Emotional Battles Over Growth Missing From North County Election : Vote: Disparate issues mark local political campaigns as communities turn inward.

For years when election time came to North County, passions and politics would rise in boisterous unison.

And every trek to the polls was yet another bruising test of one gripping issue: how much the once broadly scenic outback of San Diego County should grow.

Now, as the Nov. 6 election nears, North County’s population stands at 810,000, and the fiery growth issue has quieted somewhat as the next generation of issues has arrived.

The hyperbolic city council campaigns of the past have generally become lower-key affairs this time as candidates throughout North County talk about migrants, neighborhoods, providing enough schools and solving traffic congestion.

It’s as though each community is pensively looking inward, and the tone of the campaigns are as disparate as the region itself.

For example, Oceanside is keeping its unofficial title as the bare-knuckled political capital of North County, with candidates vying in a power struggle over what faction holds a council majority. Perhaps more than any other city, growth remains a divisive issue.

Yet in neighboring Carlsbad, nothing has emerged as a central concern, and the chief entertainment is watching an underdog candidate try to unseat the mayor, who is a 20-year council institution.

Even in Encinitas, which was virtually making a headline a minute for the city’s hard-line approach to its migrant problem, the issue of poor immigrants seeking work and shelter has been civilly discussed at forums.

Among school matters, the only cliffhanger election is in Fallbrook, where school district officials and many parents suffered disappointment in June when a ballot measure to end overcrowding by building a new high school failed by 100 votes. They will try again Nov. 6, asking for $35 million.

Here is a rundown on North County’s city council elections and significant school board races:

Vista

The City Council race has attracted only two challengers to incumbent Mayor Gloria McClellan, and two challengers for two council seats where both incumbents are seeking reelection.

Campaigning has focused on such chronic issues as residential and commercial growth and the direction of the city’s downtown redevelopment efforts.

Trying to topple McClellan, who first was elected to the council in 1972 and has served two consecutive two-year terms as the city’s elected mayor, are G. Kevin Auen, a United Parcel Service delivery driver, and Craig Heiller, a landscape contractor.

Starting with this election, the mayor will be chosen for a four-year term, reflecting the length of office for council members.

Opposing the reelection of council incumbents Jeannette Smith, a certified public accountant, and Gene Asmus, a local businessman and assistant city manager for the city of Chula Vista, are Dal Williams, a college instructor and former member of the Vista Planning Commission, and Ted G. Cole, a construction foreman.

Cole, Auen and Heiller are campaigning on a slow-growth slate--even though Auen and Heiller are running for the same seat--while the incumbents argue that Vista is 80% built out and the growth issue is being raised as a bogyman to unseat them.

Meanwhile, six candidates are running for two open seats on the Vista Unified School District board. The race has featured a conservative family values campaign against teen promiscuity and homosexuality by two candidates.

Candidate Deidre Holliday, a registered nurse, said “in general, the family is very threatened, and the schools need to support the family.” She added, “there is waning parental control over what is taught in schools about family values.”

Sharing her philosophy is James Morgan, an aerospace administrator. The two are running against sex education in the schools and for stronger anti-drug education.

The other candidates are incumbent James Hagar; Sandee Carter, a parent and community volunteer; Linda Cole, a businesswoman; and Elaine Earle, a customer services manager.

Escondido

There is no City Council race this election.

The Escondido Union High School board election features three incumbents and one challenger with three seats open. The challenger, Michael Morasco, a physical therapist and businessman, is basing his campaign on concern about the physical deterioration of schools.

“All of the different mechanical systems are falling apart--air conditioning, heating, lights, plumbing, you name it,” he said.

The incumbents are John Cherrington, Bruce Studebaker and Bill Horn.

Oceanside

Eleven candidates are piling on in pursuit of two City Council seats. While the sometimes testy rhetoric centers on growth and city spending, the greater meaning of this election is which faction controls the council.

Currently, a four-member majority is generally receptive to growth and development in San Diego County’s third-largest city. The council’s outsider is anti-growth Melba Bishop, who other council members openly lambaste as brazenly political and disruptive.

Still, Bishop has a following, and this is her chance to form a council majority if proteges Nancy York, a local tax attorney, and Don Rodee, an airline pilot, are elected.

It won’t be easy, as one of the seats up for grabs belongs to incumbent Councilwoman Lucy Chavez, whose well-financed campaign and strong downtown constituency make her a formidable candidate.

A strong candidate more palatable to the council majority is businessman Tim Aldrich, the former president of the Chamber of Commerce and more of a centrist on the growth issue.

York, who ran once before and lost, said the current council might be defending the city’s growth control law, Proposition A, in a lawsuit brought by developers, but “they haven’t implemented Prop. A, they continue to circumvent it” by allowing exemptions to the growth cap.

“We have a fast-growth, pro-developer majority on the council,” she maintains.

Beside Chavez, Aldridge, Rodee and York, the other candidates are: Ralph Caballero, a businessman; Hollis W. Skinner, an industrial specialist manager; Jack Bullard, who is retired; Ann McElwee, a registered nurse; and Margaret McKenna, a business consultant. McKenna, Abe Edlin and Lois Mizzell did not write candidate statements and thus are not included in the voter pamphlet.

Poway

Growth-induced traffic has turned city officials from isolationism to taking a regional approach as most of the rural city’s congestion comes from outside its boundaries.

The traffic situation has become the focus of the mayoral election as City Councilmen Bob Emery and Jan Goldsmith both campaign to become the first elected mayor in the history of the 10-year-old city.

Both candidates tout their regional political connections as qualifying them to lead the city toward a solution to the traffic problem.

Besides the mayor’s race, five candidates, including incumbent Councilman Don Higginson, are seeking two seats on the council. The other candidates are Victoria Lazowski, a businesswoman; B. “Tony” Snesko, a businessman; Barry Stratton, a businessman; and Alan Sugarman, a design manager.

