O.C.’s Anti-Airport Measure W Leads; Supervisor Coad Trails

After years of acrimonious debate and three prior ballot showdowns, Orange County voters Tuesday appeared to block plans for an international airport at the former El Toro Marine base by rezoning the 4,700-acre site as parkland, according to early election returns.

In a further display of anti-airport sentiment, Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Cynthia P. Coad was trailing in her reelection campaign, which threatened to reverse the panel’s long-standing pro-airport majority.

The early Measure W results elated anti-airport activists as pro-airport forces began discussing possible next steps--including a legal challenge and yet another initiative to undo Measure W.

Barring those efforts, passage of the ballot measure would make it exceedingly difficult for pro-airport forces to realize their vision of an international hub in the heart of Orange County.

“It would be very hard for it to proceed,” said Jack Pitney, a Republican analyst and professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. “In politics you never say never, but sooner or later political reality can block any project. . . . My sense is that one should not place a lot of money on the El Toro airport being built.”

On a sparkling late-winter day, Orange County’s voter turnout was light--about 22.5% by early evening--but in keeping with past off-year primaries, despite the high-profile statewide Republican gubernatorial primary.

There was plenty of electoral drama. In a rematch from four years ago, Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas took an early lead and claimed victory in his tough reelection fight against one of his deputies, Wally Wade. And in one of the day’s odder races, a bevy of write-in candidates appeared to have forced accused child molester Ronald C. Kline into a runoff election for his Orange County Superior Court seat.

The key issue of the day, though, centered on what to do with the former El Toro Marine base--the fourth time the issue has gone before voters.

“I voted yes to kill the airport idea once and for all,” said Jim King, 34, of Seal Beach, who supported Measure W even though he doubted El Toro is suitable for a park. “I think there is a lot of toxic waste there and an airport is one of the only things that land can be used for. But that’s not a good enough reason to build an LAX here in O.C.”

Airport supporters said Measure W does nothing to address the region’s pressing need for air capacity.

“I think we need a regional airport at El Toro, with the development of South County and the tremendous increase in population,” said Jane Atencio, 60, a Newport Beach Republican. “John Wayne [Airport] can’t handle it.”

Measure W would rezone the 4,700-acre former base for use primarily as a large urban park, undoing the initial 1994 measure that zoned the area for a commercial airport and launched waves of political bickering.

Tuesday night, Measure W supporters packed into a Laguna Hills Holiday Inn ballroom reacted jubilantly as absentee returns showed an early and comfortable lead.

“This will kill the airport, and hopefully we can get onto other issues that are important to Orange County,” said L. Allan Songstad Jr., a Laguna Hills Councilman.

He urged the county to unite as it accepts the air base from the U.S. Navy.

“I think the Navy is going to see that we have a plan to move forward, and that the property is not going to be in limbo,” Songstad said. “There is an end to this issue for them, too.”

Len Kranser, spokesman for Citizens for Safe and Healthy Communities, the group that raised money for Measure W, said its passage leaves the airport proposal “politically dead.”

“The Board of Supervisors might as well stop wasting money on it,” he said. “This vote will be the final nail in the coffin for the airport.”

At Newport Beach’s Villa Nova restaurant, airport supporters waited for election results with a sense of resigned foreboding. Bruce Nestande, a former county supervisor and director of the pro-airport Citizens for Jobs and the Economy, fretted about the amount of money the anti-airport forces spent to push the measure.

“The ability to get your message out increases your chance of winning,” Nestande said.

The debate has largely pitted south against north, with South County residents opposing plans to make a commercial airport out of the air base, built during World War II amid bean fields adjoining what is now Irvine, Tustin and Lake Forest.

Nearly $100 million--most of it public money--has been spent on advertising and lobbying over the years, making El Toro one of the nation’s most expensive land-use battles.

More battles are likely. The Airport Working Group of Orange County, based in Newport Beach, has threatened to challenge Measure W in court as it seeks an El Toro airport to relieve pressure for expansion of John Wayne Airport, whose flight paths carry jets over Newport Beach.

The tenor of the El Toro debate changed last year with the appointment of Newport Beach billionaire George Argyros as President Bush’s ambassador to Spain. Argyros’ departure bled the pro-airport group of both energy and money as the anti-airport coalition raised nearly $2.5 million to mount a nonstop campaign touting the “Great Park” Measure W alternative to an airport.

Tuesday’s vote came on the eve of the U.S. Navy’s release of an environmental review of plans to convert the base from military use. It was not immediately clear how passage of Measure W would affect the Navy’s handing-off of the property to Orange County.

The five-member Board of Supervisors, which favors an airport by a 3-2 majority, will determine how the base is redeveloped. But Measure W’s approval would bar the supervisors from building an airport.

