Politics 101, Lessons Learned
Staff editorial

Before any council wannabe starts posturing for the November 2008 council race, consider a few of the lessons learned.

1)Buying a council seat hasn’t worked. Failed candidates Roger Faubel spent $80,000 in the 2000 race and Neil Lonsinger in 2006 spent more than $56,000 of his own cash.

2)Don’t count on voter amnesia. Lonsinger ran on a platform he would oppose mixed-use housing projects. Did Lonsinger, a planning commissioner in 2005-2006, forget he voted to approve all mixed-use projects that came before the commission? He not only voted for the affordable housing mess proposed for the former Kmart site on east Los Alisos, he pushed it by proclaiming the project had received 500 letters of support from residents. There were NO letters of support from residents.

3)The power line issue was fueled by political wind. Frank Ury was elected in 2004 after he jumped in front of an angry crowd opposing more overhead power lines on the city’s northeast side. In 2006, three candidates (Diane Greenwood, Bill Barker and Justin McCusker) tried to pile on, saying they would bury the lines. If voters didn’t know before, they found out in 2004 – shortly after Ury was safely in office – they’d been had. McCusker claimed in 2006 he knew of closed-session information that would force burial of the lines. He left town shortly after losing the race, taking his “secret plan” with him.

4)Splitting the vote doesn’t work. Former council members Sherri Butterfield, Susan Withrow and Bill Craycraft continued winning city elections long after they’d fallen out of favor. The vote against them was split until 2002 when Trish Kelley, Lance MacLean and John Paul Ledesma ran as a reform slate and blew away the competition. The slate of Greenwood, Barker and McCusker may have been trying the same tactic without offering reform. They lost. In 2006, seven challengers split the vote, enabling the incumbents to keep their seats. Incumbents in 2006 together totaled 31,528 votes while challengers totaled 42,855. Voters clearly tried to dump all three incumbents, but the vote was badly split.

5)A lobbyist and his cash are soon parted. In 2002, lobbyist John Lewis (former Assemblyman who resides in Orange) claimed he had “masterminded” the ouster of Butterfield and Withrow. He hadn’t masterminded anything. Lewis threw money into the race, but it didn’t change the outcome. In 2006, Lewis backed the losing slate of Greenwood, Barker and McCusker. When Lewis backed his longtime buddy, Frank Ury in 2004, the race involved two well-funded candidates with organized campaigns – Ury and incumbent Gail Reavis. Three challengers (Brad Morton, Dan Joseph and Nancy Howell) entered late and spent little money by comparison.

6)Disorganized, under-funded campaigns have gone awry. Examples are too numerous to mention.

7)Personal ambition, obnoxious behavior and lack of leadership qualities don’t attract supporters. Slick mailers don’t help.

The 2006 winners by default, Kelley, Ledesma and MacLean, shared another characteristic beyond their incumbency. They had almost no volunteer help. MacLean had only his immediate family. Ledesma had a few activists, and Kelley had a handful of senior citizens who formerly clustered around Butterfield and Withrow. To offset the lack of support, incumbents relied heavily on donations from city vendors. The pattern (campaigns awash with vendor cash and short on volunteers) is likely to continue in 2008 when incumbents Frank Ury and Gail Reavis will be up for reelection. To knock out this well-funded pair, challengers will have to do everything right.

Too bad, but Mission Viejo has never had a city council with its act together. Cities all around – new and old – manage to elect sane council members. Perhaps it’s time for a candidate to emerge on that basis alone – a verifiable record of sanity.