Carlsbad

Mayor Claude (Bud) Lewis, a 20-year council veteran who has helped guide the city through its growth-management plan and downtown redevelopment, is being challenged in his second mayoral bid by Margaret Bonas.

Bonas, elected to the Carlsbad Municipal Water District board and possessing an extensive background on water issues, said it’s time for fresh ideas on the council.

Yet she agrees with Lewis on two major points. They oppose SDG&E;’s possible plan to build a second energy plant at the coastal Encina facility. And they believe the city’s migrant problem is best solved by stronger control at the U.S.-Mexico border rather than maintaining a checkpoint for aliens in North County.

But Bonas argues that “new larger developments should be put on hold until after the water situation is stabilized,” referring to the continuing drought. She also faults the council generally for failing to take the initiative, saying “they’ve done nothing until they saw other people doing something about it.”

She’s got her work cut out if she aspires to displace Lewis. Vice Mayor Ann Kulchin, who isn’t up for reelection this time, observed there are virtually no issues galvanizing voter dissent.

“There are no nasty letters to the editor, no people standing up at the forums,” she said, predicting the election will be a “big cake walk” for Lewis and incumbent Councilman John Mamaux.

Beside the mayor’s race, two council seats are being contested: Mamaux’s and the one being vacated by Councilman Mark Pettine, who is not seeking another term.

Running for the two seats, beside Mamaux, is Julianne Nygaard, a Carlsbad Unified School District trustee; James Swab, a retired comptroller/accountant; and Margaret Stanton, president of the Chamber of Commerce and executive vice president of Jazzercise, Inc.

There’s an interesting nuance--a low-key debate over achieving racial balance in schools--in the contest for three seats on the Carlsbad Unified School District’s board, a race that’s drawn six candidates.

Candidate Paul Szegedi, a businessman, said “it’s important to achieve racial balance because we have to show our children that there is a racially-balanced society.” He favors redistricting or magnet programs to reach an ethnic balance in the district, which has a significant Latino population.

However, a different view is taken by candidate Mark Packard, a dentist, who maintains that “forced integration doesn’t end racism. . . .I think kids should go to the schools where they live. I don’t think it’s appropriate to move kids from one section of Carlsbad to another just to create an artificial ethnic balance.”

The four other candidates are incumbent trustees Donald Johnson and J. Edward Switzer, Jr.; Catheryn Ann Reilly, a telecommunications manager; and Sharon Faithful, a small business owner.

Solana Beach

It’s a polite campaign as four candidates compete for two seats on the City Council. The candidates, including incumbent Councilwoman Margaret Schlesinger, all favor maintaining the small-town character of Solana Beach.

Realtor Deen Austin says he appreciates the fact that people still call each other by their first names around town and he wants to preserve that feeling by establishing goodwill between residents and business people.

Schlesinger points out such accomplishments as a strong general plan for the community, a new Parks and Recreation Department, and construction of a new fire station.

Nancy Biehl, program director of the local senior center, said the needs of the city’s aging population must be addressed by more housing for lower-income people. She also said solving traffic problems, curbing crime, meeting redevelopment goals and building a commuter rail station are among her priorities.

Paul Tompkins, president of the Solana Beach Chamber of Commerce, said redevelopment is the city’s main issue. He wants to see signs limited, a uniform appearance, and easy parking put into any redevelopment plan.

San Marcos

Voters will be asked to lengthen the elected mayor’s term from two to four years, starting with the winner of the Nov. 6 mayoral election.

Mayor Lee Thibadeau faces opposition from Edward Aubuchon, a management engineer and a retired Air Force pilot who says he wants to bring order to what he considers unregulated city development.

Vying for two council seats are incumbents Pia Harris and Mark Loscher and challengers Cynthia Skovgard, a chiropractor, and Lita Bowles, a community volunteer.

The campaign is short on weighty issues since Proposition R two years ago required developers to pay their own way for growth. A controversial $300 million trash-to-energy plant is before the county--and out of city hands--for approval or rejection.

Encinitas

The City Council election for two seats, not surprisingly, has shaped up around the influx of documented and undocumented migrant workers who city officials have tried to control.

Four of the six candidates--August Anderson, an attorney; John Davis, an insurance broker; Maura Wiegand, an Olivenhain Community Advisory Board member; and David Potter Duff, an attorney and part-time actor--have criticized the council’s actions on the migrant issue.

Claiming the council has been harsh toward migrants, they focus their attacks on incumbent Marjorie Gaines, the city’s first mayor and a hard-liner on the migrant matter.

Gaines defends the city’s accomplishments during her tenure, citing road improvements, park acquisitions and preparation of a strong general plan. Greg Grajek, a local financial adviser, is running in tandem with Gaines.

Fallbrook

Proposition Y is the Fallbrook Unified School District’s latest effort to ease current and future student overcrowding. The measure, which requires a two-thirds voter majority to pass, would authorize $35 million in general obligation bonds to build a new high school and renovate Fallbrook high.

Last June, a similar measure was defeated by a mere 100 votes, and school supporters believe the latest campaign has been better organized.

“We are hoping that once the voters become fully informed about the situation at the high school, they will vote yes on this,” said Karen Miller, a leader for passage of Proposition Y.

Foes argue that multistory structures could be built on the current high school site to handle projected enrollment.

Opponent Tom Cooper, who has two children at Fallbrook high, said, “I’m stumping for saving the one campus, expanding it to the point where it’s suitable for a population of 5,000, and then going on to build another one if and when that place is filled.”

Times staff writers Jonathan Gaw, John Glionna, Tom Gorman, Nancy Ray and Ray Tessler contributed to this report.