ANAHEIM : Councilman Enters Race for Mayor

During a heated argument last year, Mayor Fred Hunter challenged Councilman Tom Daly to run against him, saying: “I’ll kick your butt right out of town.”

Daly, who responded then by saying he was “embarrassed to live in a city with you as mayor,” took up the challenge Friday by announcing he will run against Hunter in November’s general election.

“I bring a different style of leadership,” Daly said in his announcement on the steps of City Hall on Friday. The 38-year-old executive for the Building Industry Assn., a building trade group, is seeking his second four-year term on the council. “I’m more careful, more deliberate and I think things through. What Anaheim needs is a more careful handling of the taxpayers’ money.”

Hunter, 50, a personal injury attorney who is seeking his third two-year term as mayor, said he will base his campaign on the city’s accomplishments during the past four years.

“The (Anaheim) Sports Arena wouldn’t be going up without Fred Hunter,” he said. “The Pacific Bell building downtown wouldn’t be there without Fred Hunter. There are more cops on the street because of Fred Hunter. The attempt by the county to build a jail in Gypsum Canyon was defeated because of Fred Hunter. Over the last four years, who has done more for Anaheim?”

Hunter and Daly’s shouting match occurred last August during a debate over Hunter’s proposal to impose a 4% utility tax to balance the city’s budget, which Daly opposed. Eventually, a compromise 2% tax was imposed over Daly’s continued objection.

Daly said he continues to oppose the utility tax and will raise it as a campaign issue, as well as what he called the “decline in Anaheim as a place to live.”

“Anaheim is not what it was 10 or 20 years ago,” he said.

Hunter on Friday defended the utility tax increase. “The whole country was in a recession and I did what I felt was best for the city if we were going to hire more police officers,” he said. “Most mayors in most cities in the state raised their utility taxes during the last recession. I was hardly the Lone Ranger on that one.”

Daly will run for mayor and the council simultaneously because of Anaheim’s system of electing its mayor, which is unique within Orange County.

In most cities, the voters elect the council members, who annually choose one of their own to be mayor. But in Anaheim, voters elect the mayor every two years from any council member who wishes to run. Hunter’s council term expires in 1994, so even if Daly defeats him for mayor, he would remain on the council.

The mayor does not have greater power than other council members, but both Hunter and Daly said the office is important because the holder sets the “tone” of how the city is run.