ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Now, Here’s the <i> Good</i> Election News

All in all, it was quite an Election Day for Orange County. The best news: On the third try, voters finally approved Measure M, the half-cent sales tax for transportation. That means Orange County can move forward on vitally important freeway, street and transit projects.

Also very good news: Laguna Beach voters approved a $20-million bond issue, its first step in raising $78 million toward purchasing Laguna Canyon from the Irvine Co. A year ago, few would have predicted that the city would be within striking distance of saving the precious canyon from development.

Passage of these two spending measures, especially given world unrest and the threat of national economic recession, was a pleasant surprise, to say the least. Orange County, after all, is just about as strongly anti-tax a county as one can get.

In other election results, for example, county voters overwhelmingly said no to bonds for prisons, schools, housing, water projects, parks and recreation and county courthouse construction--not to mention turning down the “Big Green” environmental initiative.

That made the victories of Measure M and the Laguna Canyon bond measure all the sweeter. The message: If a strong case is made that a tax will improve people’s lives in a very specific and visible way, they’ll vote for it.

There’s other good news, as well. In Huntington Beach, voters made a wise choice between two confusing measures. By approving Measure C, they have taken a step toward preserving precious oceanfront and park lands. Elsewhere, three more cities--Orange, Costa Mesa and Fullerton--voted to oppose fireworks.

Voters also were discerning in their choice of candidates. Offered a worthy opponent to longtime county Schools Supt. Robert Peterson, they voted for educator John F. Dean.

In Costa Mesa, City Councilman Orville Amburgey, who divided the community on immigrant and arts issues and who was accused of conflicts of interest, was voted out. And Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), whose first term was marred by the poll-guard controversy, was defeated by Democrat Tom Umberg of Garden Grove. Irvine wisely kept direct election of mayors.

But the vote for Measure M showed the urgency with which Orange County voters regard quality of life issues in the 1990s. The money will go for many projects aimed at easing traffic miseries that threaten to erode what’s best about Orange County.

Passage was banner news, indeed.