O’Connor’s Margin Powered by Support From 7 of 8 Districts

Displaying strong, balanced support throughout the city, former San Diego City Councilwoman Maureen O’Connor carried all but a handful of neighborhoods in her lopsided first-place finish in last week’s mayoral primary.

Official vote totals released Thursday by the county registrar of voters also showed that O’Connor apparently was the major beneficiary of the so-called “Hedgecock coalition” vote, as she rolled up huge pluralities in areas where former Mayor Roger Hedgecock ran particularly strong in the two previous mayoral elections.

In addition, O’Connor, a Democrat who traditionally has run well in the minority communities in the southern half of San Diego, solidified that base in the Feb. 25 primary, clobbering her June 3 runoff opponent, City Councilman Bill Cleator, by ratios as high as 10-to-1 in many Latino and black neighborhoods.

“No matter where you look in the city, the numbers look real good,” O’Connor said last week after unofficial vote returns were released. “North, south; east, west; black, white; rich, poor--our support is pretty even across the board.”

The former councilwoman, who has been ill for several days with a serious cold, could not be reached for comment Thursday. The official returns, however, proved her point, showing that she easily out-polled Cleator in every major community except La Jolla, Loma Portal and Point Loma. O’Connor and Cleator live in Point Loma, which is in Cleator’s councilmanic district.

The registrar’s official canvass of the primary returns shows that O’Connor received 81,265 votes (46%), compared to 53,239 (30.1%) for Cleator. Former San Diego City Councilman Floyd Morrow finished third with 33,743 votes (19.1%).

The remaining votes, nearly 5%, were divided among 10 long shots and acting Mayor Ed Struiksma, whose name remained on the ballot despite his withdrawal from the race amid controversy over his falsification of city-reimbursed expense accounts.

Although O’Connor fell short of the majority vote needed for outright victory in the primary, she carried seven of the city’s eight council districts--a strong showing that makes her a heavy favorite in the June runoff. Cleator narrowly carried his 2nd Council District, edging O’Connor by 37 votes--7,864 to 7,827.

Professing confidence that he can overtake O’Connor during the

three-month runoff campaign, Cleator has referred to the June 3 election as “a new ballgame . . . with the scoreboard wiped clean.”

However, a telling illustration of the difficulty that the Republican councilman faces in his attempt to change the numbers ultimately put up on that electoral “scoreboard” can be found in vote totals showing that his Democratic opponent out-polled him last week even in many heavily Republican areas, including Rancho Bernardo and Rancho Penasquitos.

O’Connor’s pluralities in those areas are even more impressive in light of the fact that Cleator was the only major Republican in the race, and that Morrow, a Democrat, attracted votes that most likely would have gone to O’Connor.

In Rancho Bernardo, O’Connor received 2,752 votes, followed by Cleator with 2,136 votes and Morrow with 1,459. Similarly, in Penasquitos, O’Connor led with 1,610 votes, compared with Cleator’s 1,005 and Morrow’s 906.

Confronted by those bleak numbers, Cleator’s strategists concede that, in those and many other neighborhoods, the councilman not only must pick up most of Morrow’s support--an unlikely prospect, given that Morrow is much closer philosophically to O’Connor than to Cleator--but also must, as Cleator aide Don Harrison put it, “peel away” votes from O’Connor to have a chance of winning in June.

In her narrow 52%-48% loss to Hedgecock in the 1983 mayoral election, there was a clear north-vs.-south division of votes. Although Hedgecock received much of his support in the largely white, relatively affluent neighborhoods north of Interstate 8, most of O’Connor’s votes came from poor and middle-class communities populated heavily by racial and ethnic minorities--traditional strongholds for Democratic candidates.

Obliterating that political line of demarcation, O’Connor this year maintained her strong base in southern San Diego but also carried most of the northern neighborhoods won by Hedgecock in 1983 and again in his successful 1984 reelection bid against businessman Dick Carlson.

