Orange County Campaigners Take Last Shot

The Orange County campaign season entered its final weekend with a mix of political controversy, candidates hitting the hustings and a last-minute push on an array of issues, including a proposed half-cent sales tax increase to raise $3.1 billion for transportation projects.

In Laguna Niguel, supporters of cityhood for the unincorporated community complained Saturday that county workers improperly uprooted campaign signs.

In Irvine, a militant gay organization held a candlelight vigil to display opposition to a ballot measure that would repeal protections for gays in the city’s Human Rights Ordinance.

And countywide, supporters of Measure M, the proposed half-cent sales tax increase for transportation, continued their well-financed election battle, with hundreds of volunteer and paid campaign workers hitting the streets across the county to drum up support.

County election officials kept busy counting absentee ballots that poured in, most of them resulting from a push by Measure M supporters. With the large number of absentee ballots--upward of 20,000 are expected by Tuesday--and the presence of the well-publicized countywide tax increase proposal, election officials were hard pressed to estimate just how many voters will show up at the polls.

Registrar of Voters Donald Tanney declined to make a prediction about voter turnout.

“If Measure M was not on the ballot,” he said, he would have expected just 10% to 12%. He said he expects the $1.8 million-plus being spent in the campaign for the sales tax to change that.

“I don’t know if Measure M is going to increase that to 15%, 20% or 25%,” he said.

About 250 campaign signs supporting Laguna Niguel’s bid to become the county’s 29th city were removed from private property by a county public works crew Saturday, prompting a pro-incorporation organization to file a complaint with the Sheriff’s Department against the county.

Representatives from Citizens for Cityhood said a three-person work crew began removing the signs from Crown Valley Parkway and La Paz Road before 9 a.m. Saturday. The white cardboard signs--reading, “Laguna Niguel Cityhood--Vote Yes on Nov. 7”--were stapled onto five-foot stakes.

“We were in a panic,” said Jim Olmsted, a member of the organization. “We’re a grass-roots group, and we don’t have a lot of money to replace these signs. We’re sick of the county stepping on us. They weren’t even pulling out the signs, they were destroying them.”

The county has an ordinance against signs on county property, and a crew routinely removes the placards over weekends, said Lynne Fishel, assistant director of the Environmental Management Agency.

She would not comment until county offices reopen Monday about whether the signs were destroyed.

Paul Christiansen, one of 23 candidates running for five seats on a prospective Laguna Niguel city council, said he has a formal permit to post 400 signs throughout Laguna Niguel, including several on county-owned property.

Christiansen said the crew still took down and tore up some of his signs. “We thought the signs were OK,” he said. “This is unconscionable. Here we are asking for independence from the county, and they have directly attacked our political process on the closing days of the election.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of paid and volunteer campaign workers walked neighborhoods Saturday in Mission Viejo, Seal Beach and other areas of the county, as proponents of Measure M--the half-cent sales tax increase--pushed hard toward Tuesday’s election.

Armed with lists of frequent voters, canvassers handed out thousands of brochures describing the ballot measure. The precinct-walking effort was intended to reach up to 300,000 voters by the election, according to former county supervisor Bruce Nestande, chairman of the Committee for Yes on M.

Although he and other Measure M supporters had been worried in recent days that a quarter-cent sales tax increase for earthquake relief might undercut Measure M, Nestande was more upbeat Saturday.

Tracking polls conducted by telephone in recent days showed that most voters were not confusing the two tax issues, he said: “They seem to know that the quake relief measure doesn’t have anything in it for Orange County, and Measure M does.”

He also expressed hope that a campaign letter from the chairman of the California Transportation Commission would help the Measure M effort. The letter, which arrived in some voters’ mailboxes Friday, said Measure M would provide money for bridge and highway safety efforts aimed at preventing serious earthquake damage.

“There’s nothing more we can do (about the special legislative session) than what we did with that letter,” Nestande said.

Measure M’s foes, who spent the day distributing flyers at shopping centers, strongly criticized the letter. Their chief objection was that it appeared to be an official communication from a state agency.

Nestande, however, said the campaign had the mailer set in type and did not actually photograph or reproduce state stationery. The brochure also carried a disclaimer stating that it was not mailed or printed at taxpayer expense.

While the Measure M forces have managed to drum up thousands of absentee ballot requests from voters, that push has run into some glitches. Several hundred requests for absentee ballots sent to the Yes on M campaign got caught in a mail delay. They were postmarked Oct. 27 but not delivered to the campaign until Saturday--a few days after the deadline for requesting such a ballot from the county, campaign officials said.

