The Buzz column, Oct. 17

The revealing quote of the week comes from candidate Bill Barker: “I’m going to be very powerful in Mission Viejo after the election. I’m going to be the next vice-mayor.” Those who heard the statement were amused with Barker’s confidence. Barker last week told his opponents, “You guys are gonna lose!” Perhaps Bill has spent too much time breathing exhaust fumes while driving around eight hours a day plopping his signs on every corner in town.

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With 18 days to go until the election, it’s not “anyone’s race.” The weakest incumbent is MacLean, who has no one working in his campaign. A blog staff member finally saw a MacLean sign in a Mission Viejo yard. All MacLean’s other signs are either on public property or in landfills after being removed from public property.

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Justin McCusker, known as Justintime on his campaign signs, has even fewer supporters than MacLean. Wait – that would be fewer than zero. McCusker has few signs and no one on the street or at public events working for him. McCusker recently withdrew from several slate mailers after a lobbyist went to the trouble of reserving space for him months ago. Perhaps all the cash Ury was planning to squeeze out of city vendors didn’t come through. Anyway, Justintime already indicated at a public meeting that he’s too busy for all this council nonsense. His phone is ringing, and he thinks it might be the governor if not the White House.

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The lobbyist-funded candidates, Diane Greenwood, Bill Barker and Justintime McCusker, are playing up their positions on the ballot – numbers one, two and three – as being easy to remember. What voters should remember about the trio is “first on the ballot, worst on the ballot.” These three aren’t likely to get traction without a hit piece funded by their lobbyist, John Lewis of Orange, arriving in the mail against the incumbents and any other candidate Lewis thinks is viable.

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What happened to all the campaign signs that were on every corner, every main drag, every slope and everywhere else? Anyone driving throughout the city would notice that almost all signs have been removed from all streets on any given day. Some candidates with signs to burn put new ones up daily. The man-hours it would take to clear all the signs in a day would far exceed any campaign team’s ability to do it. Highly likely is an order from city hall to all landscape contractors to clean up the place.

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When Neil Lonsinger said he was funding his own campaign, it may have been because he realized he would get no donations. His statements about his wealth generate no financial support. Lacking volunteers as well, Lonsinger rents help when he needs it. At a recent back-to-school event, a couple kids showed up to distribute his flyers. Someone had driven them to the event, and they looked lost after getting out of the car. A worker from another campaign asked if the person in the car was their mom. One of the kids answered, “No, she’s from the employment agency.” The kids said they’re getting $10 an hour.

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A blog reader emailed, “After council members have served four years and they won’t leave, why not promote them to kings and queens? They could feel important and not annoy the residents by being on the council. I got the idea after seeing Councilwoman Trish Kelley walk up and down the aisles during a council meeting waving like Queen Elizabeth. This would be the ‘screw-in-the-lightbulb’ wave. It didn’t appear that anyone in the audience was waving back.”

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How are resident-hosted campaign events going for the10 candidates? Candidates John Paul Ledesma, Michael Ferrall and Jim Woodin have had the biggest turnouts when residents have hosted parties or receptions for them. Trish Kelley’s turnouts have been very low. No one has heard about any events for Lance MacLean, and his fundraisers have been bombs. He could get all his supporters into one SUV: heels on wheels.