Orange County Votes In Sales Tax for Transit

Normally frugal Orange County voters, apparently fed up with worsening traffic, passed a sweeping half-cent transportation sales tax measure, and Democrat Tom Umberg appeared to break the Republican Party’s lock on the county’s legislative seats with a narrow victory in the hotly contested 72nd Assembly District.

Yet with about 50,000 absentee ballots from across the county still to be tallied, incumbent Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) held out hope that he could overcome Umberg’s 1,300-vote margin and keep his Central Orange County seat.

While the final absentee count will not be ready until Nov. 13, there was no doubt that Whittier College professor John Dean upset longtime County Schools Superintendent Robert Peterson in a decisive victory with nearly 63% of the ballots cast, according to unofficial final results released today by the Orange County Registrar of Voters.

Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder and Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi successfully beat back challengers. However, city council incumbents were ousted in Anaheim, Brea, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana and San Clemente. In Irvine, the election of Bill Vardoulis shattered the majority coalition led by former Mayor Larry Agran.

California’s new Republican governor, Pete Wilson, captured 63.2% of Orange County’s ballots, but the margin of nearly 186,000 was not the decisive edge expected to vault the U.S. senator and former San Diego mayor to an early victory. Only 56.6% of Orange County’s 1 million registered voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s election.

The third try was a charm for Measure M, the countywide transportation sales tax measure expected to raise $3.1 billion over 20 years. Supporters credit better voter turnout and a low-profile, $1.2-million campaign emphasizing the asphalt, bridges and interchanges the measure would provide.

“I’ve always said we were going to win, and we did,” said Orange County Transportation Commission Chairman Dana W. Reed, who said he may call a special meeting Friday to expedite projects, including more commuter rail service. “All we needed was the turnout. Now we don’t have any excuse not to deliver (the projects). . . . This is the best campaign I’ve ever worked on.”

Voters in 1984 rejected a 1-cent transportation sales tax measure in a campaign dominated by attacks on big developers who supported the tax. In 1989, voters narrowly rejected a 1/2-cent sales tax for transportation that was virtually identical to the one passed Tuesday.

It was the traffic that made the difference, opponents said.

“I think that people were so desperate that they were willing to tax themselves to pay for almost any solution to the traffic mess, good or bad,” said Tom Rogers, a slow-growth advocate from South County who led the opposition to the measure.

But Measure M campaign consultant David J. Townsend credited careful targeting of likely supporters.

“We didn’t spend a lot of money in fancy brochures. We just did a lot of plain talk, and fact-based brochures and letters,” said the Sacramento-based consultant who, with Tuesday’s vote, held onto his unbroken string of victories in transportation sales tax measures across the state.

The difference this time, Townsend said, was that “we spent more time talking about the projects and not trying to sell a puffery. It was just a very heavy-duty, fact-based campaign.”

The half-cent sales tax is expected to raise $1.325 billion for freeway improvements, including $550 million to widen the Santa Ana Freeway from six to 12 lanes about 10 to 15 years ahead of schedule and $55 million for reconstructing the junction of the Santa Ana and San Diego freeways (the “El Toro Y”).

The plan is expected to cost each resident $50 to $75 a year. It earmarks another $1 billion for regional and local street projects, plus $775 million for commuter rail and other transit programs, including subsidized bus fares for the elderly and handicapped.

In the 72nd Assembly District, former federal prosecutor Umberg led Pringle with 51.1% of the votes. The expensive race saw the statewide Democratic and Republican parties go head to head, with the GOP even calling on former President Reagan and Vice President Dan Quayle to rally support for Pringle.

The seat, once the last Democratic stronghold in Orange County, has been held by a Republican since 1986. But Pringle’s election in 1988 was marred by a controversy involving the Republican Party’s use of uniformed guards at polling places in heavily Latino precincts.

The Orange County GOP paid part of a $400,000 settlement to five Latino voters who claimed that they were intimidated by the guards. And with a federal criminal investigation continuing into the incident, the state Democratic Party decided that Pringle’s could be a vulnerable seat.

Robert Peterson’s 24-year hold on the Orange County schools superintendent post was broken by Dean, a veteran educator and Peterson’s first serious challenger. Dean was heavily backed by the state’s teachers’ union, and even he expressed surprise at the size of his victory--62.8% to Peterson’s 36.7%--in final unofficial returns.

“We tried very hard to educate the public that there is a county superintendent of schools who is supposed to be providing service to schools,” Dean said. “Lots of people weren’t even aware that the office existed--that to me is just an absolute crime. I promise to report to the public and be responsible to the public, and I’m afraid Dr. Peterson has done neither one.”

Said Peterson, who was the target of repeated Orange County Grand Jury investigations: “I have been eligible for other retirement (benefits) for 15 years now. I am 70 years old and have earned a satisfactory retirement, although I don’t feel ready to retire.”

Also contributing to this story were Times staff writers Jeffrey A. Perlman, Tony Marcano and Dave Lesher.