Honorary Mayor Cashes In at Benefit

Peggy Mikkelsen has attracted the most votes--and dollars--to become the next honorary mayor of the unincorporated Ojai Valley community of Oak View.

The 52-year-old Navy program analyst wrested the title from current honorary mayor Jay Paddock on Saturday at a combined election, $6 awards dinner and Miss Oak View and Miss Teen Oak View pageant.

The election for the honorary title in the community of about 5,000 people is used as an unabashed fund-raiser. People who buy the beef dinner receive one vote and additional ballots may be purchased for $1 apiece.

“She got lots of crooked people to buy votes,” quipped organizer Lanie Jo Springer, who added that although Mikkelsen won an “overwhelming” victory, exact vote totals in the informal election are unavailable. Springer said she threw the final results away.

The evening grossed $713.77, with a few bills still to be paid, said treasurer John Mikkelsen--Peggy’s husband--although how much of that came from his wife’s campaign is unclear.

Mikkelsen said she spent about $5 on ballots and a friend wrote her a check for $10 on her successful bid for public office.

“I go from Easter bunny to mayor,” Peggy Mikkelsen said. “I’ve been Easter bunny for our Easter egg hunt for the last three years.”

As mayor, she will focus her efforts on getting some sort of after-school youth activity program underway in Oak View. The demise of the community’s bingo operation about two years ago has resulted in little money to support such a program.

The bingo sessions folded after the county banned smoking in its buildings and players also discovered they could win bigger prizes at the then newly reopened casino on the Santa Ynez Indian Reservation in Santa Barbara County.

Mikkelsen takes “office” in June.