A local political kingmaker got a street named after him in Huntington Beach — by the same people whose political careers have benefitted from his tens of thousands of dollars in contributions. The honoree, Ed Laird, was feted last Friday in a ceremony held in front of his business Laird Coatings, with campaign signs for many of his beneficiaries flanking the podium.
Commerce Lane, a block-long street in an industrial part of the beach town is now also Honorary Laird Lane.
The ceremony was staffed by the city, and the speakers were a veritable who's who of conservative Orange County politics, including U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel and state Assemblymember Diane Dixon, both of whom are up for reelection. Laird has donated at least $5,500 to Dixon's campaign this election cycle, and at least $3,300 to Steel's current campaign, according to state and federal campaign finance data.
Huntington Beach's conservative City Council block — four out of seven members — all took to the podium, including Councilmember Tony Strickland, the former state senator and assemblyman who's again running for a state Senate seat in 2026. Laird donated $5,500 to Strickland's campaign in June, records show, and he donated to all four council members' campaigns in 2022.
Former Huntington Beach Congressman Dana Rohrabacher showed up — all the way from his home in Maine — with a guitar and a song he wrote. Rohrabacher represented coastal north O.C. for 30 years until he lost reelection to a Democrat in 2018.
"God bless the folks, like Ed Laird, who built this great country," he sang while strumming, "and God bless our rights to speak and to pray."
Former Huntington Beach Congressman Dana Rohrabacher was back in town last week, singing at a street-naming ceremony for Republican donor Ed Laird. pic.twitter.com/jGPmtn9wBq
— Jill Replogle (@jillrep) October 17, 2024
Huntington Beach Councilmember Dan Kalmick, a Democrat, called the event "an unfortunate use of taxpayer resources."
The honoree
Laird's nearly 50-year-old family business, Laird Coatings, makes specialized paints and coatings for the aviation and plastics industries. He recently handed over the reigns of the company to one of his sons. In a video last year, Laird said the firm does about $30 million in business annually and has 50 employees.
Laird has been active in civic affairs and local nonprofit groups for decades, including serving on the board of the local Boy Scouts of America chapter (a scout camp in Irvine is named after him), and on the board of the Bolsa Chica Conservancy, an environmental group. The list of awards he's accumulated throughout the years is long, including recognitions from the American Cancer Society, Kiwanis, and the Lincoln Club, a powerful conservative donor group in O.C.
At the ceremony, Councilmember Strickland said Laird is "like the Bob Hope of Huntington Beach. You never turn down a charity." Councilmember Casey McKeon called him "very kind, very generous, very caring with his time, with his resources, with his investment in the community through his business."
Along with his philanthropy, Laird has had his hands in conservative politics for decades, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to local, state and federal candidates and causes. McKeon said when he started to get involved in local politics, he was told Laird was a "kingmaker."
Asked later whether he thought "kingmaker" was an accurate description, Laird told LAist: "I think it's overdone. I just like to support good people and I support conservative people."
Nonetheless, at the street-naming ceremony, many of the speakers thanked Laird for helping them launch their political careers. Mayor Gracey Van Der Mark seemed on the verge of tears while talking about how Laird promised to stand by her during a tough time in her campaign.
"His words of support were all I needed to continue on this fight, and now I stand here as a Mayor of Huntington Beach," Van Der Mark said.
Campaign finance records show Laird donated at least $5,500 to Van Der Mark's 2022 City Council campaign, as well as to her 2018 school board campaign.
Laird is also, apparently, deeply involved in city affairs. When he took the podium at the street-naming event, Laird said he had been "right in the middle" of negotiations between City Attorney Michael Gates and the operator of the city's annual airshow, Kevin Elliott, which ended in a controversial settlement in which the city agreed to pay Elliott's firm up to $7 million.
"I sat in my driveway at home, my wife thought I came home for dinner," Laird told the crowd of close to 100 people, "and for four hours I was talking between Michael and Kevin and the deal was struck that was fair to the city."
