well, I have no say in anything local …’”

TARYN PALUMBO: “Oh, many people feel as if they have no agency, even though it’s local. In a way, I think government has beaten hope out of people. And we need to get that back. To change that, and show people their voices matter. Especially locally.”

J.P.: “What do you think has gone wrong?”

T.P.: “First off, I think when you have such a feeling of hopelessness all the way from the top down, it can either galvanize to the Nth degree—that’s where you get the OC Huddle and all of those fantastic groups—or it can just completely take you out of it. I can’t even tell you how many people I’ve spoken to in Huntington who have just said, ‘I don’t engage in politics anymore.’ And I’m like, ‘No, now is the time to engage.’ So I’m hoping that, through just conversation and dialogue and reminding people what the role of the city council is and what they do, that I can get people a little bit more engaged and excited.”

J.P.: “I don’t think your average person knows who their city council people are.”

T.P.: “I agree with you. Even the loud ones. I don’t think they do. That needs to change. It’s terribly important, whether someone is particularly political or not.”

J.P.: “So let’s say you win—you’ll be the one liberal member of the city council with six MAGA meatheads. It sounds like a horrible, horrible life existence. What do you actually want to happen realistically? What do you hope for?”

T.P.: “I mean, I hope to force dialogue right now because it’s 7-0, I don’t think things get discussed in the public view as they should be discussing. It’s like, ‘Oh, we’re going to do this’—and there’s zero input from the residents. We’re just going to do it—trust us. There are conversations going on behind the scenes that never make it onto the public record. It doesn’t get to happen. So if I were to get elected and I were the only one up there, 6-1, at least I could be a pain in their sides.

“I could force the conversation, I could put issues on the public record. I could talk to people and say, ‘Hey, Voice of OC, did you know that this happened?’ It would give me a platform to elevate things that have been swept under the rug for far too long. Now recently, I feel like coverage has started to increase because Huntington has become such a bellwether for everything going on. But it took a book ban or the airshow controversy for people to sit up and say, ‘Wait, what other things are we not aware of?’”

J.P.: “I’m as liberal as can be, but I would never want a 7-0 liberal-leaning council. I think we need diverse voices and viewpoints …”

T.P.: “I actually agree. A 7-0 liberal majority would not be a fair representation of our city. But the inverse, 7-0 MAGA, isn’t, either. It’s ridiculous either way.”

J.P.: “So when did you decide to run? What sparked the interest …”

T.P.: “So you see this spread of book banning across the country and you see it in those really, really conservative cities and conservative states. The fact that it would come to my city, to my library where I grew up going, where my kids go … it just felt so personal and like such an attack on a freedom that should be not even up for discussion, that it absolutely infuriated me. I’ve always thought that I might run for office. I was a political science major, I went to law school, I worked in public policy …”

J.P.: “You went to Chapman for law school, yes?”

T.P.: “I did. So it’s always been there—that drive. But it was always one of those things like, ‘Someday, I’ll run for office.’ But when Trump came into the office the first time, I felt so helpless. And when we lost Rhonda (Bolton), Dan (Kalmick) and Natalie (Moser), I burst into tears. Because it hit home. But also, in that moment, I think I found inspiration. I feel like I have both the skills and background to do something about it. Actually, I felt I needed to do something about it.”

J.P.: “So how does this go? The book bans happen. Election losses. Everything is going to shit. Do you sit down with your husband, your kids? Do you make the decision on your own? Is there an actual moment when you’re like, ‘I’m doing this—period?’”

T.P.: “I mean, when I got called to speak as a mom in the news about the book ban and I felt that spark of being able to speak out publicly, I would say that was the final straw to say, ‘Yeah, I’m going to do this.’ My husband and I have been together since law school, so we’ve been together for, I don’t know, like 16 years now. It wasn’t a surprise to him.”

J.P.: “Is he happy about it?”

T.P.: “I mean … he loves my passion, loves the conviction. But he’s honestly a little afraid that this is Huntington and the opposition can be very, very angry. But he knew what he was getting into. He knew that this was a passion of mine and this is something I’ve been interested in. And so when I started thinking about it even more seriously, he got behind me 100 percent.”

