Support cleanest campaigning in coming elections

With six council seats up for grabs and a debate about development happening in Newport Beach, and several tough issues ? immigration enforcement included ? dominating the scene in Costa Mesa, there was no doubt that this fall’s elections were going to be a bitter battle. But would anyone have guessed that the election season would start in May, even before Memorial Day and the unofficial start of summer?

It has, and what has gone on already foreshadows campaigns that almost cannot be anything but nasty, expensive and ultimately divisive for the community.

A quick recap.

A Newport Beach ballot initiative that would have given residents a chance to decide if they wanted a vote on any large-scale city borrowing failed to gather enough signatures to make it on the November ballot. In reaction, leaders of the group trying to get the initiative on the ballot suggested the Orange County Registrar of Voters went out of its way to find invalid signatures.

Earlier this month, Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor ? who is taking all the praise and criticism for the city’s plan to have police enforce immigration laws ? gave an election-themed talk at the City Council meeting and sent the Daily Pilot a commentary that focused in part on planning commissioner Bruce Garlich, a likely fall election opponent.

Another likely Costa Mesa council candidate, former school board member and now parks and recreation commission chairwoman Wendy Leece, ignited a brief war of words over a proposal to add lights to the Farm Sports Complex. The result of that exchange appears to be that the need for more sports fields in Costa Mesa will be a central campaign issue.

And most recently, Newport Beach City Councilman Keith Curry asked that the city not do business with his employer, Public Financial Management, which handles $25 million in investments for the city. Curry made his announcement after his role with the company and the city was targeted in an obvious election-related attack.

All this, and it is not even Memorial Day. All this, and the candidates haven’t gotten their ads together or their campaign consultants all lined up.

Now, we aren’t going to be naive and ask everyone involved in the campaigns to “do the right thing” and run clean campaigns that focus on the issues ? though the good news is that there are substantive issues, whether city spending practices or the need for sports field, to be debated. Instead, we will ask voters to take notice of all the campaigning that already is going on and be ready for what is to come next. And if a candidate or a group runs a campaign not worthy of Newport-Mesa’s support, we urge voters not to give it.