Defeat of Great Park will have great price tag

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- It will take $2 million in private money to defeat

Measure W, the South County-backed initiative that would halt plans by

county planners to build an airport at the closed El Toro Marine Corps

Air Station, airport supporters say.

And many of those dollars will be raised here, the center of almost a

decade of staunch support for a proposed El Toro airport.

“The troops are fanning out through the community to do what’s

necessary to defeat [the initiative],” said Dave Ellis, the spokesman of

the Airport Working Group. “That’s our goal.”

The pro-EL Toro group and other airport supporters are gearing up for

a fiercely waged campaign leading up to the March 5 election on Measure

W.

Operating as “No on W,” a political action committee, the group has

hired a Sacramento-based consultant to craft a strategy to defeat the

initiative.

So far, the committee has not reached the $1,000 threshold that

triggers a legal requirement to file a campaign disclosure form. That

should change, Ellis said, by Jan. 24, the next filing deadline.

Supervisors Cynthia Coad, Chuck Smith and Jim Silva, who represents

Newport-Mesa, have all joined the “No on W” campaign.

All three supervisors signed a Jan. 10 letter to supporters urging

them to oppose the measure and attend a Feb. 5 fund-raiser in Santa Ana.

“Measure W is the latest attempt by the anti-El Toro airport faction

to perpetrate a hoax on the citizens of this county in their zeal to

prevent . . . a commercial airport,” the letter reads.

The base was zoned for an airport by 1994’s Measure A. Since then, two

other initiatives -- Measure S in 1996 and Measure F in 2000 -- have

tried to invalidate the county’s airport plans. The first failed at the

polls; the second was thrown out in court.

For initiative organizers, the campaign is well underway. Members of

the Committee for Safe and Healthy Communities have already raised

$750,231. However, much of that sum has already been spent. The committee

has $446,296 in cash on hand, but $182,816 in outstanding debts.

“We’re hoping to raise another $1 million for the campaign,” committee

spokesman Len Kranser said. “We’re going to raise our money the hard way,

with thousands of small checks. I would hope the ‘No on W’ folks do it

the same way, rather than with a small number of high rollers.”

Airport supporters have hired consultant Max Besler, of the Sacramento

firm Townsend, Raimundo, Besler and Usher. The firm crafted the

successful strategy for Measure M, a 1990 transportation initiative.

Besler said he is confident county voters won’t go for Measure W

because it purports to sell the public a Great Park for the base, when it

is really an anti-airport measure.

“It is so vague,” Besler said. “With that much vagueness, it’s going

to result in a significant tax increase [for a park]. . . . This one

doesn’t have the specificity to make people comfortable.”

Kranser acknowledged that the initiative isn’t promising a Great Park

for the base.

The measure would change the zoning at the base to allow the park,

invalidating Measure A.

“This whole thing is about whether we want to scale back or close John

Wayne Airport and transfer the jets to an El Toro airport,” Kranser said.

“That’s what’s it has always been about.

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .