Swap Meet Operator Wins Santa Ana Race

Businessman Richards L. Norton, whose popular, Latino-oriented swap meet at Santa Ana Stadium was shut down by the City Council almost 2 years ago, won his City Council bid Tuesday night, according to unofficial final tallies.

With ballots from all 53 precincts counted, Norton had captured about 26% of the vote. Lobbyist Lyle Overby, who was backed by Mayor Daniel H. Young and Mayor Pro Tem John Acosta, trailed Norton with 23.4%.

Attorney Wilson B. Hart, a former councilman who was unseated last November, finished third with 21.4% of the vote, while Lisa Mills, a transportation planner, finished fourth with 20.2%.

Real estate manager William Camp was a distant fifth with 8.7%.

Lost Bid Last November

“I’m bouncing off the stars, but I’ve still got one foot nailed to the ground right now,” said Norton outside the Orange County registrar of voters’ office, where ballots were being counted late Tuesday night.

Norton lost a bid to unseat council stalwart Daniel E. Griset in a vicious race last November.

“It’s very difficult to beat a 9-year incumbent,” Norton said.

Norton’s family company, Norton-Western Ltd., operates swap meets in 11 cities. The City Council voted to shut down Norton’s swap meet at Eddie West Field after neighbors complained about traffic, noise and litter.

Norton has filed a lawsuit against the city and currently operates a swap meet at Rancho Santiago College, within the city’s boundaries but exempt from the city’s ban on such activities.

The special election became necessary when Young, the previous Ward 6 representative, was elected mayor in November and had to vacate his old council seat.

The vacancy left the council with just six members--and, based on past voting patterns, an apparent 3-to-3 deadlock on many key issues, with Young, Griset and Patricia A. McGuigan on one side and Acosta, Ron May and Miguel A. Pulido on the other.

But those lines have blurred since the election. Longtime opponents Young and Acosta, who was unanimously elected mayor pro tem, have agreed to work together, and the rest of the council has followed their lead.

Still, the six council members parted ways in endorsing candidates for the Ward 6 seat. Both Acosta and Young have forsaken old friends--Norton and Hart, respectively--and together endorsed Overby. McGuigan and Griset endorsed their old ally, Hart, while Pulido and May backed Norton.

But the race has been quiet compared to the nasty battles of last November, when Santa Ana voters were besieged with campaign mail, much of it highly negative.

In the last weeks of the race, Overby accused Norton, Mills and Hart of carpetbagging and called for a change in the city’s charter, which requires only that candidates live in their wards when they file to run for a council seat. The three moved into the ward just in time to run.

ELECTION RESULTS City Council, Ward 6 53 of 53 Precincts Reporting

Votes % Rick Norton 1,994 26.1 Lyle Overby 1,791 23.4 Wilson B. Hart 1,644 21.5 Lisa Mills 1,554 20.3 William C. Camp 666 8.7