Eckert Kicks Off Drive for His Third Term as Voice of North County

Pledging a “continued partnership” with North County residents, Supervisor Paul Eckert on Thursday declared himself a candidate for a third term on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

In a daylong, four-stop tour of North County cities and communities, Eckert took credit for putting the region on the county’s political map. He vowed to continue the policies he says have made his name synonymous with parochialism, a label in which he says he takes pride.

“That’s what being elected by district is all about,” Eckert, 51, said in a brief interview after a speech to about 30 residents of an Encinitas mobile home park. “We want our fair share.”

In his speech, which he also delivered at the Vista Elks Lodge, El Camino Country Club in Oceanside and at an Escondido restaurant, Eckert mentioned nearly every enclave in his district and pointed out that many have benefited from county programs or construction projects--some of which Eckert played a role in bringing about and some of which he did not.

But those details mattered little Thursday to Eckert or his supporters. First elected to the board as a political novice in 1978, Eckert, a moving and storage company owner, today seems a heavy favorite to win another term to represent a district that reaches from Encinitas on the coast to Borrego Springs and the Imperial County line inland.

“The fruits of our partnership have been outstanding,” Eckert said. “No longer is North County the stepchild of county government.”

Although Eckert officially kicked off his campaign Thursday, he long ago launched what he and his political consultant have come to call their “preemptive campaign.” That battle, begun more than a year before the June, 1986, primary election, was designed to quell the hopes of anyone who might deprive Eckert of a third term on the board.

The results of that effort are not yet clear.

So far, Carlsbad City Councilman Richard Chick is the only candidate committed to challenging Eckert. John MacDonald, an Oceanside city councilman and former MiraCosta College president, has hired a consultant and said he intends to run, but he has yet to officially declare his candidacy.

Two others--Vista Mayor Michael Flick and Clyde Romney, an aide to Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside)--have said they are considering entering the race but have not made up their minds.

Any of them who do try to challenge Eckert are expected to fault him for the upheaval in several county departments during his current term.

Problems with the county’s hiring and promotional practices led to the demotion of the director of the office of employee services in 1983. In 1984, the General Services Department was rocked by a scandal over the purchase of a $25-million telecommunications system.

This year, the Department of Health Services was overwhelmed by revelations of shoddy patient care, management and maintenance at the county’s Edgemoor Geriatric Hospital and at Hillcrest mental health hospital. The department has since been divided into three smaller units, and James Forde, the longtime health services director, has been removed from day-to-day management of health programs.

On the personal side, Eckert’s political foes still hold out hope that they can remind voters of the 1983 incident in which Eckert spent an evening barhopping with two women, one of whom was later indicted on prostitution charges. Eckert was observed by an undercover policeman whose report was later made public in grand jury testimony.

But Eckert will try to dodge those bullets, in part by portraying himself as something of a statesman on the Board of Supervisors, where he is the only one of five members elected before 1982, the year Leon Williams moved to the board from the San Diego City Council. Three other members--Susan Golding, Brian Bilbray and George Bailey--took office early this year.

In an attempt to bolster his image and place him above the political fray, Eckert’s campaign has been buying time on a North County radio station for the last month. In 12 one-minute spots a week, the supervisor has shared “Paul Eckert’s North County historical notes” with his constituents, spinning yarns about the Battle of San Pasqual, the naming of Palomar Mountain and the technique used to lay out the streets of Vista.