Voter turnout remains a key factor in Measure M’s chances at the ballot box. Polls have consistently shown that supporters of Measure M outnumber opponents, but that foes are more likely to vote.

In a recent poll by The Times Orange County Edition, respondents identified as the most likely to vote rejected the measure, 46% to 33%. But when the sample was expanded to include the “somewhat likely” voters, the measure passed, 52% to 29%.

Both sides in the campaign said the measure, which requires a simple majority vote, has a good chance of passing if the turnout approaches 30%. If turnout is less than 25%, however, both sides say the measure could be in trouble.

Alan Hoffenblum, campaign manager for the Yes on Measure M forces, said he is anticipating a turnout of 25% to 30%: “Less than 25%, and it could be a problem. If we get out our vote, I think we’re going to win.”

For nearly half of the county’s voters, Measure M will be the only item on the ballot. For the rest, several municipal ballot issues and school and special district races are expected to draw voters.

In Fountain Valley, voters will consider the recall of Councilman Fred Voss, who was arrested in January on suspicion on soliciting sex from a plainclothes officer during a crackdown on prostitution in Santa Ana.

In all, 61 school board candidates are vying for 25 positions. There are also special district elections in the Laguna Niguel Community Services District, the Silverado-Modjeska Park and Recreation District and the Los Alisos Water District.

As of last week, county election officials said there were 1,136,039 voters registered in the county for Tuesday’s election--the highest total ever recorded for an off-year ballot and about 10% higher than in November, 1987.

That figure, however, is about 50,000 less than for last year’s presidential election.

Staff writers Lily Eng and Jeffrey A. Perlman contributed to this story.

VIGIL: A vigil protests a ballot measure to repeal bias protections for gays in Irving. B1

TUESDAY IS ELECTION DAY

Voters throughout Orange County will go to polling places Tuesday to cast ballots on a variety of countywide and local issues, as well as school district races.

* Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

* For polling place information, call the registrar of voters at (714) 567-7600.

ON THE BALLOT

Measure M, the proposed countywide sales tax for transportation projects, is the only countywide issue facing all 1.15 million registered voters Tuesday, but more than a fourth of the county’s voters will also have a chance to decide school board races, cityhood and other matters.

Elections in Orange County on Tuesday include:

Countywide: Measure M, a half-cent sales tax increase to pay for an estimated $3.1 billion in traffic improvements.

Irvine: Measure N, an initiative sponsored by anti-gay rights activists seeking to remove gays from protection under the city’s Human Rights Ordinance.

Laguna Niguel: Measure O, a cityhood proposal for residents who live in the unincorporated area now administered by the county.

Also on the ballot in Laguna Niguel is Measure P, which asks: If a majority of voters approve cityhood, should city council members be elected by district or at large? Voters will also be asked to choose from among 23 candidates five who would make up a city council, should cityhood win. In addition, voters will be asked to vote for two incumbents to continue serving on the Laguna Niguel Community Services District should cityhood fail.

La Palma: Voters will consider Measure Q, a proposed 4% utility user tax to raise money for the city’s general fund and the police and recreation departments.

Newport Beach: Measure R would authorize the city to extend for 10 years the current lease on property at West Coast Highway and Newport Boulevard to encourage private redevelopment of the site. The current lease to private businesses there expires in 2008.

Also in Newport Beach, voters will consider Measure S, which would allow the sale of an unused, vacant, $350,000 city-owned lot on River Road to raise money for libraries and parks.

Fountain Valley: Voters will decide whether to recall City Councilman Fred Voss, who was arrested in January for soliciting sex from a plainclothes officer during a prostitution crackdown. Voss pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of soliciting prostitution, and was fined and placed on probation. Voters will also decide whether Voss’ successor shall be elected or appointed if the recall is successful.

Voters will elect two trustees each in the Coast Community College District and Garden Grove Unified, Irvine Unified, and Santa Ana Unified school districts.

Three trustees each will be selected in the Newport-Mesa Unified, Huntington Beach Union High, Anaheim City and Lowell Joint school districts.

In the Orange Unified School District, voters will choose four trustees to serve four-year terms, plus one to fill the remaining two years of an unexpired term.

Voters will elect four trustees in the Silverado-Modjeska Park and Recreation District.

Property owners in the Los Alisos Water District will choose two directors from among three candidates. The district includes parts of Lake Forest and El Toro. Landowners cast one vote for each dollar of their assessed property value by mail-in ballot.