Supervisor Race Pits Familiar Figure Against Studious Rookie : MacDonald Puts Substance Over Form in Quest

If there is a perfect political candidate for the video age, John MacDonald isn’t it.

When he speaks in public, MacDonald releases each word reluctantly, as if he fears it may be his last. He pauses between thoughts, often trailing off in mid-sentence. He is 65 and looks it. He is a lanky 6-footer, and his thin face, almost gaunt, makes his ears seem to protrude like handles on a porcelain jug. Imagine Alan Cranston with hair.

Yet at a stage in life when many people are heading for retirement, MacDonald has emerged as a force in North County politics. He finished first in the June primary race for county supervisor, ousting incumbent Paul Eckert and qualifying for the Nov. 4 runoff against attorney Clyde Romney.

“I’ll never retire,” MacDonald said in a recent interview. “To me, retirement is moving from one positive activity to another.”

A preacher’s son who turned down a chance to play professional baseball, MacDonald dedicated himself instead to education--working as coach, teacher, counselor and, eventually, president of MiraCosta Community College. He left the school in 1982 to run successfully for the Oceanside City Council.

Since then, MacDonald has become known as a man lacking in style but not substance, someone who, once he decides on a course of action, pursues it doggedly. A poor public debater, MacDonald shies away from open fights in favor of quiet diplomacy.

Though he has been described as stubborn, MacDonald is not afraid to change his views. A bedrock conservative on social issues and at one time a hand-picked candidate of the Chamber of Commerce, MacDonald is now proud that he voted for rent control in mobile home parks, a notion repulsive to businessmen, and has pushed for charging developers higher fees to build schools, roads and sewers.

Since 1982, MacDonald has evolved into an advocate of managed growth--so much so that he has proposed a temporary ban on zoning changes permitting higher building densities in unincorporated areas.

Because MacDonald and his opponent, Romney, agree on so many of the campaign’s issues, their race has focused on their styles. Romney, younger and more vigorous than MacDonald, has made much of the need for an energetic, hard-working leader who can fight for North County’s needs on the Board of Supervisors. MacDonald, Romney has said, would win hands down if the campaign were for the title “Mr. Nice Guy.”

MacDonald’s closest friends and supporters concede he is not the type to confront a conflict head-on in public.

“Sometimes, I have felt he wasn’t forthcoming enough,” said Walter Stewart, who served 14 years as MacDonald’s public information officer at MiraCosta. “I’d say, ‘Don’t just sit there, tell these people such and such.’ He’d say, ‘Walter, that’s not my style. I’m going to play it low-key.’ I’d say, ‘You can hammer away on this subject.’ He wouldn’t do it.”

“He doesn’t get down and sling mud,” said Melba Bishop, a former Oceanside councilwoman known for slinging some herself. “That’s not his style, and it never will be.”

Instead, MacDonald works behind the scenes, trying to persuade potential opponents to change their views before conflict evolves into confrontation.

Oceanside Councilman Ted Marioncelli said, “John is not a flashy person; he’s not colorful. Sometimes, people are more than what they appear to be. In John’s case, that’s true.”

Marioncelli said he underestimated MacDonald when the former educator joined the City Council in 1982.

“You get this feeling that here’s a guy who doesn’t appear to be confrontational; you feel like you can out-politic this guy, no sweat,” he said. “You end up not being able to do that. He finds a way to get things done.”

A low-key, stable influence was just what the council needed when MacDonald was elected, Mayor Larry Bagley said. At the time, the council was known for its raucous debates, clashes and petty bickering.

“John saw his role on this City Council as one of trying to get everyone to work together,” Bagley said. “I think he’s been very effective, and as a result, I think the City Council has been very effective.”

At MacDonald’s urging, Oceanside voters approved a change consolidating city elections with state and federal races, a cost-saving measure. He contributed to the city’s redevelopment efforts and its growth management plan, which cut Oceanside’s projected population from 320,000 to less than 200,000.

He is proud that Oceanside’s crime rate has dipped during his tenure.

But MacDonald is given credit for no single major accomplishment at City Hall, a fact he attributes to his unwillingness to seek recognition for his contributions.

“It’s not as important for me to get credit for things being done as it is to get things accomplished,” MacDonald said. “I’ve always contended that if a board of supervisors or a city council was accomplishing positive goals, there wouldn’t be any problem in its members getting reelected.”

