Bernhardt Recall Alters Outlook for S.D. Council : Election: Her defeat raises questions about colleagues’ security and sets the stage for reversals on major issues.

San Diego City Councilwoman Linda Bernhardt’s landslide defeat in her recall election raises questions about other incumbents’ security and sets the stage for the City Council to reconsider and perhaps reverse ground on a wide array of major issues, City Hall and political leaders said Wednesday.

As a dejected Bernhardt remained in seclusion in the aftermath of her humbling 2 1/2-1 loss in Tuesday’s 5th District recall election, attention within political circles shifted to how her replacement by corporate lawyer Tom Behr will alter the council’s balance of power and perhaps affect politics in San Diego.

“This should scare the hell out of every incumbent,” said campaign consultant Bob Glaser. “Because now they know this could happen to them, too.”

Although others said they do not envision recalls becoming a regular entry on the city’s political calendar, there was general agreement that, if nothing else, Bernhardt’s ouster only 17 months into her four-year term is ample cause for other incumbents to glance nervously over their shoulders.

“There’s an old saying in chess that the threat is more powerful than the execution,” said Jim Sills, Councilman Bruce Henderson’s administrative assistant. “I don’t think you’re going to see a lot of recall attempts. But just having the threat there has an effect.”

Dismayed environmentalists, meanwhile, fear that the Behr-for-Bernhardt shift will see the so-called Gang of Five pro-environment majority replaced by a new coalition more sympathetic to development. That critical one-vote swing could also prompt the council to reconsider other major issues--notably, the controversial redistricting map that was the impetus for Bernhardt’s recall.

Final unofficial vote totals showed that Bernhardt, who needed a majority vote to survive the recall, was ousted by an overwhelming 71%-29% margin, 15,240 votes to 6,251. While those figures were grim enough, an even more sobering statistical comparison shows that about 1,400 more people voted for the recall than originally supported Bernhardt in 1989.

“It’s the old story in politics--once a person starts a negative slide, stopping it is like trying to stop a freight train,” said consultant Jack Orr, who assisted the Recall Bernhardt Committee during the early stages of the campaign. “I don’t think she ever had a chance.”

In the seven-candidate race for a successor, Behr, a 48-year-old political novice from Scripps Ranch, narrowly edged former San Diego City Councilman Floyd Morrow to earn the right to serve the rest of Bernhardt’s term, which expires in December, 1993. Behr, a lawyer for Solar Turbines, will take office in about two weeks, when the council officially certifies the election results.

Behr received 4,898 votes (25.7%), against 4,594 ballots (24.1%) for Morrow, who failed in his bid for a political comeback in the north-central San Diego district that launched his public career in the mid-1960s. The five other would-be successors were distant also-rans, none topping 3,000 votes.

After about 850 ballots not counted on Election Night were tabulated Wednesday, confirming his loss, Morrow said he might request a recount in the hope of reversing his 304-vote deficit--an effort that San Diego County Registrar of Voters Conny McCormack described as both fruitless and costly. A recount in a local congressional race last fall in which nearly five times more ballots were cast resulted in a shift of only five votes, McCormack noted, adding that a recount in this election could cost Morrow up to $5,000.

“Basically, it would be a waste of time,” she said.

Bernhardt’s only comment on her lopsided loss came in a prepared statement released by her council office after she had earlier canceled plans for a news conference and scrapped a scheduled television appearance.

“I am not so disappointed for myself as I am for the future of San Diego,” Bernhardt said in the statement. “In just (17) short months, we have been able to shift the balance of power on the council from a pro-growth agenda to an environmental agenda. Now, our critically important environmental agenda is in danger of being dismantled.”

Behr’s philosophical differences with Bernhardt on the growth issue will have environmentalists and developers alike closely watching Behr.

His lack of a legislative track record, combined with his rather vague and innocuous statements on growth during the campaign, mean Behr will enter City Hall as something of a question mark. Environmentalists’ suspicions have already been aroused, however, by the fact that a sizable part of his campaign contributions came from the development industry.

