THE BELL CURVE:Balancing business and politics

I stopped by Mike Scheafer’s office the other day. He’s been handling my insurance needs splendidly for 25 years, and I wanted to be sure he could juggle his 27-game Angels season ticket, attend to his business and run for public office all at the same time.

He said, “No problem,” waving a hand at his outer office where his assistant, Maria Sanchez, is rising to the increased workload.

It helps, of course, that the Angels have virtually played themselves out of the postseason. A World Series in Anaheim would have severely tested Scheafer’s loyalty to the Angels by dividing his attention in the midst of a political campaign.

Without that diversion, I asked him how seriously running for the City Council was complicating his working life. Mostly, he said, the changes have to do with phone calls and drop-ins at his office. He estimates that he gets about eight calls a day from people with political questions. He takes them all, along with drop-ins with the same mission.

“The kind of business I’m in,” he explained, “allows me some latitude. If I was an employee somewhere, I don’t think I could do politics. But my office is on a busy street with easy parking, and I’m in the phone book, so I’m pretty accessible.”

Two years ago, as an incumbent appointed to the council, Scheafer didn’t fully make use of his accessibility and was nosed out in a close race to which, he now realizes, he didn’t pay enough attention.

“Everybody told me there was no way I could lose,” he said, “so I didn’t work at it. I was my own worst enemy, and I’m not going to make that mistake again.”

He sees one very large difference — besides the fact that for the first time in many elections, Chris Steel isn’t on the ballot — between the 2004 local election and the one coming up in November.

“Two years ago, there was a much broader spectrum of ideas being debated,” Scheafer said. “This time, the campaign seems to be focusing on a single issue: the effort of the mayor to train our local police to assist federal immigration agents. I think that is really unfortunate because we have much more important local issues to resolve.”

This time Scheafer’s campaign started with a kick-off party before it shifted to forums to address, mailings to make, phone calls and visits to raise campaign funds, and endorsements to seek — two in particular.

Last week the Costa Mesa Firefighters Assn. endorsed Scheafer and his soul mate, Bruce Garlich. This week they were backed by the Costa Mesa Police Assn.

Mayor Allan Mansoor chose the sour grapes route in explaining why he, an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy, was denied support by a fellow law enforcement group, telling a Pilot reporter that “the union bosses are now paying me back” for supporting Proposition 75 in 2005.

About Scheafer’s only visible concession to power politics was a campaign strategy meeting earlier in the day with volunteer coordinator Mary Ann Fegalla, precinct specialist Sherry Sutton, and Mike’s wife, Sandy, who serves as campaign treasurer. And while I was visiting, his son Matt came by to go over a flier with his father. It’s all very low-key and down home, like a family store, and somehow comforting. I have a feeling that the stress level is much higher around the mayor’s headquarters.

“What we’re trying to do,” Scheafer said, “is to get voters to look away from emotional content to the facts, to which there are no easy answers. Costa Mesa is at a real difficult place. If we continue to divide the community, our problems are just going to grow. We need to address the things that influence us daily rather than ramming our own agenda down people’s throats. The potholes still have to be fixed.”

I asked him what advice he would offer to future candidates for local public office, and he offered three points he considers critical: First, make sure you have a thick skin; second, make sure you are easily available to talk to the public; and third, research the issues and know what you are talking about.

Is his political activity affecting his business livelihood?

“I think that it’s positive for my business,” he said. “My name is out in public, and I’ve already had calls for new business. I suppose it could work the other way too, but so far I don’t have any evidence that it has. Nobody, to my knowledge, has canceled over campaign issues.

“But that isn’t why I’m running. I’m running because I can’t sit idly by and let the current direction of this city I love — the polarizing thing — continue. Costa Mesa is not better off today than it was two years ago, and I’m going to help turn that around.”