MacDonald’s knack for avoiding confrontation may be a result of his practice of bouncing potential political stands off his wife, Gloria, his son Kirk, or one of a handful of close friends and advisers.

“He ran the college like it was a diplomatic organization,” recalled Stewart, his former spokesman. “Everybody got their say. He and I used to argue all the time. I felt it was not only a privilege but an obligation to disagree with him.”

Sometimes, MacDonald goes to a wider audience.

For example, before deciding to support stricter standards for waste water treatment in Oceanside, MacDonald took an “informal survey” of about 150 people, including family, friends and members of his campaign organization.

“Only one out of those 150 wanted us to reduce the level of treatment,” he said. “So I led the City Council in abandoning” a request for a waiver that would have allowed the city to discharge dirtier water into the ocean.

When MacDonald is particularly troubled by an issue, he will even seek counsel from a higher source. A deeply religious man, MacDonald believes that the Lord will lead him to the right decisions, or even, in some cases, bail him out of a pickle.

In the early 1970s, for instance, the students at MiraCosta College were planning an all-day rock concert that gave the local citizenry visions--nightmare visions--of Woodstock. MacDonald learned of the plans only a few days before the concert, too late to put a stop to it.

So, after meeting with the students, MacDonald returned to his office with an aide and prayed for assistance.

“I asked one of the deans to call Palomar Airport to see what the weather looked like,” MacDonald recalled. “They said it looked like it was going to be clear for the next week or two. It hadn’t rained for a long time, and it didn’t look like it was going to rain.”

The big day came, and the clouds opened up. It rained from morning till night, scrubbing the outdoor event.

“It didn’t rain again for six months,” he said.

MacDonald credits his deep religious beliefs--he’s Episcopalian--for the calm approach he takes to life.

“I believe that God has a plan for everybody,” he said. “That may be one of the reasons why people might see me as very calm and laid back. I have a peace that allows me to accept things and, at the same time, gives me all the strength I need to face difficult situations.”

MacDonald took his cue from his father, a Baptist minister who emigrated from Scotland around the turn of the century. His mother worked part-time as a registered nurse. The family was living in Palisade, Colo., when MacDonald was born, but moved to California a few months later, stopping in Modesto, San Bernardino and Escondido before settling in Thermal, in the Coachella Valley, for 12 years.

After graduating from high school, MacDonald turned down a chance to play professional baseball with the old St. Louis Browns organization, which invited him to play first base for one of their minor league clubs.

Instead, he enrolled at the University of Redlands, then transferred to Oceanside-Carlsbad Junior College, which he attended for a year before joining the Navy at the onset of World War II.

MacDonald served as a radioman in the Pacific for three years, returning to California at war’s end to resume his schooling, this time at Humboldt State College. After graduating, he took a job teaching social science and coaching baseball at Oceanside-Carlsbad High School.

From there he moved up the ranks, parlaying a job as a substitute in administration into the presidency of the college when it split from the high school in 1963. Under his leadership, the school blossomed from a tiny local college to a bustling institution of 8,600 students.

As president, MacDonald was also involved in the community affairs of Oceanside, where he served as president of the North County chapter of United Way, a board member of the YMCA and president of the Chamber of Commerce, whose members urged him to run for City Council in 1982.

It is this range of experience that MacDonald’s backers say will make him an effective supervisor.

“John MacDonald has paid his dues,” said Vista Mayor Mike Flick, who finished fourth in the June primary and has since endorsed MacDonald. “He has lived in this area consistently, worked in this area consistently. He’s been involved in numerous community activities. He knows the district as well as anyone.”

As a politician, what seems to be MacDonald’s greatest weakness--his public presence--may also be a strength. Because he is rough around the edges, appears nervous in front of large groups and does not memorize his lines in advance, he comes across as believable and sincere. And in North County, where television plays no role in local politics, MacDonald’s lack of charisma doesn’t figure to hurt him much, if at all.

Stewart said, “He gives you such an honest look that he’s very persuasive. He appears to be so open, and he is. It’s not a false front. His appearance is one of open honesty, and that sways a lot of people. They figure, ‘This guy’s telling me the truth.’ He may not be glib but he’s very persuasive.”

Bill Foran, vice president for student affairs at MiraCosta, added: “I don’t think you need what I would call the slick approach. John is believeable, and that’s the bottom line.”