EDITORIAL

There aren’t many issues that carry as much passion and importance in the

minds of Newport Beach citizens than the future of John Wayne Airport.

Tied into that future, most believe, is the fate of the closed El Toro

Marine base.

El Toro’s future, at least until March, appears to be wrapped up in the

South County-sponsored Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative -- now

known as Measure F.

If passed, it would require a two-thirds majority of county voters to

approve any new or expanded airports, jails or toxic waste dumps.

As such, the stakes are higher now than they ever have been. Millions of

dollars have been -- and will continue to be -- invested by the county,

cities and various political groups on both sides.

The pro-airport contingency is already at a disadvantage. Promoting a

new airport in a suburban community -- no matter how solid the argument

-- is an uphill battle. Each strategic step must be carefully planned and

implemented.

That’s why we -- and probably many Newport-Mesa residents and leaders

-- stand baffled by what looked like the equivalent of a fumble on the

one-yard line by Newport Beach-based Citizens for Jobs and the Economy.

A political action committee within that nonprofit group -- which just

received $750,000 from the city of Newport Beach -- is heading up the

anti-initiative campaign. One of its first and most important tasks was

to get the ballot argument against the initiative to the county

Registrar’s Office by 5 p.m. Dec. 10.

Without those statements on the ballot, voters would only see arguments

in favor of the measure, which to say the least, wouldn’t bode well for

its defeat.

Bruce Nestande, the executive director of the group, was reportedly in

New York last week. So political consultant Dave Ellis, who works for the

Airport Working Group -- another group heavily funded by Newport Beach --

volunteered to handle it.

He probably regretted that decision when he found himself locked out of

the County Registrar’s Office at 5 p.m. (or was it 4:59?) on deadline

day.

Ellis maintains he was there before 5 p.m., despite the registrar’s

contention that he wasn’t.

Regardless, we’re sure Newport Beach residents don’t want the fate of El

Toro airport to hinge on whether Ellis arrived at 4:58 or 5:01.

Especially when Newport’s quality of life in the 21st Century is on the

line.

Only a generous ruling by a judge allowed the argument to go on the

ballot and saved Ellis, the Citizens for Jobs and the Economy and Newport

Beach from a major debacle.

To be fair, Ellis said he was at the registrar’s office at 1 p.m. that

day when he realized one of the five signatures needed on the statement

was invalid. To that, we could ask: how hard is it to get five valid

signatures? Or this: why cut things even that close? Why not turn the

argument in the day before?

Though the initiative effort is funded privately, Citizens for Jobs and

the Economy does represent Newport Beach’s position.

To have someone in the final hours try to track down a signature and beat

the clock is -- in light of all that’s invested in the issue -- simply

unacceptable.

The pro-airport side has another deadline Monday for a rebuttal to South

County’s argument.

We’d suggest an early start.