Newport Beach has much to thank Cox for

It was 1988, and a fairly unknown lawyer, who then went by the name

C. Christopher Cox, emerged as a potential contender for the open

40th District Congressional seat being vacated by longtime

Congressman Robert Badham.

The betting money at the time was that Marian Bergeson, the

prominent and respected state senator from Newport Beach, would run

for and win the open house seat.

If not Bergeson, then surely Assembly Republican Gil Fergeson

would step up to the plate.

But neither political heavyweight jumped into the fray.

Instead Cox, a legal advisor in the Reagan White House, rose to

the top of the GOP hierarchy, won the primary and then defeated

Democratic challenger and Laguna Beach Councilwoman Lida Lenney in

the November 1988 general election, when George H. W. Bush was

elected president.

Cox has not had a formidable challenger since.

But now, he faces a new challenge as President George W. Bush has

nominated him to be the head of the Securities and Exchange

Commission, a job that will force him to abandon his seat in Congress

and ensure that Newport Beach will be represented by someone new,

possibly less apt than Cox at making deals and watching over the

interests of the home front -- and if that person arises from South

County, possibly someone less sympathetic to Newport’s needs.

While Cox is largely seen as a successful politician, he hasn’t

been without his detractors, many of whom take issue with his

opposition to turn the closed air station at El Toro into an airport.

The airport issue for Cox, whose 40th District was reorganized

into the heavily South County weighted 48th Congressional District,

was a hard one to fathom for many of his fellow Newport Beach

residents who saw his nonsupport of the plan to ease the pressure on

John Wayne Airport as nothing short of betrayal.

But in truth, Newport Beach has much to thank Cox for.

While the airport issue has been a thorny one, he has done much to

help curb pressures to expand John Wayne, helping to engineer a new

settlement agreement that put the most recent caps on the airport.

He has largely been responsible for millions of dollars coming the

city’s way to help pay for dredging of the Upper Back Bay and has

been a fiscal hawk, watching over the pocketbooks of his Newport

Beach constituents.

Cox’s abilities as a legislature and policy wonk are well known

along the Washington Beltway, and for that alone, his constituents at

home are going to be sorely lacking his experience.

Now as the scrambling begins to determine who will be Cox’s heir

apparent, Newport Beach residents need to decide if they want to be a

big part of who that successor is.

If they do, then they need to be cognizant of the political power

in the South County and recognize that the airport is not the only

issue that counts.