“With Behr, it’s going to be the Struiksma days all over again,” said Peter Navarro, head of the managed-growth group Prevent Los Angelization Now, referring to the pro-development two-term councilman whom Bernhardt defeated in 1989.

Behr, who chafed at his opponents’ attempts to portray him as developers’ preferred candidate, tried to position himself throughout the campaign as a moderate with a “balanced approach” on growth and most key issues. To underline that tack Wednesday, Behr borrowed a campaign line from from fourth-place finisher John Brand.

“There’s a lot more to San Diego than just development and environmentalism, and I don’t think even those two things are mutually exclusive,” Behr said. “I said I’d take any legal contribution I could get from any group or individual. That’s not an indication of how I’ll vote.”

Sierra Club spokesman Linda Michael, however, said environmentalists remain skeptical, adding that they will be “real curious to see how (Behr) puts into practice this sense of balance he claims to have.”

“There’s also some irony in that one of the reasons the recall happened is that Linda was criticized for taking contributions from developers, and now she’s being replaced by someone who took a lot of money from developers,” Michael said.

Though some political activists argued Wednesday that Bernhardt’s ignominious departure from City Hall could inspire other recalls, even leaders of the group that ousted her expressed doubt that recalls will become anything more than a rarely used tactical weapon.

“Unless somebody else goes out and deliberately misrepresents himself to his constituents, as Bernhardt did, I wouldn’t expect to see another one of these in the near future,” said Bob Trettin, a consultant to the anti-Bernhardt group. “The message for politicians is, ‘Lie to me once, shame on you. Lie to me twice, shame on me if I let you get away with it.’ ”

“It’s a bit of a sword hanging over politicians’ heads,” added Mac Strobl, a lobbyist whose clients often include developers. “While I have no doubt someone’s going to rattle that saber from time to time, I think the overall effect will be to just make politicians aware that someone’s watching them a little more carefully than they might think. But that’s not such a bad thing.”

Mayor Maureen O’Connor detected a similar political lesson in the recall, arguing that Bernhardt’s political demise could enhance accountability among her council colleagues.

“What this shows is that you’d better keep your promises--something a lot of politicians aren’t so great at,” O’Connor said. “She got elected saying she wanted to represent Scripps Ranch and would not take developer contributions, but then did exactly the opposite. Her credibility went right out the window.”

Though many factors lay behind the recall--among them, Bernhardt’s acceptance of contributions from developers, contrary to a campaign pledge not to do so--it was spawned primarily by her vote last year for a controversial redistricting map that removed Scripps Ranch and Mira Mesa from the 5th District.

By jettisoning those communities into another district, recall leaders argued, Bernhardt, whose vote was decisive in the council’s 5-4 split, broke faith with the very constituents who had helped elect her less than a year before. That “act of political abandonment” alone, they said, justified the recall.

With that redistricting map still the subject of a pending lawsuit, city officials said Wednesday that Behr’s election could lead to the council’s reconsideration of the bitterly debated topic. Behr, in fact, has said he is “willing to take a look at that”--meaning that a majority of the council could favor reopening the redistricting question.

Ironically, Behr lives within the 5th District’s former boundaries, rather than the “new” district created by last year’s redistricting and which he was elected to represent Tuesday. Barring yet another reconfiguration of council districts, Behr--whose Scripps Ranch residence places him in Councilman Bruce Henderson’s 6th District--would be forced to move before 1993 to defend the seat.

“I don’t think we’re done with redistricting,” O’Connor said. “The fact is, a single map cost a council member her political career. By the time this is over, it could cost others theirs.”

FINAL ELECTION RETURNS Linda Bernhardt Recall

All Precincts Reporting Votes % Yes 15,240 70.91 No 6,251 29.09

All Precincts Reporting Votes % Tom Behr 4,898 25.67 Floyd Morrow 4,594 24.08 Les Braund 2,946 15.44 John Brand 2,155 11.29 Dena Holman 1,688 8.85 Ken Moser 1,491 7.81 Mike Eckmann 1,309 6.86

Elected candidates and winning side of measures are in bold type.