Election creates council change-up

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- A controversial City Hall critic -- who says the city

should not continue to “educate, recreate, medicate, domesticate and

compensate noncitizens” -- has received the most votes and the first

racial minority to be elected has apparently upset one incumbent in the

three-seat City Council race.

Not all of the absentee ballots have been counted, but the results

show that Costa Mesa voters selected Chris Steel, Karen Robinson and

incumbent Libby Cowan to the council.

Councilman-elect Steel, who has been defeated in nine straight

elections, won the highest number of votes with 14.4%. In each previous

campaign, Steel focused on criticizing the city for what he considers its

loose laws on illegal immigrants.

The victory was sweeter because he didn’t expect it.

“I didn’t want to run this time,” Steel said. “[But] I felt an

obligation and pressure to run because I do have a conscience. Now I’m

satisfied that I can win here. I was getting frustrated with losing, but

there is no question I had a relevant message and had an obligation to

keep running.”

Councilwoman Libby Cowan was reelected to a second term with 13.8% of

the votes.

She said the council members will need to get to know each other.

“I think that there are going to be some missteps and

miscommunications and it’s important to spend some time together -- maybe

a daylong retreat -- to minimize those kinds of missteps,” she said.

“This is a big change in council and I think there are some very

divergent views.”

Councilwoman-elect Robinson received 12.5% of the votes -- topping

incumbent Heather Somers who got 12.3% -- and is poised to become the

first black resident to serve on the council.

However, not all of the city’s absentee ballots have been counted. And

because of the narrow gap -- just 100 votes -- between Robinson and

Somers, the uncounted ballots could sway the final decision, according to

the city clerk’s office.

Somers declined to comment for now.

Robinson said she is thrilled with her apparent win. However, she said

she hopes voters did not select her because she is black -- instead she

wanted them to agree with her positions on the city’s most pressing

issues.

“I think the things I stood for in my campaign are what the people in

Costa Mesa are interested in -- preserving parks, no 17th Street widening

and meaningful improvement on the West Side,” she said. “This was a

grass-roots campaign that has come from opponents calling me a one-issue

candidate to my becoming a Trojan horse. I pride myself with being able

to work with nearly anybody and I’m looking forward to working with the

other council members.”

Councilman Joe Erickson, who is stepping down in December, said he

hopes the council will continue to work as a team and “try to do what’s

right.”

“It takes three votes to fulfill the council members’ desires for the

community and I hope they can pull together,” he said. “It’s important

for the new members to retain the energy they had when they were

campaigning and to understand their responsibilities -- returning all

their phone calls, reading all the mailings and visiting everyone who

wants to be visited.”