They’re Still Counting
Staff editorial

Numbers continue to inch up, but the order isn’t changing in Mission Viejo’s city council race. With two open council seats, incumbent Frank Ury and challenger Cathy Schlicht became the unofficial winners on Nov. 4. The Registrar of Voters still has a hefty portion of paper ballots to count. Current standings as of this writing are:

FRANK URY     14,640 24.8%
CATHY SCHLICHT  11,893 20.1%
NEIL LONSINGER  11,288 19.1%
RICH ATKINSON   8,505 14.4%
JUDY RACKAUCKAS  6,424 10.9%
MICHAEL WILLIAMSON 6,273 10.6%

Schlicht and Lonsinger campaigned together on a reform platform. They said the council wasted money, shut out the public and failed to manage essential work efficiently. A crowning example of waste and mismanagement is the community center expansion, which ran $10 million over budget. Both Schlicht and Lonsinger promised, if elected, they’d rescind the salary increase the council gave itself last month.

Ury and Atkinson, who campaigned together, said residents are happy about everything, including Ury’s false claim the Crown Valley Parkway widening project is finished. Their campaign finance reports revealed funding by developers, vendors and special interest. Ury and Atkinson together raised $66,452 (including personal loans totaling $16,500), while Schlicht and Lonsinger’s combined total was $27,658 (total personal loans of $19,953). Despite lean finances, Schlicht and Lonsinger together matched Ury and Atkinson’s combined vote totals.

In a newspaper interview after the election, Schlicht said it was a bittersweet victory for her, following weeks of campaigning alongside Lonsinger. The two had hoped to unseat Ury and block Richard Atkinson, who had the backing of Ury, Trish Kelley and Lance MacLean.

City activists found encouragement in Schlicht and Lonsinger’s respective totals. They mentioned Atkinson’s defeat as a message to city officials who were promoting him. Despite Atkinson’s individual campaign treasury of $36,149, the highest among all candidates, he trailed in fourth place.

Voters countywide cast 900,000 ballots, including more than 400,000 paper ballots. The Registrar of Voters could complete the task of counting all ballots by Nov. 14.