Del Mar City Council Race Pits ‘Greens’ Against ‘Grays’

It’s been 14 years since an incumbent was reelected to the Del Mar City Council, a political oddity that hasn’t escaped Jan McMillan.

When the polls open at 7 a.m. today, McMillan will attempt to become the first council member to win a second term since Nancy Hoover Hunter, now serving a 6 1/2-year term in federal prison for her role in the J. David & Co. scandal, rode an environmentalist platform to victory in 1978.

Politics is a contentious and aggressive game in Del Mar, and incumbency often makes a candidate more a target than a reelection favorite. Most, such as outgoing council members Jacqueline Winterer and Gay Hugo-Martinez, simply chose not to run for reelection to the council, which pays members a $300 monthly stipend.

“In a sense (incumbents have problems) because this is not a complacent community that lets things stand,” said McMillan, who jokingly included “idiocy” in her reasons for attempting to buck the anti-incumbent tide.

Three openings on the five-member council are up for grabs today in what has developed as a fairly typical Del Mar election.

The five candidates have repeatedly spoken about increasing council harmony and maintaining the city’s village atmosphere, but their support is clearly divided along the party lines that separate the city’s two major political factions.

The so-called “Green” party, the group that generally opposes large developments in the downtown core and supported the plan for a community center defeated by voters last year, has rallied to support McMillan, 50, a former teacher and writer; 48-year-old physicist and planning commissioner Henry Abarbanel and 40-year-old high school teacher Rick Ehrenfeld.

Flush with victory after defeating the civic center plan, the generally pro-business “Grays” are backing Ed Colbert, a 61-year-old architect, and Robert Drummond, a 71-year-old retired parimutuel worker.

This campaign isn’t quite as spirited as those before because the Grays are running only two candidates for the council, meaning it is impossible for them to get a council majority.

Elliot Parks and Rod Franklin, two council veterans who aren’t up for reelection this time, are supported by the Greens.

“I hate to use the words Green and Gray, but nevertheless there is that philosophical difference in the candidates,” said former Mayor Lew Hopkins, Colbert’s campaign manager. “The battle is for the people in the middle,” Del Mar residents who are not firm members of either side.

Debates have centered around the plan for a new civic center, which was shot down by voters last year, the fiscal responsibility of the council and the squabbling among council members that has reached new levels in recent years.

Last week, a group calling itself the “Right to Vote Committee” sent out a mailer attacking the council for voting not to put a traffic initiative on the ballot last year. The council’s decision was upheld by the courts after a citizen’s group sued.

Further, the Grays have charged that the council has needlessly increased the city bureaucracy and wasted money on developing the unsuccessful community center plan.

If anything, this election campaign has been less combative than most. There are no divisive measures on the ballot, nor any major projects under immediate consideration that could cause controversy.

“It’s been very quiet,” said outgoing Councilwoman Winterer. “One of the reasons is that the outcome is preconceived, in the sense that they cannot escape having a continued Green majority.”

Voter turnout is expected to be the usual 35% to 40%.

The timing of the election--out of sync with state and federal elections--reflects Del Mar’s iconoclastic tendencies. Del Mar has traditionally maintained its separate election date in order to keep interest clearly focused on its own issues, longtime City Manager Gloria Curry says.

Local observers expect McMillan to easily win reelection, but upsets have been known to happen. In 1986, incumbent Mayor Arlene Carsten also was considered a favorite and she was soundly defeated, a victim of the growing “Green” movement.