Doug Best to Face Harmon in Escondido Mayor Race

Doug Best, a veteran Escondido city councilman defeated by three slow-growth candidates in his try for reelection two years ago, filed Wednesday to run for mayor in the June 5 election.

Best will be the only opponent of Councilman Jerry Harmon--who leads the slow-growth majority on the Escondido council--for the distinction of becoming the city’s first voter-elected mayor.

“I just couldn’t let him back into the job,” Best said of Harmon, his political adversary during Best’s 12 years on the council.

The 64-year-old public relations man and part-time disc jockey for “golden oldies” on radio station KGMG-AM said the present slow-growth majority members on the council, of which Harmon “is the chief guru, have indulged in spending excesses and in punitive action against anyone who opposes them.”

He said he does not believe that Harmon, Councilwoman Carla DeDominicis or Councilman Kris Murphy were voted in on their slow-growth stances in the June, 1988, election in which he was defeated. Instead, he said, a wave of support for a mobile home rent-control ordinance brought them their victories in a field of 13 candidates.

“I know even if I win, they (the slow-growth trio) will still have the majority vote,” Best said, “but it is a crack in the door at least.”

He said it would be 1992 or later before “common-sense forces” could regain control of the five-member council.

Best, who just beat the filing deadline of 5 p.m. Wednesday, served 12 years on the council before his defeat in 1988. He was mayor from 1978 to 1980, and before that served on the city Planning Commission from 1972 to 1974.

Best predicted that Harmon, if elected mayor, would “spend the next four years” trying to establish name recognition in North County and then run for a seat on the County Board of Supervisors.

Mayor Doris Thurston previously announced that she will not run for either mayor or City Council.

Harmon was out of town and unavailable for comment.