San Diego County Election Returns : Eckert Apparently Is Forced Into a November Runoff

San Diego County Supervisor Paul Eckert was locked in a close primary race with Escondido attorney Clyde Romney and Oceanside City Councilman John MacDonald Tuesday night as a November runoff for the 5th District seat seemed all but assured.

In early returns, Eckert held a slight lead over MacDonald, with Romney not far behind.

Eckert was well short of the majority he needed to win the primary outright.

Vista Mayor Mike Flick, La Costa private detective Richard Repasky, Carlsbad Councilman Richard Chick and Escondido auto parts dealer Edmund Fitzgerald trailed far behind the leaders.

“This is beyond our wildest imagination,” Romney, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside), said as the first returns showed him running neck-and-neck with Eckert. “Our goal has always been to have a solid second-place finish and force a runoff.”

Romney said he believed the election had “turned into a referendum on people’s attitudes toward growth in North County,” with well more than a majority saying they were disenchanted with Eckert’s philosophy supporting development.

Eckert, with a group of supporters at his Vista home, said he did not know how to interpret the early returns because he wasn’t sure which part of the district they were coming from. In the past, Eckert has done much better in the rural, inland areas than along the more urbanized coast.

“If these votes are from Encinitas, we’re elated,” Eckert said. “If they’re from Valley Center, we’re sick.”

But Eckert said he was prepared for a runoff with either man. He said he would continue to try to move the campaign away from a debate on North County’s growth, which he said should not be an issue because the county supervisor has control only over development in the unincorporated areas.

“The supervisor is not going to affect the growth of North County, period,” Eckert said. “And if Encinitas and Leucadia incorporate, forget it. It’s a non-issue. Anybody talking about growth is going to be wasting their time.”

MacDonald said he was heartened by the early returns.

“We’re pleased to be closing the gap a little bit,” MacDonald said as returns showed him among the leaders. “It’s going to be a tight one.”

Tuesday’s voting capped a campaign that began more than a year ago, when Eckert started talking openly about his desire to win a third term representing the sprawling 5th District, which stretches from Encinitas to Oceanside along the coast and inland to the Imperial County line.

Eckert, 52, said at first that he hoped to raise a large enough campaign fund and gather enough endorsements to frighten off any potential opponents, a strategy he termed his “preemptive campaign.” But this tactic failed, and the Vista moving and storage company owner drew six challengers for the toughest battle faced by any incumbent supervisor in at least 12 years.

Eckert, however, campaigned vigorously, raising more money--$165,000--than all his opponents combined. He attended almost all of the 30 public forums held in mobile home park recreation rooms and country club restaurants across the district, and he had a group of volunteers working on his behalf in virtually every North County community.

The campaign was one of the more issue-oriented in memory, with North County’s explosive growth, and the traffic problems that go along with it, topping the list of problems discussed. The candidates also debated what to do about illegal immigration and repeatedly discussed county management, where a string of problems helped oust two incumbent supervisors in 1984. There were almost no personal barbs among the candidates, as the challengers and Eckert focused instead on Eckert’s record over more than seven years in office.

As the campaign wound down, Eckert remained confident of a showing in the primary that would give him an outright victory or, at the worst, a first-place finish strong enough to make his reelection in November seem inevitable.

On Monday, Eckert’s campaign consultant, Herb Williams, said he believed the campaign’s last-minute mailings and phone banks would put Eckert over the 40% mark.

“If we get 40% of the vote, that will show that all the negatives thrown from 10 different arenas did not stick,” Williams said. “It’s no trouble at all to get another 10% of the vote.”

But the other candidates, while all but conceding first place to Eckert, hoped to wound the incumbent enough in the primary to make him seem beatable in the runoff.

Romney, 42, the only candidate to do extensive precinct walking, kept visiting neighborhoods through Monday night. He was dividing his time equally between Escondido and coastal communities, which, because of Eckert’s lower popularity there, he termed “wide open.”

MacDonald, 64, said he thought he gained momentum as the campaign drew to a close, particularly after Chick withdrew and endorsed him Friday. MacDonald spent the campaign’s final hours greeting voters at shopping centers.