Goodby, but Don’t Forget Measure R : It Needs All the Champions It Can Get, Including a Lame-Duck Gaddi Vasquez

Gaddi H. Vasquez once appeared to be an Orange County political version of an Indy 500 racer, moving around the track at top speed and leaving his competitors in the dust. But the county’s bankruptcy finally proved Vasquez’s insurmountable obstacle. He deserves credit for recognizing the inevitable and announcing last week that he will not seek reelection as supervisor next year.

Political analysts have spent the days since Vasquez’s announcement speculating on who is likely to run for his seat. But first there is the matter of Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase on the ballot June 27. Vasquez’s proclamation could defuse some of the anger of those who oppose Measure R because the supervisors who were in office when the county declared bankruptcy last December have not quit. But solving the problem caused by the bankruptcy and changing leaders are separate issues. There is time enough to remove officeholders when they are on the ballot again, if that is the voters’ desire. Defeating the tax increase would hardly punish the supervisors.

Vasquez has not abandoned his office; he said only that he will not seek reelection next March, which could leave him in office for another year and a half. But that could change; if someone offers him an attractive job, he might decide to resign immediately and take it.

Vasquez said that not seeking reelection will let him devote more time to his family. That is an understandable and worthwhile motive, although skeptics said Vasquez’s decision merely reflects recognition that the voters would turn him out of office even if he ran. That may be true, but the timing here was important--before the vote on Measure R rather than afterward. Vasquez was one of the three supervisors who displayed political courage by announcing they would support the tax increase, not an easy position in an anti-tax county.

It is regrettable that when he commented on his political future he did not take the opportunity to publicize again the reasons for his support of Measure R as well, and urge people to vote for it. He is in a position to know why the county needs to approve the increase: There are no feasible alternatives. Vasquez is likely to be remembered as a casualty of the bankruptcy. A statesmanlike appeal from him for passage of Measure R could be influential.