COUNTYWIDE : Neugebauer to Run for Wieder’s Post

Westminster Councilwoman Joy L. Neugebauer will challenge Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder in her expected bid for a fourth term on the Board of Supervisors.

Neugebauer, 62, a three-time former mayor, said she will take out nomination papers next week to run for Wieder’s District 2 seat. Instead of paying a $752.96 candidate filing fee, Neugebauer is collecting the 3,012 signatures needed to have her name placed on the ballot.

“We’ve collected signatures in each of the cities represented in the district to test my name recognition,” Neugebauer said.

Cities in the 2nd District include all of Cypress, Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach and Stanton, and parts of Garden Grove, La Palma, Midway City and Westminster.

Neugebauer said she is not intimidated by the prospect of facing Wieder.

“I feel I’ll be elected on my strengths and not anybody else’s weaknesses,” Neugebauer said. “I have a longtime pattern of staying in touch with people, of listening to them and seeking their input on important issues.”

The councilwoman said her major concerns are transportation, crime, drugs and health care.

This is not Neugebauer’s first run for higher office. In 1974, she ran unsuccessfully for the 38th Congressional District seat. She came in second in the Republican primary with 46% of the vote.

“I’ve had a long-term interest in higher office,” Neugebauer said. “Now that my children are grown, I want to work full time to make government responsive to the people it serves.”

Neugebauer was elected to the first of five terms on the City Council in 1968. In 1984, she became the first mayor to be elected by popular vote.

Wieder, 69, of Huntington Beach, and Marie Alexis Antos, 45, a Seal Beach homemaker, will face Neugebauer in the June 5 primary election.