J.P.: “Do you actually know how to run a campaign? I say that respectfully. Do you have any idea what you’re doing, what you’re getting into? What are the steps you’ve taken so far? How do you do it?”

T.P.: “So I knew the basics. I knew I needed a campaign fundraiser. I knew I needed a treasurer. I knew I needed to open a bank account to make everything above board, and I knew I needed to focus on fundraising. So the first thing I did was reach out to a number of my contacts that I have in the public policy space and say, ‘Who’s a fundraiser?’ I got a couple recommendations. The woman that I’m working with is Daisy Campos. She’s incredibly well connected.”

J.P.: “So do you literally hire her as an employee? Is it like that?”

T.P.: “Good question. She works for the campaign, and my first question to her was, ‘How do I pay you?’ Daisy and Natalie Reyes, my campaign manager. They do not get paid until I raise money. So they are essentially taking a bet on you that you are a qualified enough candidate that somebody will give you some money.

“So I worked with them, got everything up and running. They connected me with a treasurer, so I was able to open that all up. So I am official in terms of all the filings and the support and whatnot. Daisy then had me kind of put together my initial fundraising. She helped get the fundraising pages up. Natalie did my website, helped me put together the narrative around what was important. And so between the two of them, they are my go-to. So when I have a question, I ping them.”

J.P.: “Are you comfortable with the idea of asking for lots of money?”

T.P.: “No, but I’m getting there because I have to. So it’s definitely the hardest part.”

J.P.: “How do you do it? How does one ask for money?”

T.P.: “I mean, you say, ‘Hi, I’m running for city council. This race is going to be extraordinarily expensive because our opposition has a lot of money coming from outside. I need your support to help launch my campaign, which at this time means monetary donations. Would you be able to give me $250 to launch my campaign today?”

J.P.: “How did that feel?”

T.P.: “Really awkward. But it’s what you have to do. I’ll tell you, it’s a lot easier to do it to somebody that you’ve just met or never met before than it is your friends and family.”

J.P.: “I’m fascinated by the whole process. It actually is really interesting. So have you figured out roughly how much it will cost to run a campaign?”

T.P.: “So I’ve spoken to Natalie, Dan, and Rhonda, as well as a couple of other individuals, and they are predicting that to run a solid campaign in Huntington Beach I will have to raise $250,000.”

J.P.: “Fuck.”

T.P.: “It’s crazy. And you know what? It’s absurd because we shouldn’t have to spend that much money on a local race, but because of our opposition and what we’re up against, and because money does come in from out of Huntington Beach and frankly from out of state, we have to compete to be able to get our message out equally and in Huntington.

“I am hoping that I can counter some of that by doing some organic social media and outreach in a way that doesn’t cost money, so that I can very slowly just get my name out there. That’s also why I started so early. But it’s not cheap.”

J.P.: “Have you spoken at the Huntington Beach City Council meetings?”

T.P.: “A handful of times. I don’t find that that’s the most productive use of my time, to be honest.”

J.P.: “Wait, how come?”

T.P.: “Because speaking there is not for the council, it’s for the people who might support you who are listening, and I can connect with them in ways that are more personal than me standing at a meeting and having my minute to spew.”

J.P.: “Do you feel like they’re not listening to people?”

T.P.: “The city council?”

J.P.: “Yeah.”

T.P.: “No, not at all.”

J.P.: “Who’s your least favorite council member?”

T.P.: “I’m gonna politely not answer that one. I’m going to say in general that I disagree with the majority of the decisions that the city council makes.”

J.P.: “Lemme ask you this, actually being serious. So I read Chad Williams’ memoir. He wrote a book about being a Navy Seal. It was really kind of inspiring until he went nuts. It was about this guy, he’s a Navy Seal and he busted his ass and he wanted to represent the country. I was like, ‘Oh, this is good.’ And you have Andrew Gruel, the chef …”

T.P.: “Andrew, by the way, does phenomenal work serving people who are hungry at his restaurant. I can appreciate that. While also disagreeing wholeheartedly with his political views …”

J.P.: “What I’m saying is do you feel like these are people who are just kind of, they’re just right-wing ideologues? Do you think they’re people who’ve been caught up in the Trump fever? Do you think they’re people who believe 100 percent of what they’re saying or is it something else?”

