Buzz text only 11/19/06

The Buzz column, Nov. 16

The Registrar of Voters is running out of votes to count unless a lot of dead people filled out provisional ballots. Late absentee ballots have been counted, and relatively few provisional ballots remain. At midday Friday, the totals were Trish Kelley – 11,959, John Paul Ledesma – 10,565, Lance MacLean – 8,431, Diane Greenwood – 8,299, Neil Lonsinger – 6,165, Bill Barker – 6,093, Michael Ferrall – 6,066, Justin McCusker – 5,423, Jim Woodin – 5,326 and Brian Skalsky – 4,601.

              ***

Of the ballots counted, turnout for Orange County is around 49 percent – not particularly good. Numbers for individual cities won’t be known for awhile, as the RoV has 28 days following the election to release a Statement of Votes. The total number of votes cast for Mission Viejo City Council candidates was 72,928. Given that Mission Viejo has approximately 60,000 voters and each voter could vote for three council candidates, the turnout would be around 40 percent. Residents either chose not to vote for anyone in the council race or the city’s turnout was well below the county average.

              ***

Mission Viejo usually is among the top cities in Orange County when it comes to voter turnout, and it often tops the list for high turnout among the largest cities. What happened this year? On the Republican side, a lobbyist has been running the county show. Perhaps he should fire himself. At the city level, the county lobbyist chose his buddy Frank Ury to get out the vote in Mission Viejo. Clearly, both failed to deliver. Ury seems to have his fellow Republicans buffaloed if anyone thinks he’s Mr. Republican. The front page of the Nov. 10 Saddleback Valley News pictured Ury with Greenwood – a lifelong Democrat until she decided to run for council – checking out her short-lived victory party before MacLean passed her by.

              ***

The Republican Party of Orange County usually prints a bazillion door-hangers in anticipation of hundreds of volunteers walking precincts just before Election Day. The literature is left on the doors of registered Republicans, recommending the entire slate of Republican candidates. This year, the county GOP decided to meddle in non-partisan city council races as well. The rather confused Central Committee chose to endorse Mission Viejo candidates John Paul Ledesma, Trish Kelley and Justin McCusker – in combination an unacceptable trio to almost everyone who might otherwise have participated in Get Out The Vote in Mission Viejo. Did even one person in Mission Viejo receive a door-hanger? The recipient of almost all the door-hangers would be one of the county’s landfills.

              ***

How did the council slates perform in Mission Viejo? The incumbents didn’t run as a slate, but two other combos emerged. The lobbyist-funded slate of Greenwood/Barker/McCusker totaled 19,815 votes. The residents’ choice of Ledesma/Ferrall/Woodin totaled 21,957. Despite an infusion of cash from out of town, “expert” advice from multiple consultants and an aggressively nasty campaign, the lobbyist group placed no one on the council.

              ***

The “Pants on Fire” award this week goes to a letter-writer whose creative nonsense appears in the Nov. 17 Saddleback Valley News. Among other representations, she claims the incumbents benefited from developer dollars while implying her own choice of Greenwood/Barker/McCusker did not. What about all the money funneled into their campaigns by lobbyist John Lewis? Would anyone else like to write a letter to SVN describing the lobbyist’s team signs placed directly in front of anyone they opposed? Following Anderson’s revelation it’s not a crime to move a sign – particularly one that’s blocking that of another candidate – she concludes that “crime does pay.” The lobbyist group of Greenwood/Barker/McCusker set new records for lies and nasty rhetoric.

              ***

David Doomey, deputy supt. for Capistrano USD, is retiring in June. Doomey appeared before the M.V. council to beg for dollars when a redevelopment deal and a potential gymnasium giveaway were on the table. Despite his pleas for cash “for the Mission Viejo schoolchildren,” district residents discovered millions of dollars were being diverted to the CUSD Taj Mahal administration center in San Juan Capistrano. How’s the audit coming along – the much-touted investigation of redevelopment and other dollars collected in Mission Viejo for CUSD? With the election over, the love-fest between Trish Kelley and David Doomey can resume.