Doubt That All Roads Lead to El Toro? Listen In on D.A. Race

Richard Riordan recently came under heat because he’s all conflicted over abortion. Once upon a time, he deplored it as murder. Now that he’s running for governor and realizes that such a take riles up untold thousands of voters, he’s got a whole different view, which is that people should make up their own minds.

Orange County D.A. Tony Rackauckas has had a similar epiphany, as he defends his turf against challenger Wally Wade, a deputy D.A. who lost to Rackauckas in 1998 and is trying again to knock him off his perch.

Rackauckas has let it be known he’ll vote for Measure W, the anti-airport initiative on the March ballot that would scrap plans to build an airport on the abandoned El Toro Marine base and replace it with the so-called Great Park.

As abortion is to many voters, so is El Toro to South County.

For Rackauckas, the view from Saddleback Valley and environs now makes an El Toro airport look like a lousy idea. The view was different in March 2000 when he opposed Measure F, the county’s last anti-airport plebiscite. He says his opposition then centered on the part of Measure F that would have limited future jail construction.

Rackauckas had every right to oppose Measure F. And he has every right to tell people now that his vote then had nothing to do with El Toro.

And we have every right to scoff and assume he’s cozying up to the South County anti-airport folks.

If you think it’s ridiculous that voters should link El Toro to the district attorney’s race, you’re today’s grand prize winner.

But that’s life in South County.

“If you’re pro-airport, you’re probably going to lose a lot of votes down here,” says one longtime South County officeholder. “It doesn’t make sense, but both sides are so polarized now that it’s almost like religion and it’s senseless to talk about it.”

Rackauckas, who lives in Santa Ana, has never been identified with anti-airport forces. When he told them on a Web site that he’d vote for a Great Park, he said it shouldn’t be construed as an endorsement of Measure W, just a statement as to how he’d vote.

Inquiring minds want to know what Wade says about all this. He’s claimed throughout the campaign that Rackauckas has politicized the office. Predictably, the news release that came flying out of the Wade campaign says Rackauckas’ sudden embrace of a great park is but the latest example.

Wade hasn’t taken a public position on Measure W and says he won’t. Becoming publicly linked with a position on bond issues or major initiatives such as Measure W, Wade says, could lead to a perception the D.A.’s office won’t be objective if legal challenges come later or if advice is sought.

To make his point, he notes the controversy surrounding the county’s spending for the pro-airport cause.

Wade, who lives in San Juan Capistrano in the midst of anti-airport sentiment, says he’s been asked to speak out against the airport but has declined.

I ask if that might hurt him in South County. “It might,” he says. “In the last election, when Tony and I ran against each other, they offered to put me on an anti-airport Web site as the anti-airport candidate. I said I didn’t think it was appropriate. Four years hasn’t changed the inappropriateness of it.”

Wade says the issue is what he calls Rackauckas’ flip-flop. Wade says it’s “tempting” to come out for Measure W, but that he is resisting it.

I score this one for Wade and deduct points from Rackauckas for his blatant pandering. But Wade is a bit more wily than he lets on.

For one thing, he’s from South County and carries the presumption of being anti-airport. He’s also got a pro-Measure W sign in his frontyard.

He didn’t put it up, he says--friends did--and its presence doesn’t constitute a public position, inasmuch as someone would have to know where he lives and drive by his house to see the sign.

A little cagey, but on balance, he’s right.

You could always take it down, I say.

Yes, he says, he could. But for now, he doesn’t plan to.

*

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