Marston, Gotch to Vie in Runoff for Assembly

In an upset that adds drama and uncertainty to their June runoff, one-time San Diego City Hall staffer Jeff Marston narrowly outpolled former San Diego City Councilman Mike Gotch in Tuesday’s special 78th Assembly District primary.

Unofficial vote totals showed that Marston, a longtime GOP activist and aide to former City Councilwoman Gloria McColl, outdistanced Gotch by nearly 2,300 votes to finish atop a six-candidate field in the race for the Assembly seat vacated by Democrat Lucy Killea’s election to the state Senate last December.

Marston, who benefited from the withdrawal of his only two GOP rivals late in the campaign, received 13,073 votes (35.9%), far short of the 50%-plus victory needed for outright victory in the primary. Gotch, a former two-term councilman who began the primary as a prohibitive favorite, qualified for the June 5 runoff by finishing second with 10,781 votes (29.6%), followed by Democrat Howard Wayne, a deputy state attorney general whose third-place finish (15.5%) eliminated him from the contest.

About 1,000 votes, most of them absentees turned in at the polls Tuesday, will not be counted until later today.

Interpretations of Tuesday’s result are certain to split along party lines, with Republicans hailing Marston’s first-place finish as an embarrassing upset of the better-known Gotch that dramatically alters the political equation in San Diego’s most evenly balanced state legislative district. Democrat leaders, meanwhile, can be expected to counter by noting that, while Marston essentially had the GOP vote to himself in the primary, Democratic support was divided among Gotch, Wayne and two other candidates.

Regardless, the primary’s outcome clearly will enable Marston to begin the runoff campaign on a high note and embolden Republicans’ hopes for recovering a seat that has been in Democratic hands for nearly two decades. Conversely, Gotch will find himself at least temporarily on the defensive as a result of his second-place finish in a race that some of his closest backers felt he had at least a slim chance to win outright in the primary.

“We’re just ecstatic!” a jubilant Marston said late Tuesday night. “We’ve been hoping to make it to a June runoff all along, so this is just icing on the cake. True, we didn’t get 50%, but we consider this a victory anyway.”

Warm, sunny weather Tuesday helped produce a 21.5% turnout, slightly higher than campaign consultants had anticipated in the low-profile contest.

Two other local cities also held elections Tuesday. In Del Mar, management consultant J. Rod Franklin and investment researcher Chris Helton were elected to the City Council, and voters also approved a ballot proposition dealing with building height and size regulations.

In Encinitas, one school financing measure passed while another was rejected. The measure that passed authorizes the construction of two new elementary schools, while the defeated proposition--which called for a $95 annual tax per property parcel for the next five years to help reduce class sizes and fund various other school programs--fell short of the required two-thirds majority.

The third special state legislative election in San Diego County within the past six months, the 78th District contest suffered from the start from what some candidates and campaign consultants characterized as “voter fatigue.”

And, while the two special races late last year--Killea’s 39th state Senate District race and Bonita nurse Tricia Hunter’s victory in the 76th Assembly District--drew national attention as referendums on the volatile abortion issue, the leading 78th District candidates’ philosophic similarity on that and most other major topics did nothing to heighten public interest.

Tuesday’s low voter turnout offered dismal confirmation of the public’s indifference toward the contest.

“This is like, what if they gave an election and nobody came,” said San Diego County Registrar of Voters Conny McCormack. In a telling anecdote, at 9:30 a.m., when the polls had already been open for 2 1/2 hours, one precinct worker called the registrar’s office and asked--”not in jest,” McCormack glumly noted--whether the election had been canceled, because not a single ballot had yet been cast there.

Most of the major candidates, however, anticipated a low turnout, and planned accordingly, placing a strong emphasis on persuading supporters to cast absentee ballots. As Wayne consultant Tom Shepard aptly put it: “This (race) could be won or lost before” Election Day.

Though the names of nine candidates appeared on Tuesday’s ballot, three withdrew from the race in the Mid-City district, where Democrats hold a slim 45%-41% registration edge--making it, during Killea’s four terms, the most heavily Republican Assembly district represented by a Democrat in the state.

From the outset, Gotch was widely viewed within political circles as the candidate to beat in the 78th District, which stretches along the coast from Ocean Beach to Pacific Beach, extending inland to the Miramar Naval Air Station in the north, south to downtown San Diego and east to East San Diego.

