Anti-Airport Forces Aren’t Anteing Up for Sullivan

Three months before the election, the campaign money that foes of a proposed El Toro airport had promised supervisorial candidate Dave Sullivan has yet to arrive.

Sullivan, who is running on an anti-airport platform, received $17,500 in contributions from May 17 to June 30, along with a $9,200 loan he made to his campaign, according to documents released Friday. The incumbent, pro-airport Supervisor Jim Silva, raised $52,025 in the same period.

In addition, a pro-airport political action committee in Newport Beach is resurfacing for the fall elections, ready to contribute to any candidate who agrees with its platform.

“We are back in business and in a big way,” said Dave Ellis, a consultant for the Airport Working Group political action committee.

The resurrection of the PAC, which has been dormant for at least a year, demonstrates the stakes in the 2nd District contest. The supervisors will make a final decision on the airport plan in December 1999. At present, there is a 3-2 majority on the board favoring converting the base to a commercial airport after the Marines leave. A Sullivan victory would reverse the majority.

Sullivan said he was not disheartened by the lack of money he has received and that his campaign was only beginning.

“It’s a start in a mountain of money I’m going to have to raise,” he said, noting that more than half of the $17,500 he collected came from South County, where most of the opposition to the airport is centered.

Political consultant Harvey Englander said the campaign may cost as much as $200,000.

Silva, who received contributions from a range of individuals and corporations, said he was confident of victory in November. Of the $52,025 he raised, Silva has $28,276 remaining.

“I spend a lot of time dialing for dollars,” he said. “My district favors the airport. My opponent is a Johnny-one-note candidate, and he’s on the wrong side of the issue.”

South County airport opponents say the summer months have been slow for fund-raising but that their efforts will kick into high gear after Labor Day.

“The numbers should not concern anybody,” said Bill Kogerman of the anti-airport political action committee Taxpayers for Responsible Planning. “I think [Sullivan] will raise sufficient dollars to take Mr. Silva’s seat.”

Airport foes, however, have not shown they can raise money like the Airport Working Group or that they have the same clout. The Newport Beach PAC led efforts to pass Measure A, the 1994 ballot initiative that eased the way for an El Toro Airport, and led the campaign against Measure S in 1996, the failed effort to overturn Measure A.

“Money is always a big deal,” Englander said. “The critical question for Sullivan is will he be able to turn the South County pledges into South County cash.”

Rather than one political action committee raising funds and sending out mailers such as the Newport Beach PAC, South County anti-airport groups are dependent upon individual donors who are limited to a $1,000 donation by campaign finance laws.

The Airport Working Group PAC plans its first big fund-raiser Aug. 22.

“South County has met its match,” said Ellis.

In the 4th Supervisorial District race, Cynthia Coad, a North Orange County Community College District board member, continues to have more money than Anaheim Councilman Lou Lopez because of donations and loans she has made to her campaign.

Both candidates support an airport at the 4,700-acre Marine base.

Coad has loaned her campaign $120,000 and received $10,872 in contributions this reporting period.

She said her desire to win is so strong that she is using her retirement funds and inheritance from her mother, who passed away two years ago, to finance the campaign.

“County citizens lack trust in county government, and I feel I have some ideas for solutions to many of the county’s problems,” she said. “I am from the community and I have grass-roots support.”

Lopez raised $24,000 this reporting period, with a vast majority of that money coming from people in Anaheim.

Knowing that it will be a tough race, Lopez has hired Ellis to run his campaign.

“This is serious stuff,” Lopez said. “We’re in the big leagues now.”