Poll Pleases Eckert’s Challenger : But 5th District Supervisor Isn’t Buying the Results

If the supervisor’s election in San Diego County’s 5th District were held today, incumbent Paul Eckert would finish on top but would capture little more than a quarter of the total ballots cast, according to a poll released by another candidate Monday.

The poll commissioned by John MacDonald, an Oceanside councilman and one of five challengers seeking to unseat Eckert, found that 40% of voters in the North County district have not yet decided which candidate they will support in the primary election June 3.

MacDonald, who said he polled second with 14% of the vote in the survey, called the results “heartening” and proof that after more than seven years on the Board of Supervisors, Eckert is vulnerable.

“The results of our latest survey confirm what I’ve been hearing in my travels throughout the district,” MacDonald said as he announced results of the poll at a morning press conference here. The people of North County “are dissatisfied with Paul Eckert and with his performance,” MacDonald said.

Eckert called the poll’s findings “way off base” and characterized MacDonald’s statements as “the desperate act of a desperate man.”

“Those numbers are simply inaccurate,” Eckert said. “We’ve done our own polling and I can tell you he must have been fiddling with his figures.”

The supervisor declined to release any specific information about his poll, conducted a month ago by U.S. Survey’s of San Diego. Eckert conceded, however, that it showed that he currently lacks the support to win the race outright in the primary election.

The poll released by MacDonald was conducted by Bob Meadow of the San Diego-based firm Decision Research. Meadow said it was based on telephone interviews between Feb. 16 and 19 with 400 “likely voters” from the inland and coastal North County territory Eckert represents.

The survey included a trial primary election between Eckert and four of his five challengers as well as “heats” pitting the supervisor against a single opponent in mock runoffs. Eckert finished first with 26% of the vote in the poll’s primary election--far short of the 50% he would need to avoid a runoff, as he did in 1982.

Behind the supervisor in that trial race were MacDonald with 14%; Clyde Romney, a former aide to Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad), with 9%; Vista Mayor Mike Flick, who has not formally announced his candidacy, with 6%, and Carlsbad Councilman Richard Chick, who received 5% of the survey votes. Candidate Richard Repasky, a former Secret Service agent and private detective who lives in La Costa, was not included in the poll.

Eckert finished first in all of the mock-runoff scenarios, and MacDonald received a higher percentage than each of the other challengers when pitted against the supervisor.

Meadow said the survey’s finding that 40% of the voters in North County are undecided was both unusual and significant because it represents a large pool of votes that Eckert’s opponents can tap.

“It’s basically a large group of people saying they don’t want Eckert and they’re not yet sure what they want,” Meadow said.

Meadow’s pollsters also asked voters questions designed to serve as a sort of public score card on Eckert’s performance and county government in general. When asked whether it was “time for a change in county government,” 37% of those surveyed agreed strongly, 32% agreed somewhat, 13% disagreed somewhat and 4% disagreed strongly. The rest said they did not know.

A second question asked whether there had been “too many scandals in county government lately,” a statement with which 36% agreed strongly, 21% agreed somewhat, 20% disagreed somewhat and 11% disagreed strongly. The rest said they did not know.