In the process, O’Connor attracted much of the vote that in recent mayoral elections had been referred to as the Hedgecock coalition--the amalgam of environmentalists, neighborhood and homosexual activists who formed the core of Hedgecock’s political base.

Besides carrying Rancho Bernardo and Penasquitos, O’Connor ran ahead of Cleator by ratios of 3-to-2 or better in areas such as Del Mar Heights, University City, Mira Mesa, Scripps Ranch and Serra Mesa--communities in which she easily was outdistanced by Hedgecock three years ago.

Although environmentalism is a potent political issue throughout San Diego, it is particularly so in those northern neighborhoods, largely because the city’s Growth Management Plan calls for much of north San Diego to remain undeveloped until late this century--a timetable reinforced by voters’ passage in November of Proposition A, which requires public approval of new developments in the city’s “future urbanizing” zones.

Hedgecock’s strong pro-environment record and rallying cry of “Avoid Los Angelization!” accounted for much of his popularity in north San Diego. Although O’Connor does not stir similar passions among environmentalists, she was a co-author of the city’s Growth Management Plan and is considerably more moderate on environmental issues than Cleator, who has compiled a strong pro-development record during his six years on the council.

Attracting another key component of Hedgecock’s support, O’Connor also carried Hillcrest, which has a large homosexual population, out-polling Cleator, 1,646 to 960.

The most dramatic gap between O’Connor and Cleator, however, was in the minority communities of southern San Diego, where a strong get-out-the-vote effort helped her eclipse the combined totals of Cleator and Morrow in many neighborhoods.

In Southeast San Diego, Encanto, Paradise Hills and the Chollas area, O’Connor received more than twice as many votes (9,915) as Cleator (2,030) and Morrow (1,578) combined. In Southeast San Diego alone, O’Connor’s edge was even larger. She received 2,007 votes, compared with only 201 for Cleator and 132 for Morrow.

O’Connor also easily outdistanced Cleator in the heavily Latino South Bay communities of San Ysidro, Otay and Nestor, receiving 2,998 votes--2 1/2 times more than Cleator and 3 1/2 times more than Morrow.

Impressive as those vote totals are, O’Connor said last week that she believes she can improve on them in the runoff.

“If we’re able to do that, it doesn’t matter what (Cleator) does--he’s not going to catch us,” O’Connor said. “Anyone who looks at these numbers can see that.”

VOTE BY NEIGHBORHOOD

NEIGHBORHOOD O’Connor Cleator Morrow Rancho Bernardo 2,752 2,136 1,459 Penasquitos 1,610 1,005 906 Del Mar Heights 985 585 320 University City 3,125 1,831 1,406 La Jolla 3,003 3,390 1,257 Mira Mesa 2,836 1,526 1,195 Scripps Ranch-Miramar 1,162 843 403 Clairemont 8,725 5,328 5,136 Tierrasanta 1,508 1,211 563 San Carlos-Navajo 6,149 5,592 2,922 Serra Mesa-Linda Vista 3,659 1,982 1,868 Pacific Beach 3,575 2,645 1,828 Mission Beach-Bay area 600 510 218 Ocean Beach 1,620 1,187 752 Midway-Old Town 844 535 279 Mission Hills 1,286 963 551 Hillcrest 1,646 960 768 North Park 2,820 1,668 1,221 Normal Heights 2,979 2,078 1,348 State College area 1,927 1,536 921 South Park-East San Diego 5,751 3,065 2,536 Downtown-Golden Hill 2,138 1,072 762 Loma Portal 1,501 2,085 615 Point Loma 917 1,637 410 Southeast San Diego-Chollas- Encanto-Paradise Hills 9,915 2,030 1,578 South Bay-Otay-Nestor- San Ysidro 2,998 1,184 812 Absentee ballots 5,234 4,655 1,709 Total 81,265 53,239 33,743

Chart based on figures supplied by San Diego County Registrar of Voters