Media Out of Touch With Irvine Citizens

Your editorial “A Mayor or a Marshmallow” (Oct. 11) leads me to the conclusion you’re out of touch with the citizens of Irvine. The voters spoke by a 52%-48% vote to not reelect Larry Agran. You do a disservice to the city voters when you fail to recognize what in most elections would be considered a landslide.

You’re right when you said we failed to reelect an international diplomat in Agran. I question your description, however. We defeated a man who put his own political ambitions ahead of the interests of Irvine.

Every city with an elected mayor is governed by machine politics. Mayor Bradley is out raising $750,000 to cover legal fees for his conflict-of-interest lawsuit. Is Sacramento better now that we have paid career politicians controlled by lobbyists, instead of our former citizen politicians?

I am a very independent voter--and I’m not a supporter of Sally Anne Sheridan--but to call her a pothole-fixing mayor is demeaning. You should look at one of the cleanest political cities in the United States--Cincinnati--the mayor elected by fellow councilmen, no political machine, just honest government serving the people.

We’ve got a lot of wounds to bind in this city. Your editorial contributes nothing to it. It just illustrates that the media--like Congress--are out of touch.

LESLIE J. RACEY, Irvine