Leaders differ on neutrality

When it comes to serious funding from the two major political parties at work in the Costa Mesa City Council race, there are the haves and have-nots.

Although city council races are considered nonpartisan throughout the state, according to the state’s election code, thousands of dollars of party money have financed mailers, fliers and other advocacy on behalf of Costa Mesa council candidates.

Five of the nine candidates don’t have a dime of discernible money from the Republicans or Democrats, while the other four have varying degrees of support.

Among the candidates with no partisan support, Lisa Reedy and Bill Sneen have gone the furthest to distance themselves from party influence. Aside from not courting party money, the two changed their voter-registration statuses to “decline to state” in order to make it clear to voters that they didn’t plan to bring partisan ideology to City Hall.

Sometimes issues that are big-party platforms on the national stage, such as taxes and immigration, distract the council from citywide concerns that the council has more influence over and are more important to residents’ day-to-day lives, Reedy said.

“There’s so much emphasis on issues like that that we’ve perhaps lost touch with some of the real issues in our city,” Reedy said.

The chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County, Scott Baugh, disagrees with the premise that the elections should be nonpartisan. The Republican Party has spent thousands on glossy mailers supporting Gary Monahan, Jim Righeimer and Eric Bever in the race, and Baugh sees no problem with the party’s involvement.

“When policies are being made that affect, for example, my taxes or my ability to run a business, I want someone on that council that’s going to have a philosophy of more limited government than more expansive government,” Baugh said.

In addition to the money spent on behalf of the three endorsed candidates, each of them has received thousands individually from Republican political activists and donors such as George Argyros, Buck Johns and Baugh himself.

Katrina Foley is supported by the county’s Democratic leaders, but with significantly less money. She is listed on the Democratic Foundation of Orange County’s voter guide, along with many other Democrats running for office, and she has $100 donations from a couple of party leaders.

Although the party supports Foley, Frank Barbaro, chairman of the Democratic Party of Orange County, disputes Baugh’s notion that the elections should be partisan.

“I’m not saying that some of these issues don’t come down to whether you’re conservative or liberal, but the great majority of issues I’ve seen — zoning permits and stuff — I’m not really enthusiastic about them being partisan issues. You get some crazy ideologues in there, and they totally miss the boat,” Barbaro said.

He mentioned schools and street repairs as examples of typical city issues that should be nonpartisan. Besides, Barbaro said, city councils do not have the authority to increase taxes. Because of Proposition 13, tax increases that would hit city residents have to be approved by the general public, often by a two-thirds majority.

Despite the need for Costa Mesa voters to approve tax increases, the City Council still has authority over whether potential tax increases are put before the voters.

Even if the council can’t raise or lower taxes directly, though, Righeimer still sees the issue as one where party philosophy informs the decision whether to put a possible tax increase on the ballot. If the council votes to put a tax increase on the ballot and leaves the decision in the hands of the public, well-funded advertising campaigns can easily sway voters, Righeimer said.

Earlier this year, a possible increase in the hotel tax was squashed in large part because of the refusal of council members Bever, Allan Mansoor and Wendy Leece to give the voters the final say on raising the amount of money Costa Mesa hotel guests would have to pay.

According to Righeimer, issues like that make party affiliation relevant to city voters on their way to the polls.

“I think in the case of Republicans communicating to Republicans, it’s fine. For Republicans to tell other Republicans that these are the Republicans that the party has endorsed is fine,” Righeimer said.

Reedy is still looking at possible solutions to limit partisan financial contributions in future races. Along with Sneen, Chris McEvoy, Chris Bunyan and Nick Moss, she is a long shot to win a seat given the disparity in money between them and the top four earners.

Not all of this can be attributed to party support, though. Three of the four top fundraisers are incumbents or past council members, and the other is a longtime political activist who has run a campaign for elected office before.

ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].