Election Is Over

For a short time after winners were declared in the Mission Viejo council contest, all was quiet. Voters were very tired of the campaign noise long before Nov. 2.

An unflattering video is circulating about Brian Skalsky, launched after the election by a supporter of Dave Leckness. Skalsky’s attack dogs had a field day throughout the campaign, maligning anyone who disagreed with them. Two of Skalsky’s minions attended a council meeting, where they attacked Leckness from the public microphone. In October, Skalsky wrote an email to some of the activists, directing them to attack each other. Now, Skalsky’s supporters don’t want anyone attacking him.

Leckness is hardly an ideal candidate, but he owns a business, which he built primarily on goodwill. He’s not a mean-spirited, angry person, and he has twice convinced voters to elect him. One of Dave’s worst attributes is the obnoxious political hacks that surround him. His comments from the dais don’t make sense, but who watches council meetings?

Then, there’s Skalsky. He began his 2010 campaign shortly after he finished last in 2006 council race. He started courting reform-minded activists, despite his obvious support for the status quo. Skalsky didn’t gain campaign workers, but he gathered a few supporters who participated in an odd way. A half dozen of them acted more like parents – protecting him as if he were their child and attacking those who didn’t support him. Skalsky had no consistent positions, ideology or plan except to get himself elected.

Skalsky charmed his newfound supporters in a way similar to Councilman Frank Ury’s charming his fans in 2004. In Ury’s first council campaign, he promised he would bury the powerlines, champion fiscal responsibility and “take the city to the next level.” By 2006, the only place he’d taken the city was to the cleaners, but his fans continued attacking anyone who didn’t believe him. Eventually, they said they’d made a big mistake. Wait – aren’t Skalsky’s cheerleaders the same ones who carried Ury around?

Ury was skillful enough that his lies weren’t obvious until after he was elected. Skalsky seemed confident his supporters wouldn’t dump him in the final weeks before the election if they caught him in a lie. When they heard his conflicting stories, why didn’t these reform-minded, self-righteous folks speak up?

Among Skalsky’s lies, he wrote in his ballot statement that he was “a leader in the successful effort to save the Casta del Sol Golf Course.” Trish Kelley made a similar fraudulent claim and got creamed by the same people who gave Skalsky a pass.

As another lie, Skalsky told a roomful of activists on Aug. 19 that he had never supported Lance MacLean’s basketball gymnasium. Several audience members were aware Skalsky had bonded with CUSD parents by saying he supported the gymnasium.

When Skalsky attempted to get Saddleback Republican Assembly’s endorsement on Sept. 16, he described how he attended meetings in an attempt to find a buyer for the Casta golf course. In his words, each effort failed to save the golf course. Somehow, the series of failures resulted in his claim of success. As an aside, Skalsky also answered a specific question on the SRA questionnaire by stating he had supported Mission Viejo’s Right-To-Vote Initiative, Measure D.

Skalsky’s next big one was on Oct. 18 in front of the O.C. Republican Party’s Central Committee. He got word prior to his interview that Ury’s friends on the committee planned to derail any Mission Viejo council candidate who had supported Measure D. Before the committee had a chance to ask, Skalsky blurted out during his opening statement that he had never supported Measure D. Three SRA members were present during the Oct. 18 meeting who had attended the Sept. 16 SRA meeting when Skalsky told the opposite version. One attendee later said it took Skalsky 8 seconds to sell out.

On Nov. 2, Skalsky finished well out of the money, near the middle of 12 candidates vying for three seats. His greatest success was in fooling gullible adults, who went out on a limb covering for him and launching attacks. The Skalsky supporters can continue duking it out with the Leckness supporters – of course, they’re all fighting over principles of good government.

Vote Count Continues

As of noon on Nov. 7, thousands of Mission Viejo votes have yet to be counted. However, the outcome of the city council race has been determined. Incumbents Trish Kelley and Dave Leckness and challenger Rhonda Reardon are the winners.

As of this writing, the OC Registrar of Voters estimates the number of uncounted ballots countywide is approximately 140,844. This total includes absentee ballots turned in at polling places on Election Day, absentee ballots received by mail at the Registrar of Voters on Election Day and provisional ballots cast at polling places on Election Day.

Poll workers in Mission Viejo reported that the turnout was huge – much higher than the midterm election of 2006. One of the workers added that the number of vote-by-mail ballots brought to the polling place on Election Day was “incredible.”

The current count is as follows.

