Oceanside Provides Greatest Surprise in Survey of North County Balloting

A slow-growth majority took control of the Oceanside City Council, an incumbent tough on migrants was defeated in Encinitas and a controversial politician was ousted in Carlsbad.

The greatest surprise for North County in Tuesday’s election was the victory in Oceanside of Nancy York and Don Rodee, who knocked out incumbent Lucy Chavez to form a slow-growth alliance with Councilwoman Melba Bishop, who had been a long-time council outsider.

“We kicked butt,” a jubilant Bishop said Wednesday, promising that the new majority will be more open to the public’s concerns. “They’re going to be talked to and with, and not lectured at council meetings.”

Bishop also declared, “Let the word go out right now, (developments) aren’t going into this town unless infrastructure is paid for and unless it brings something to this city that is extraordinary.”

Elsewhere, the election felled other noted incumbents--Encinitas Councilwoman Marjorie Gaines and Carlsbad Councilman John Mamaux--and school bonds were rejected by voters in the Fallbrook Unified School District.

In addition, Poway Councilman Jan Goldsmith became the city’s first elected mayor, beating fellow councilman Bob Emery; Claude (Bud) Lewis won a second term as mayor of Carlsbad; San Marcos Mayor Lee Thibadeau and Vista Mayor Gloria McClellan both won third terms.

Oceanside

In Oceanside, tax attorney York and airline pilot Rodee championed the belief that developers were winning too many City Council approvals for exemptions to the city’s growth-control law, Proposition A, causing traffic congestion and saddling taxpayers with the cost of new roads and services.

“Developers have gotten away without building the infrastructure, and taxpayers have been left with the burden,” York said Thursday, attributing her victory partly to voter feeling that Chavez was “more to the liking of moneyed special interests.”

However, Oceanside Mayor Larry Bagley, who wasn’t up for reelection this time and has often tussled with Bishop, feels Chavez got a bad rap.

“A strong anti-incumbency (sentiment) entered into it,” said Bagley, adding that York and Rodee trumpeted anti-growth while the real issues should have been crime, gangs, the homeless and migrant workers.

As Bagley sees it, the economic slump has stunted city growth, rendering it a non-issue. Now, he expects a clash of ideologies on the council that will manifest itself even more during the next election, when “probably everybody except me will be running for mayor.”

Sooner or later, the council is likely to fight over Oceanside’s troubled finances and the continued tenure of some key city administrators. Bishop has been especially critical of Police Chief Lee Drummond’s management.

Among the 11 Oceanside council candidates seeking two seats, Rodee came in first, with 21.89%, followed by York with 20.98%. Chavez came in fourth, with 15.59%.

Encinitas

In Encinitas, council incumbent Gaines was defeated after being criticized for her staunch stand against migrant workers who flood the community. She has backed a curbside ban on on migrants and a light-up Encinitas campaign to dramatize the city’s migrant problem.

Gaines said Thursday she had taken “a lot of flak” from the press and local residents over the migrant issue and, assessing her decisive loss, added, “I had a feeling I might not win, but I didn’t think I’d lose by this much.”

One of six candidates vying for two council seats, Gaines came in third, with 18.4%. The winning candidates are Maura Wiegand, with 32.66%, and John Davis, 25%.

Wiegand said Gaines was hurt both by her stand on the migrants and the current council’s spirit of “confrontation and ill will.”

On the migrant issue, Wiegand said Gaines “took what’s really a tragedy for everyone, and she seized this tragedy and used it in a political way” to create a “crisis” and attract media attention.

“She took an extreme position,” said Wiegand, who believes many Encinitas residents feel compassion for migrants and want to work constructively to ease their plight.

Carlsbad

Curiously, there were no big issues in Carlsbad’s City Council race, yet incumbent Mamaux was turned out, partly, he believes, by underhanded tactics concerning his trouble with the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

The commission is reviewing allegations by a local attorney that Mamaux has voted on city matters despite having a conflict of interest, a charge he has denied.

“I had people tell me they had received phone calls (before election day) saying I was under investigation,” complained Mamaux, who regards the commission’s probe as a “red herring.”

He also blamed his loss on an anti-incumbent mood, saying “the frustration in Washington and Sacramento was taken out at the local level.” Reminded that Carlsbad’s incumbent Mayor Lewis got reelected, Mamaux opined that Lewis would have won by a larger margin but for general voter discontent.

Two council seats, the one held by Mamaux and another vacated by Councilman Mark Pettine, were won by Julianne Nygaard and Margaret Stanton. Mamaux described them as “quality council members.”

Nygaard said Thursday the election isn’t likely to change council policy because the candidates “all agreed on most everything” and the council will “continue to be tough enforcers of the (city’s) growth-management plan.”

Of the four candidates, Stanton got 31% of the vote, Nygaard 29.44% and Mamaux 24.13%.

In the Carlsbad mayor’s race, Lewis, a 20-year council veteran, bested challenger Margaret Bonas by 62.58% to 37.42%.

Poway

In other North County mayoral elections, Poway’s incumbent councilman Goldsmith became the city’s first elected mayor by defeating council colleague Emery by 60.86% to 39.14%.

Goldsmith campaigned heavily on the theme of taking a regional approach to solving the city’s traffic congestion, which is primarily caused by outside development.

Voters, said Goldsmith, reflected “more tolerance of differing opinions (and) they want us to reach out regionally. The message couldn’t have been clearer.” Despite his loss, Emery will continue serving on the council.

San Marcos

San Marcos Mayor Lee Thibadeau retained his seat, and voters also narrowly approved extending his term from two years to four. Thibadeau’s victory margin was 60.72% to Edward Aubuchon’s 39.28% in the non-controversial contest.

Pia Harris and and Mark Loscher were returned to their council seats. Harris, an environmentalist and an opponent of the county’s proposed trash-to-energy plant at the southern outskirts of the city, outpolled even Thibadeau, a supporter of the plant, by 250 votes.

Thibadeau admitted Wednesday that his opponent, a newcomer to San Marcos politics drew “a fair amount of votes, enough to make me realize that I should get out and do some door-knocking and ask some questions to find out where the anti-Thibadeau votes are coming from.”

A recent issues survey showed that San Marcos residents don’t think the city is doing enough to improve roads and alleviate traffic, Thibadeau said.

“If you don’t do anything, you can be popular,” Thibadeau said, “but I am outspoken and don’t let politics stop me from doing what needs to be done. I have created pockets of opposition as I’ve gone along.”

Vista

The mayoral race in Vista was slightly juicier as McClellan handily won a third term, outpolling slow-growth rivals Craig Heiller and G. Kevin Auen. McClellan, on the council for 19 years, got 54% of the vote, to 25% for Auen and 21% for Heiller.

Fallbrook Unified

And, in an election outcome that was surprising but not shocking, Fallbrook Unified School District voters rejected Proposition Y for $35 million in bonds to handle crowding by building a new high school and renovating Fallbrook High.

Proposition Y got 54% of the vote, against a 46% “no” vote, but the measure needed a two-thirds majority for passage. The losing margin was greater than last June, when a nearly identical Fallbrook school bond measure was defeated by only 100 votes, inspiring this latest attempt.

Criticizing newspaper advertising by Proposition Y foes, Supt. Robert Thomas said, “There was some last-minute misinformation out in the local paper that hurt us. . . . “We came so close in June, I thought we would be at least that close this time.” Opponents say the district doesn’t need to spend so much to accommodate more students and can make the existing high school two stories.

Times staff writers Nancy Ray and Jonathan Gaw contributed to this report.