Laird and local PACs
Much larger than his individual contributions are the sums Laird has poured into political action committees (PACs) over the years. Unlike direct donations to candidates, which have limits, PACs can independently spend as much as they want to support or oppose ballot measures and candidates.
Laird is the principal donor to the Huntington Beach People's Action Committee — whose address is the same as Laird's business on Commerce Lane, now also called "Honorary Laird Lane." Laird gave $23,500 to the committee during the first half of 2024, according to the most recently available campaign finance disclosure form.
The committee spent more than $20,000 to promote three measures on the Huntington Beach ballot in March, including one requiring voter ID at polling places, and another limiting the types of flags that can be displayed on city property.
For the upcoming November election, the committee has spent more than $17,000 on postcards opposing Gina Clayton-Tarvin, an outspoken, liberal school board trustee who's running for reelection. It has spent at least another $9,000 to support two of her opponents.
The committee has also funded mailers opposing the re-election of Huntington Beach City Councilmember Kalmick, who frequently spars with the conservative council majority. Laird also helped bankroll an effort to recall Kalmick and another six members of the City Council in 2021 for not putting up enough of a fight against state mandates to make room for more housing. (Among those he tried to recall was former Councilmember Mike Posey, whose previous campaigns Laird had supported financially.)
"They really wanted to turn Huntington Beach into a San Francisco, you know, with high rises all over," Laird told LAist. "We're a little beach town and we welcome new people and there's some infill that can be done, but to take homes and make it into four apartments isn't our lifestyle here in Huntington Beach."
The recall was unsuccessful.
Kalmick, Clayton-Tarvin and some of Laird's other political foes have filed multiple complaints with the state Fair Political Practices Committee (FPPC) against Laird and the Huntington Beach People's Action Committee. They allege, among other things, that the committee repeatedly missed state deadlines for disclosing their donors and campaign spending. The FPPC opened an investigation into the committee in 2022, which now encompasses at least 12 of those complaints. The investigation is ongoing, according to the FPPC's website.
Laird told LAist he didn't know about the FPPC investigation, and he said the committee's treasurer might not be caught up on the latest campaign disclosure rules. He called the complaints by Kalmick and others "inconsequential" and "harassment."
'Shady gray area'
Kalmick, who made a brief appearance at the Laird street-naming ceremony, called it "absolutely a political event."
"I think that this was an unfortunate use of taxpayer resources to help support a campaign donor to these people," he said.
Tracy Westen, a government ethics expert with the nonprofit Common Cause, said he didn't think the street-naming or the ceremony violated any state election or ethics laws, but it could "raise eyebrows."
"It's a shady gray area," he said. "It may raise in the minds of some that this is favoritism in exchange for contributions. It creates a little bit of that appearance."
Van Der Mark, the mayor, called Laird a "pillar in our community" in an interview with LAist after the ceremony. She said Laird, through his work with the local Boys and Girls Club and Boy Scouts of America, had "given thousands of kids opportunities" for activities like camping that they might not have had otherwise.
Asked whether she was concerned that the street-naming could be perceived as payback for his political contributions, Van Der Mark said, "No."
"Just because he endorses, supports people who he has faith in doesn't mean that he doesn't deserve recognition just like everybody else that gives back to their community," she said.
Initial street-naming backlash
The City Council initially discussed officially renaming Commerce Lane as "Ed Laird Lane" in May. But other businesses on the street protested — one business owner told LAist they calculated the address change would have cost them $200,000 to $300,000 each, for things like printing new advertising and changing their address on business licenses.
In the end, Laird himself asked the city not to inconvenience his neighbors with the name change. The council majority voted to put up the ceremonial signs instead.
Laird later told LAist that he appreciated the recognition, which he said the City Council majority insisted upon. "But I don't like being in the limelight," he said.
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