* PATRICIA "TRISH" KELLEY 13,317 18.8%
* DAVID "DAVE" LECKNESS  9,586 13.5%
RHONDA REARDON         9,444 13.3%
RICK SANDZIMIER           6,925  9.8%
BRIAN SKALSKY             6,125  8.6%
NEIL LONSINGER            6,101  8.6%
BILL BARKER                5,023  7.1%
FRED CARR                 3,942  5.6%
MARK DOBRILOVIC          3,302  4.7%
LANCE R. MACLEAN         3,179  4.5%
KEN GOLEMO               2,032  2.9%
SAM MAMOLA               1,895  2.7%
Indicates Incumbent Candidate, if any

Message from Brad Dacus

It was my pleasure to speak to everyone at the October TEA Parties throughout our great state. I am honored to be part of this grassroots movement to preserve America’s Constitutional values of limited government, fiscal responsibility and individual liberties as our founding fathers intended.

I would like to ask you to “Save the Date” on April 2, 2011, to attend our Celebration of Justice at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim. Please stand by for an announcement about our fabulous speaker as well as the great defenders of justice and freedom that will be honored at our event.

If you will allow us to send you a formal invitation, please respond by emailing braddacus@pacificjustice.org with your street address.

Thank you for standing with us. It is because of your support and activism that Pacific Justice Institute is able to continue our defense of faith, family and freedom. 

Brad Dacus, President
Pacific Justice Institute

New Blog in Town

A new publication, http://www.patch.com , intends to provide daily news coverage for Mission Viejo. The local edition will be run by Pete Schelden, a former OC Register reporter.

Also associated with Patch is Spencer Kornhaber, who formerly wrote for OC Weekly. Spence will cover Lake Forest.

Patch, a nationwide enterprise owned by AOL, is starting up websites in South County cities. The local effort wants to bring daily newspaper journalism back to cities the Register has largely abandoned. Each Patch city will have a full-time editor/reporter, as well as freelancers and columnists.

The Register has lost subscribers in Mission Viejo, and the popularity of Saddleback Valley News declined when “news reporters” began filling space for news with city hall’s press releases. SVN has censored letters to the editor to the point residents are not inclined to write. SVN’s section for letters is filled with letters sent to (and rejected by) the Orange County Register, usually about national politics instead of local issues.

Two weeks ago, an OCR reporter, Kristy Chu, botched an article about campaign finance, providing erroneous information about council candidates’ expenditures. Niaz Pirani left SVN a month ago, but his name still appears (as of Nov. 5) as the city’s reporter. There have been no Pirani sightings in Mission Viejo for a long time.

The Buzz

During the weeks prior to the Nov. 2 election, city contractors did a remarkable job of removing campaign signs. In their zest to eliminate any evidence that an election would take place, they frequently trespassed on private property, broke laws and trampled First Amendment rights. Ironically, the city’s obsession with removing campaign signs ended on Election Day. After the election, when no one needed a reminder to vote, city hall suddenly stopped taking signs.

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With approximately half the ballots counted, the top three vote-getters for Mission Viejo City Council are Trish Kelley (13,317), Dave Leckness (9,586) and Rhonda Reardon (9,444). In the final days of the campaign, candidates who sent direct mail pieces or used robocalls included Rhonda Reardon, Trish Kelley and Neil Lonsinger. If Reardon’s last-minute efforts had an impact, she could overtake Leckness and finish in second place. While the top three won’t be surpassed at this point in the count, having Reardon pull ahead of an incumbent would bring satisfaction to those who posted “No Incumbents” signs.

***

Incredibly, the defunct, failed Mission Viejo Community Foundation got a mention in city hall’s magazine, the Winter issue of Leisure Time. The foundation went belly up after a so-called director paid himself with taxpayers’ seed money and a few donations from residents. The foundation is somehow involved in a benefit golf tournament for the Marines.

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What’s next on city hall’s agenda, now that staffers preserved their council majority to do whatever they want? Staff members are very excited about their long-awaited project, razing the retail center at La Paz and Marguerite and rebuilding it with apartments on top.

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Report from Joe Holtzman about the council meeting on Nov. 1, the eve of the election:
“Trish Kelley continued her biased reign as mayor of Mission Viejo at last night’s council meeting. Kelley permitted Rick Sandzimier to not only falsely accuse other candidates of misdeeds, but permitted him to verbally abuse a sitting council member.  Kelley was silent during the close to 6 minutes permitted Rick Sandzimier while adhering to the 3 minutes allotted to others speakers, who pointed out Kelley’s various abuses during this election cycle.”

***

With Bill Barker suddenly passing away on the morning of the election, some residents reacted with disbelief. At a visitation service for Bill on Nov. 4, his friends said they voted for him, knowing he had died. One of them said, “I cast my memorial vote for Bill. If God has a city council, I hope Bill is on it.”

***

Mission Viejo lost another patriot the week before the election. Dee Strubb, who had twice beaten cancer, died on Oct. 26. Dee spoke many times at council meetings during public comments, and she always had a thoughtful message. She was a retired elementary teacher who loved to paint and create works of art for friends. Dee and her husband Al recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.