Foes Stunned by Eckert’s Failure to Reach Runoff

John MacDonald and Clyde Romney had expected their primary battle for a seat on the county Board of Supervisors to end Tuesday with one of them winning a spot in the November runoff against Supervisor Paul Eckert.

Instead, they will face each other in November, as they both finished ahead of Eckert in the primary, ending Eckert’s two-term career as North County’s supervisor in stunning fashion.

MacDonald, an Oceanside city councilman, finished first in the 5th District race with 22,248 votes, or 29.1%, according to final, unofficial returns released Wednesday by the county registrar of voters. Romney, an Escondido attorney, was second with 20,195, or 26.4%. Eckert collected 18,662 votes, or 24.4%.

The four other candidates in the race trailed far behind the leaders. Vista Mayor Mike Flick finished fourth with 7.9% of the vote; La Costa private detective Richard Repasky was fifth with 4.9%; Carlsbad Councilman Richard Chick got 4.2%, and Escondido auto parts manager Edmund Fitzgerald collected 3.2%.

“I don’t think anyone expected this,” MacDonald said as he savored the primary victory Wednesday morning. “I never really believed that he (Eckert) would finish third. I really don’t know how it happened.”

Romney was equally surprised.

“I’m flabbergasted,” he said when the result became clear in the early morning hours Wednesday. “I never had any feeling that Eckert would be out in the primary. Isn’t that amazing.”

Both candidates said they were convinced that voters’ attitudes toward North County’s explosive growth played a major role in the campaign.

“This election has become a mandate on the issue of growth,” Romney said. “It’s not whether growth should occur or not, it’s whether growth should be properly planned and reflect the ability of

local government to keep up with the demand for streets and highways and parks and public facilities. The perception of the voters is that Mr. Eckert has lost control of the process.”

MacDonald said that everywhere he went in the campaign, voters were concerned about growth.

“It’s not just in Fallbrook or just in San Dieguito or just in Carlsbad or just in Oceanside,” MacDonald said. “It’s all over. And it’s across the board in terms of socioeconomic strata. People in business are concerned, people in farming, people in schools are concerned.

“It’s a very emotional thing and it’s not going to go away.”

The two candidates, who had a cordial if not close relationship throughout the primary campaign, said they had never considered what kind of strategy would be needed for a run against a fellow challenger rather than the incumbent.

MacDonald said he would run “on my track record, my experience, my stand on growth.”

Romney said he hopes to build on the district-wide organization he already has established.

“It will be a very interesting race,” he said. “I’m confident we are starting with an edge in organization and access to many of the key endorsements that will spell the difference.

“It’s now a race for an open seat. The slaves have been freed.”

Because the two candidates agree on most issues facing the district, the general election campaign is likely to come down to more of a contrast of personalities and styles than philosophies.

MacDonald, 64, is one of North County’s elder statesmen. A Navy veteran who served in the Pacific during World War II, MacDonald worked for 20 years as superintendent and president of MiraCosta College before he retired in 1982 and ran for a seat on the Oceanside City Council.

There, he worked quietly on efforts to control Oceanside’s growth, obtain funds for the widening of California 76 and redevelop the city’s decaying downtown core. Never flashy, the low-key councilman has made few enemies and is known widely for his integrity.

MacDonald spent about $30,000 on his campaign--the least of any of the four major candidates and less than half what Romney spent. MacDonald’s strength was on the coast from Oceanside to Encinitas, where he is better known. The voter turnout in Encinitas, Cardiff, Leucadia and Olivenhain, where voters were opting for cityhood over county control, was 51.5%--11% more than it was districtwide and 15% higher than in Escondido, where Eckert and Romney were considered stronger.

“That made the difference,” MacDonald said when told of the turnout. “We’re going to have to get out in the east part of the district and do a lot more work. We didn’t have enough money or time to do that in the primary.”

MacDonald picked up endorsements Wednesday from Flick and Repasky, two of the other candidates in the race. Chick had withdrawn from the race and thrown his support to MacDonald on Friday--a move several observers believed might have given MacDonald enough last-minute publicity to put him over the top.

But Romney, while surprised to have finished behind MacDonald, vowed to continue the aggressive campaign that helped him beat Eckert. Even early Wednesday morning, Romney partisans were trying to portray MacDonald as a “nice guy” who may not be tough enough to fight for North County’s needs on the Board of Supervisors.

Romney, 43, is a Pasadena native and attorney who has lived in North County for 15 years. He was elected to the Solana Beach Elementary School Board in 1981, and worked in the 1982 campaign that made Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside) the fourth man in U.S. history elected to Congress as a write-in candidate. Packard then hired him as his chief of staff, and Romney quit the school board post and moved to Washington to take the job.

Active in the Boy Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Romney--who has six children under age 15--used his contacts in both organizations, and his ties to Packard, to build a huge volunteer army. With more than 200 supporters licking envelopes, walking precincts and working the phones, Romney’s organization dwarfed MacDonald’s in the primary.

Romney, the more accomplished public speaker, said he wants to debate MacDonald in every community of the district, a challenge MacDonald quickly and enthusiastically accepted.

“I think that’s good,” MacDonald said. “I’d like to appear in every community more than once. It sounds like fun to me.”