No One Dares Challenge Bergeson for Supervisor Seat : Election: The state senator will run unfettered June 7 as filing deadline passes with no opposition. Incumbent Riley says it’s a sign of her clout.

More than two months before the June 7 election, state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) effectively won her bid to succeed retiring County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley when Wednesday’s filing deadline passed leaving her without an opponent.

“I’m very pleased not to have opposition, but we will still be continuing our campaign,” Bergeson said. “We have scheduled (campaign) appointments into the spring, and I intend to keep them.”

The lack of opposition, Riley said, should be taken as a measure of Bergeson’s local popularity and political strength.

Before Bergeson announced her candidacy last year, Riley said seven South County officials had talked to him about running for his 5th District seat.

“When Marian entered the race, they didn’t follow up,” said Riley, who will retire in January after 20 years as the Board of Supervisors South County representative. “It makes me feel real good. I know the district will gain by having her there. She is a person committed to good government.”

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Perhaps most imposing about Bergeson’s candidacy was her choice of campaign leadership, a team that included the immensely popular Riley, a former Marine Corps general, and former baseball Commissioner Peter V. Ueberroth, who lives in Laguna Beach.

During her 15 years in Sacramento, first as an assemblywoman and then as a senator, the former Newport-Mesa Unified School District board member has been credited with defending a conservative philosophy that marks local government and politics in Orange County.

In the only other county race with a Wednesday filing deadline, Huntington Beach businesswoman Haydee V. Tillotson was the last to formally qualify for a place on the June ballot for a seat to be vacated by retiring County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder.

Tillotson was the only addition to a field of five other candidates looking to win election to Wieder’s 2nd District seat. The other candidates are Huntington Beach council members Linda Moulton-Patterson and Jim Silva, John A. Thomas and Steven E. Malone of Huntington Beach and Raymond Thomas Littrell of Garden Grove.

Candidates for the two supervisorial seats were given a three-day extension to file candidacy papers since Riley and Wieder are not seeking reelection.

In Dana Point, the only city holding a council election in June, the municipal race has attracted the largest field of candidates since 1988 and is expected to be a political free-for-all, officials said.

With three open council seats in which two of the incumbents will not seek reelection, 13 residents filed candidate forms by Wednesday’s deadline.

The only incumbent who has chosen to seek reelection is Councilwoman Karen Lloreda.

“This is going to be bloody,” said Councilman Mike Eggers, one of the two not seeking reelection. “This election will make the incorporation battle between Laguna Niguel and Dana Point look like a church social. I’m looking forward to watching it.”

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Eggers said each candidate “will try to stake out their own issue” and turn each candidate forum into “a three-ring circus.”

“You will hear so many solutions to issues it will look like a White House initiative,” said Eggers, an aide to Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside).

Councilwoman Eileen Krause, the other incumbent who decided not to run, said she was excited to see so many candidates.

“From what I can tell, we are really going to have some qualified people running,” Krause said. “I like having a selection and also having new people. It brings enthusiasm and high energy to the election.”

The Dana Point candidates are: Addison DeBoi, Toni Gallagher, Ron C. Hascall, Ray Johnson, Harold Kaufman, Councilwoman Lloreda, Robert W. Moore, Witold Muller, Ernest A. Nelson, David Pytleski, William C. Shepherd, Robert D. Wilberg and Lloyd Woerner.