By virtue of his eight-year council record, Gotch’s name-recognition far outdistanced that of any of his opponents--all relatively obscure first-time contenders. With the special primary being the only race on Tuesday’s ballot in the 78th District, however, Gotch’s opponents--blending political axiom with hope--theorized that most voters would be well-informed, not the kind of casual voter likely to cast a ballot simply for a familiar name.

Throughout the campaign, Gotch argued that, as the only candidate with elective experience, he was in the “best position to hit the ground running.” Taking a dismissive tack toward his opponents’ attacks, Gotch said their “preoccupation with second-guessing” his council votes simply underlined the fact that he was the only candidate with a public record.

The other first-time candidates, however, proudly wore their self-styled citizen-politician images as a badge of honor, hoping to tap into the public’s general disdain toward politicians. In doing so, they frequently denigrated Gotch as a “career politician” who would view the 78th District seat primarily as a steppingstone, while using phrases such as “fresh perspective” and “new face” to describe themselves.

If Gotch’s record allowed him to rightly cast himself as the only “tried and tested” candidate in the race, it also made an inviting target for his challengers.

In particular, his major Democratic challenger, lawyer Wayne, consistently reminded campaign audiences that Gotch had supported the controversial Belmont Park development and went to work for developer Doug Manchester after leaving the council in 1987--factors that Wayne used in an effort to undermine Gotch’s otherwise solid environmental record. Though Gotch defended his Belmont Park vote as one that cleaned up a “dilapidated, crime-ridden area” in Mission Beach, his most effective rebuttal to criticism of his environmental credentials was his endorsement by the Sierra Club.

Republican Marston, meanwhile, was all but assured a spot in any potential runoff when the only two other GOP candidates dropped out during the primary’s closing days. Running under the slogan “Working Together for a Change,” a phrase consciously chosen for its possible double meaning, Marston built his campaign around an emphasis on his long-time staff work for former San Diego City Councilwoman McColl and Sen. S.I. Hayakawa (R-Calif.)--preparing him, he argued, for the transition from “supporting to leading role.”

Three long shots--Democrats Judith Abeles, a lawyer, and A. L. (Bud) Brooks, a county probation officer, and Peace and Freedom Party member Jane Rocio Evans, a teacher--rounded out the 78th District field. Heavily outspent by the major candidates, their likely impact appeared limited to perhaps altering the outcome by siphoning off votes from the front-runners.

Under the unorthodox procedures governing special elections, all candidates of all parties appear on a single primary ballot. Then, if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the top vote-getters of each party compete in a runoff--in this case, during the normal June 5 statewide primary.

On the same June ballot, the same candidates--along with perhaps some of the Tuesday’s losers--will also compete in the normal state legislative primary for their parties’ nomination for the two-year term that will be contested in November.

That prospect of a rare “double election” in June creates the possibility of a split decision, with one candidate winning the special runoff for the remaining six months in Killea’s unexpired term but losing the normal primary. Though the candidates regard that possibility as remote, the fact that the two contests will be waged before markedly different constituencies--all voters will cast ballots in the special runoff, while partisan electorates will decide the primaries--increases the slim chance that the two races could have different victors.

ON THEIR OWN: Del Mar officials say that holding elections separate from the county helps the city hold on to its small-town feel. B2

Election Results

78th Assembly District

100% of 268 Precincts Reporting Votes % Jeff Marston--R 13,073 35.9 Mike Gotch--D 10,781 29.6 Howard Wayne--D 5,639 15.5 Helen Rowe--R* 1,814 5.0 Judith Abeles--D 1,601 4.4 A.L. (Bud) Brooks--D 1,511 4.1 Jane Ramshaw--R* 854 2.3 Jane Rocio Evans--P 809 2.2 Byron Georgiou--D* 378 1.0

Del Mar City Council

100% of 5 Precincts Reporting Votes % J. Rod Franklin 996 41.1 Chris Helton 745 30.8 Lou Dominy 680 28.1

Del Mar Building Regulation

100% of 5 Precincts Reporting Votes % Yes 736 56.7 No 563 43.3

Encinitas Elementary School

100% of 42 Precincts Reporting Votes % Yes 3,554 62.3 No 2,154 37.7

Encinitas School Tax

100% of 42 Precincts Reporting Votes % Yes 3,286 57.6 No 2,421 42.4

* Withdrew

Results for absentee ballots and write-in candidates may not be available at edition time.

Percentages may not equal 100% because of rounding.