They Want Him to Run, All Right, but Not for Office

I now see Supervisor Chuck Smith in a whole new light. I always considered him about as exciting as a glass of warm milk at bedtime. A solid guy, but between you and me, no 007.

Shows what I know. Smith has more schnapps in him than I thought.

He recently sent letters to City Council members throughout Orange County, asking for their endorsement when he runs for reelection next year.

Get this, he included South County council members in his mailings.

Not even James Bond had the nerve to ask SPECTRE to endorse his work.

“I’d heard a couple people were offended,” Smith said dryly, when I asked him about his letter. “I’m sure some were amused.”

Well put.

Smith is a member of the three-member Board of Supervisor majority that is shepherding plans for an international airport at the El Toro Marine Corps base. To a large majority of South County residents, those are fighting words.

So Smith’s endorsement-seeking letter arrived like a heat-seeking missile in South County.

This line, especially, must have garnered lots of oohs and aahs: “I have taken a strong lead in development of El Toro . . . as an international airport with both passenger and air cargo service, and also in the economic development of Orange County as an international trade and tourism center.”

For South Countians, he might just as well have added: “During the past year, I introduced toxins into your drinking water and supported the relocation of large colonies of rattlesnakes into your communities.”

Smith says he’s not surprised at the reaction. “That’s the way I expected them to respond. Politically, it’s not expedient for South County to support me, because of the airport issue. I understand and recognize that, but I wanted to give them the courtesy of at least being asked.”

Lake Forest Mayor Peter Herzog was so struck by Smith’s courteousness when he received the letter that “I threw it out.” Herzog says he assumed his name was on some master campaign-mailer list.

When I told him Smith intentionally sent the letter to all council members, Herzog replied: “Oh, so he meant to do it?”

Mission Viejo Mayor Sherri Butterfield was equally unmoved. She has not only worked with Smith before and been impressed with him but donated $60 to his first run for supervisor.

That was then.

“What I said to my council was that I was tempted to write back to him and say, ‘Has hell frozen over?’ and I usually don’t talk like that,” she says.

I asked Butterfield why she wouldn’t send Smith $60 next time around. “Because I feel he joined forces with the folks trying to cram [the airport] down our throats,” she says. “He’s not keeping his eyes open, even to the degree that Supervisor [William] Steiner did, trying to protect to some degree the interests of South County.”

Herzog agrees. “He’s been pretty strident about the airport,” he says of Smith.

Neither Herzog nor Butterfield said they can identify a single elected official in South County who would publicly support Smith.

I asked Smith if it bothers him that South County people with whom he’s worked collegially on other issues hold the airport against him.

“Of course, it bothers me a great deal because we’re in the process of trying to design and build an airport, and they don’t want to come to the table and sit down and talk,” he says.

“All they want to do is say, ‘No, no way, and we’re going to fight you every step of the way.’ ”

Smith says he’d like to work with South County representatives to minimize the adverse impact of an airport that, he suggests, is inevitable.

Perhaps. Perhaps hell will freeze over.

For now, I made Smith promise one thing: If any South County council member endorses him, he’ll call me immediately.

“You’ll be the first to hear about it,” he said.

And he was laughing.

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Parsons by calling (714) 966-7821, by writing to him at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626, or by e-mail at dana.parsons@latimes.com.