T.P.: “Your guess is as good as mine. I do think that they are likely true conservatives. I do think there is also the increased sort of enhancement of that perspective with the Trump presidency and again, the permission that it gave people to go farther. And then I do think there are some people on the council who do truly believe in some of the more heinous things they say because of their background or their religious affiliation, whatever that might be. I think that was really exemplified when we heard who was championing Charlie Kirk and what they were saying about him. It was one thing to say like, ‘Look, he was a leader. He had a point of view. He was engaging. I could respect his free speech.’ It’s quite another to say, ‘I agree with the many, many racist and homophobic things he said.’ That’s kind of my dividing line. So I think just we’ve lost the narrative about what it means to represent a community and we’ve gotten ugly.”

J.P.: “Who’s we?”

T.P.: “The city council and some of our elected officials.”

J.P.: “I recently had coffee with Chris Kluwe, and we were discussing Gracey. Who has posed while flashing the QAnon symbol. That used to be a career ender that would end you even in Republican circles. That would end you. They’d be like, ‘Well, we’re not doing that anymore.’ Do you think we as Democrats, liberals, et cetera, can’t run on those things anymore? Is that ineffective to say, ‘Look, this woman is flashing white power signals?’”

T.P.: “It’s not effective.”

J.P.: “Why?”

T.P.: “It’s just not the career-ended any longer. I mean, look at the national level. Those things have become so common that they have lost their power to shock.

“As Democrats, we need to run on something. Look at the recent elections. The Democrats who won didn’t run of Republican craziness. They won on affordability. What do local people care about? How can we support you and your community? How can we make your life easier? I believe that, too. So my whole strategy for this is the city council is not supposed to be partisan. It is supposed to represent Huntington Beach. So if I get asked, ‘What are your views on trans kids in sports?’—I’m not going to answer. It doesn’t relate to he city council. At all.”

J.P.: “Do you feel like the Republicans want to trap Democrats into arguments about trans kids and the Trump bust? Do they want to egg you on?”

T.P.: “Maybe. But it’s not for me. I’m not that person to be baited. I have real concerns for my community.”

J.P.: “What’s your stance on the airshow?”

T.P.: “I do not believe that we should have had a 25 year contract. I do not believe that’s fiscally responsible for a city, and I would like to know a lot more details behind what that contract looks like and why certain decisions were made. Do I like the airshow? Sure. It’s a great tourist thing for our city. We’re known from it. That’s great. Personally, it flies directly over my house and scares the bejesus out of my dog. But that’s a whole other comment. My bigger issue is that there are so many things we don’t know and that’s extremely frustrating.”

J.P.: “Do you yourself as an underdog?”

T.P.: “I mean, I am. Let’s be honest—the registration numbers in Huntington are 60-40, Republican. We are in the minority, but the library and Prop 50 squeaked by. That tells me that there is room for some of those Republicans who are moderate, who are so tired of what’s been going on. I’m willing to listen to you. I’m willing to engage in dialogue. I’m willing to have discussion, and I’m willing to look at what’s best for our city. I’m hoping those people might see something in me.”

J.P.: “That’s a good argument.”

T.P.: “I think so, too.”

J.P.: “As we speak, ICE is sweeping people off streets. Is that a issue that works in Huntington Beach?”

T.P.: “No. I think the issue around ICE that works is respect and treatment of individuals. As humans, I would stay away from whether or not it is or is not right to deport. That is a federal issue. That is a state issue. What is a local issue is, if ICE comes to Huntington Beach, should we let them pull people out of cars, pull them off job sites, throw them to the ground? No. I will stand by that until the end of days. We will be treating people with respect and as human beings, it should not be a question. But the other stuff, I’m just not going to engage with that because again, it’s not a situation that the council can change. It’s not within the power of the city council.”

J.P.: “Come day’s end, how strongly do you believe you’ll win?”

T.P.: “I’m not taking all this time to lose.”