CYPRESS : Card Club Opposition Boosts 2 of 3 Winners

Residents’ opposition to card clubs carried enough weight to secure the election of two newcomers to the City Council last week.

Incumbent Councilman Walter K. Bowman was also reelected, but he finished behind the newcomers, Tom Carroll and Mary Ann Jones. Carroll finished first among seven candidates with 17.8% of the vote. Jones, with 16.4%, finished second, and Bowman was third in the race for three seats with 15.9%.

Carroll and Jones, both making their first bids for elective office, were backed by Cypress Citizens Against Card Clubs. That organization led the successful drive in 1993 to defeat a ballot issue that would have authorized card clubs at Los Alamitos Race Track.

“The election Tuesday sent a message that we are opposed to card clubs and it’s still a hot issue in this city,” said Tim Keenan, a spokesman for Cypress Citizens Against Card Clubs.

Carroll, in an interview, said he found in door-to-door campaigning that opposition to card clubs was a dominant issue among Cypress residents.

“People would tell me they don’t want a card club in Cypress,” Carroll said. “They’re not opposed to recreational gambling in a place like Las Vegas. But they don’t want it in Cypress.”

Jones, in a separate interview, said she also found strong opposition to card clubs. “People said they were concerned about crime that is associated with card clubs,” she said.

Both Carroll and Jones said that a late-blooming issue in the city involves the incumbent council’s vote on Sept. 26 to allow construction of a large carpet-distribution warehouse on Valley View Street.

A new residents’ group has filed suit in Orange County Superior Court to challenge the council’s action. Carroll and Jones said they have taken no stand on the warehouse issue, pending a study of the matter and the outcome of the legal case. But both pledged to be open-minded to residents’ concerns.