A One-Issue Election: Where Do You Stand on El Toro?

Orange County voters will go to the polls next month to decide whether to forgo an airport at the former El Toro Marine base that has been nearly eight years in the planning.

It will be the fourth time voters have weighed in on the question of building a regional airport at the closed 4,700-acre base. But the issue has been an overarching one in many more elections since the proposed airport was narrowly approved the first time in 1994.

The airport question comes before voters March 5 as Measure W, which would rezone El Toro to become an urban park and prevent an airport from being built there. On the same ballot, the airport question looms large in the race for one county supervisor’s seat, as well as three other countywide offices that arguably have no authority over the base’s future.

Yet in each case, candidates’ statements or their actions regarding El Toro are being attacked by challengers seeking support from anti-airport south county residents.

The airport factor is obvious in the race between incumbent Cynthia Coad, chairwoman of the county Board of Supervisors, and Fullerton City Councilman Chris Norby. Coad is one of three pro-airport votes on the five-member county board. Norby, who opposes the airport, has raised about $125,000 as of last month, much of it from donors in south county.

Even in the rancorous fight for the district attorney’s seat, the airport has emerged as an issue.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Wally Wade has met with south county political leaders, urging support for his campaign against Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas. His pitch: Rackauckas was among four signers of a ballot argument opposing passage of anti-airport Measure F in 2000. That measure, which required a countywide vote before construction of airports, large jails near homes or hazardous waste landfills, passed with 67% of the vote. It was later overturned.

In the nonpartisan race for county clerk-recorder, Irvine attorney Bruce Peotter is reminding south county community groups that his opponent, Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly, has been a leading supporter of an El Toro airport. But Daly has a counterpunch: potent endorsements from anti-airport Irvine Mayor Larry Agran and Councilman Chris Mears.

And county Assessor Webster J. Guillory is being challenged by deputy appraiser Larry Bales. Bales hopes his study showing an expected drop in property values around a future airport at El Toro will draw support.

“The airport has clearly become a litmus test among south Orange County voters, affecting even races that have nothing to do with it,” said Cheryl Katz, who conducts polling for The Times.

“On issues where people feel very personally affected, they assign a huge emotional investment in the outcome,” Katz said. North County voters make up about 70% of the county’s registered voters. Some analysts predict, however, that motivated south county voters could boost their influence in election-day turnout to 50% of the votes cast.

Some frustrated airport opponents in south county regard the airport as a litmus test even for candidates for state office.

“At this time, I, for one, will simply not vote for any candidate for any office in the state of California if they have not expressed opposition to this airport,” one voter wrote on an anti-airport Web site.

Another message said state Sen. Richard Ackerman (R-Irvine), running for California attorney general, should be shunned by Republicans because he endorsed Coad, even though he has issued recent statements opposing the airport.

Yet another questioned the position of Irvine-based Assemblyman John Campbell, who wants to change airport zoning at El Toro to become an urban park. Campbell supports Measure W--but his recent declaration was too little, too late for some hard-core anti-airport activists.

“This is single-issue politics,” said Mark Petracca, head of UC Irvine’s political science department and an airport foe. “Traditionally, these have been issues like abortion, school choice, school prayer, gun control. They’re issues upon which, despite a gap between the person you’re voting for and their responsibility over the issue that concerns you, you use that issue to cast your vote.”

The race in which the airport arguably plays the greatest role is Norby’s challenge to Coad. From early on, Norby sold his campaign to south county residents as the only way to unseat one of the airport’s strongest allies and tip the board majority against the project. Whatever happens with the airport, the Board of Supervisors will continue to play a pivotal role in plans for the former Marine base.

The same argument was made by former Huntington Beach City Councilman Dave Sullivan, who raised more than $400,000 in south county donations in his unsuccessful 1998 race for supervisor against Jim Silva. Silva, an airport supporter, is running unopposed this year.

Norby will try to use the airport against Coad as an issue of good governance, Petracca said. Measure F is an example of supervisors not listening to their constituents, he said: Voters in every Orange County city but two--Newport Beach and Costa Mesa--backed Measure F, only to see supervisors successfully challenge it in court.

In the district attorney race, the airport wouldn’t have become a factor if Rackauckas hadn’t been so visible on one side of the issue, Petracca said.

The district attorney’s involvement in the “No on Measure F” campaign so angered his traditional donors in south county that they called him to a meeting to defend himself.

Rackauckas’ explanation: He opposed the measure because it would have made it more difficult to build badly needed jails.

Wade recently met with several south county groups to promote his candidacy, but so far, he hasn’t attracted the sizable donations seen in other races. As of last month, he had raised about $75,000, with donations spread from around the county.

In the assessor race, meanwhile, Bales said he leaped on the airport issue because an airport would have an impact on the value of homes nearest the flight paths. He provided airport opponents with a study showing properties nearby would lose, in total, $1.1 billion to $3.5 billion in value. That impact should be factored in when evaluating the airport’s cost, said Assemblywoman Patricia Bates (R-Laguna Niguel).

“Building this airport is going to affect tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue,” Bales said.

Nearly three-quarters of voters said the March election is somewhat or very unlikely to end the debate, according to a survey by the Orange County Business Council and Cal State Fullerton.

“They see this as dragging well into the future,” said director Stan Oftelie said. “They’re probably right.”