The composition of the board--and its pro-airport majority--hung in the balance Tuesday, with 4th District Supervisor Coad trailing Fullerton Councilman Chris Norby in a race affected by both El Toro and redistricting. Norby opposes the airport; Coad favors it.

Redrawn boundaries after the 2000 Census removed Anaheim and parts of Anaheim Hills and Orange--Coad strongholds--from the 4th District and added Fullerton, Norby’s home base.

Some Fullerton voters, though, turned their backs on Norby.

“I voted for Coad because she’s the incumbent and I’m pleased with the job she’s done,” said Greg Eyre, 42.

As the vote counts went on, Norby and his supporters watched as he shifted from trailing to leading. The pace of excitement picked up as the time slipped past.

Norby, a teacher at Brea Olinda High School who had taken February off to campaign, said he’d given it everything he had. “The voters will decide, but I don’t know what more I could have done.”

After the polls closed, Coad and her husband, Tom, who also is her campaign manager, thanked her campaign staff at a dinner in Anaheim. By late evening, Coad, tired and foot-sore from walking precincts in the campaign’s final days, debated whether to attend an election party hosted by county Republicans at a Newport Beach hotel.

“Look, I plan to go to bed and wake up tomorrow and find out who won,” she said.

Even if Coad prevailed, it might not be good news for airport supporters. Coad and fellow Supervisor Jim Silva--two of the three-pro-airport votes--have said they will drop the issue if Measure W passes.

“I think everybody is looking at this to be the final decision,” Coad said. “If Measure W passes, it changes the zoning. The only way to get that changed back would be to have another vote.”

Measure W wasn’t the only emotion-driven issue on the ballot. In the race for Orange County district attorney, a contentious battle exposed deep rifts among the more than 200 prosecutors in the office and led to the defection of challenger Wade’s campaign manager.

About 10:30 p.m., Rackauckas--holding a comfortable lead--delivered a brief acceptance speech to about 200 supporters gathered in an expansive suite at the Sutton Place Hotel in Newport Beach.

“I’m just very gratified and humbled by the vote of confidence you have given me and the voters have given me,” Rackauckas said.

Wade struck a note of conciliation and said he wanted to be able to work with his boss in the future.

“I hope he’s going to realize that our office can’t function unless we’re unified,” he said.

In many ways, the race was a rerun of the 1998 campaign in which Rackauckas, then a Superior Court judge, won 62% of the vote to 38% for Wade, a top assistant under departing Dist. Atty. Mike Capizzi.

In the current race, Rackauckas raised twice as much money as Wade, but a spate of controversies within the district attorney’s office kept the race close. A Times poll had the race in a dead heat with more voters undecided than committed to either candidate.

Not all the ballot issues were lightning rods. In the little-noted Measure V election, early returns showed voters approving a subtle but fundamental shift in the way county government works.

Most of California’s 58 counties--including Orange County--operate under authority of the state Legislature. The rest operate under voter-approved charters, which give county officials more freedom in how the administration works, such as filling job vacancies and other housekeeping issues.

The driving element behind Measure V, though, was county Supervisor Todd Spitzer’s desire to wrest the filling of vacant seats--most likely his--from the governor’s office and give it to voters in the local district. Spitzer is seeking election to the 71st Assembly District seat, and if he wins, he wants voters in his county supervisorial district to select his successor. Beyond the overt issue of who should fill the vacancy runs the subtler issues of party politics and El Toro. Under the existing format, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis could appoint a pro-airport Democrat to replace Spitzer, an anti-airport Republican.

In one notable municipal election, incumbent Seal Beach Councilman Shawn Boyd, representing the Old Town and Surfside districts, appeared destined for a runoff in his attempt to win reelection in a four-way race clouded by conflict-of-interest allegations.

Early returns showed Boyd running second to challenger Charles Antos, though neither had enough votes to win outright.

The Orange County district attorney’s office is investigating complaints that Boyd voted on the city-financed purchase of a mobile home park by a nonprofit group despite having a business relationship with the park’s owner, Richard Hall.

The investigation focuses on $104,000 that Hall paid Boyd for other business dealings but that Boyd allegedly failed to disclose as required by law.

Boyd admitted during several campaign appearances to making mistakes but asked voters to overlook those problems and focus on his record of service to the city. While the campaign had the potential for mudslinging, Boyd’s opponents--Antos, Beverly Pearce and Walt Miller--refrained from attacking him on the allegations.

Times staff writers Stanley Allison, Tina Borgatta, David Haldane, Evan Halper, Christine Hanley, Jerry Hicks, Monte Morin, Jean O. Pasco, Stuart Pfeifer, Dan Weikel and Phil Willon contributed to this report.

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