Turning Their Backs on City Hall, for Now at Least

With an office directly across the street from San Diego City Hall, lawyer Bob Ottilie gazed at the object of his political affections every day this year as he waged his campaign for the 6th District City Council seat.

“I’m right at eye level with the council offices,” Ottilie said. “When (3rd District Councilwoman) Gloria McColl stands up at her desk, I can see her.”

Three days ago, however, Ottilie realized that that view was as close as he was going to get to the 10th floor of City Hall--at least this year. As a result of his 51.5%-to-48.5% loss to lawyer Bruce Henderson in Tuesday’s election, Ottilie was denied the right to move across C Street into the office now occupied by retiring Councilman Mike Gotch.

Right Perspective

Like the three other vanquished council candidates, Ottilie now must find a way to put that defeat--as well as the hundreds of thousands of dollars and months of politicking spent in their failed campaigns--in perspective. And, when he returned to his law office Thursday, Ottilie decided that there was one simple thing he could do to ease his transition back to a “normal” life and personal equilibrium.

“I’ve decided to turn my chair around so I’m not looking at City Hall any more,” the 32-year-old Ottilie said, only half-jokingly. “Then I’m going to start working on the pile of papers on my desk and hope that I don’t find any malpractice suits in there from clients who felt neglected while I campaigned.”

In his own way, each of the four losing candidates has already begun the process of resuming the professional and personal lives that they largely put on hold during their lengthy and ultimately unsuccessful campaigns.

Poised on the axis between a frenetic campaign, in which he became something of a public figure, and life as a private citizen, each inevitably has spent the last several days casting some what-might-have-been glances backward even as he attempts to, as 8th District loser Michael Aguirre put it, “accept the result, come to grips with it, hopefully learn from it and profit from it, and then move ahead.”

Possibly the quickest and smoothest adjustment was made by the Rev. George Stevens, whose spiritual faith enabled him to avoid depression over his 3-to-1 drubbing by Wes Pratt in the 4th District race so completely that he returned to work as an aide to Rep. Jim Bates (D-San Diego) the day after the election.

“Who needs a day off?” Stevens asked rhetorically. “I feel great. Only the best can come out of this for me, because I know that the plan that God has for me is working.

“I’m very spiritual with the Lord. Earlier this year, God greeted me and said, ‘Run.’ Now, you might ask, if God said ‘run,’ why didn’t I win? I don’t know why. But I know that this fits into God’s plan. Besides, I’m one cat who’s going to be standing no matter what happens.”

‘Snapped Out of It’

Byron Wear, defeated by architect Ron Roberts in the 2nd District contest, said that he was “depressed about a half hour” on Election Night, but then “snapped out of it.” The day after the election, he relaxed at a movie, the comedy “Fatal Beauty,” and spent part of Thursday packing up the political paraphernalia at his campaign headquarters and musing over “all the good things that have come out” of his 54.2%-to-45.8% loss.

“I had the mayor, the development industry, the downtown power Establishment, the newspapers and the labor unions against me, and got outspent 3-to-1, but still came close,” said Wear, a public relations consultant. “I feel real good about that.” Moreover, as a longtime Republican campaign activist, Wear noted that he is “used to the ups and downs of the political process.”

Aguirre, who began his 8th District campaign in mid-1986, also tried to be philosophical about his 54.2%-to-45.8% loss to former city school board member Bob Filner as he relaxed at home Thursday, reading magazines and newspapers. However, Aguirre also showed a greater eagerness than any of the others to rehash the what-if scenarios of the campaign--illustrating that “it takes a while for the wounds to heal.”

“Sure, it hurts, but I’m not bitter,” Aguirre, 38, said. “You just have to accept when you get into politics that you may lose. I’ve always benefited from losing, even though it’s not much fun. I made a lot of friends in this campaign. So I’m trying to focus on the positives instead of the negatives.”

One of the negatives that Aguirre is trying not to dwell on is the fact that he spent nearly $225,000 of his own money on his campaign. But he insisted Thursday that he had no serious regrets over having done so: “You just have to look at it as a learning experience. But it was an expensive one.”

Resuming Life Styles

Each of the candidates also expressed eagerness to resume their pre-campaign life style. Stevens, for example, enthusiastically talked about various ongoing projects in Bates’ office that will allow him to “keep a strong hand in the 4th District,” which overlaps Bates’ congressional district. In addition, Calvary Baptist Church, where he is an associate pastor, “will see a lot more of me,” he said.

Ottilie looked forward to “building my practice back up” and to putting more time into personal relationships that largely have been ignored since last spring. “I’ve been on the phone setting up lunches with a lot of people,” he said.

Reorganization of Aguirre’s law library will be one of his first projects when he returns to his office next week, while Wear’s transition back to his public relations firm will be interrupted by several trips to Mexico and New York over the next two months.

Fresh off one loss, the candidates also would not rule out the possibility of a future campaign.

“I think I’m destined to be in public service, and sooner or later, I will be,” Wear, 33, said.

“This wasn’t a one-time deal for me,” Ottilie added. “I’ll certainly look closely at any opportunities that come up.”

Yet, having said that, each also concurred with Stevens’ assessment of life after politics.

“I can’t tell you how good it feels to regain control over your own life,” the 55-year-old Stevens said. “I don’t have to go to any forums. I don’t have to talk to anyone I don’t want to. I’m making my own schedule again.

“Now, I have a much better understanding for the congressman I work for and what he has to go through. I have far more respect for him now. But I’m not so sure I’d want to change places with him.”