MAILBAG - Oct. 11, 2006

Check mayor’s in-city financial supportI suppose that to the uninvolved voter, the Daily Pilot’s online headline, “Mansoor, Leece lead fundraising in Costa Mesa” (Oct. 6), leaves the impression that Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor and parks and recreation commissioner Wendy Leece are swimming in dollars thrown at them by adoring Costa Mesans who just can’t wait to cast their votes for the duo so the city can continue moving “in the right direction.”

And nothing could be further from the truth.

That fact is, according to the mayor’s own campaign finance disclosure forms, $26,660 of the $40,853 he’s raised this year through contributions of $100 or more is from sources outside of Costa Mesa. In other words, 65.2% of the money the mayor has raised has come from folks who can’t even step into a voting booth in this town. Without his non-Costa Mesa money sources, Mansoor has raised just $14,193 from Costa Mesans who have given $100 or more to his campaign.

Ponder this too. Of Mansoor’s 62 identified contributors in 2006, 42 (67.7%) claim addresses in reaches beyond Costa Mesa. So then, what does it say about the mayor’s base of support in Costa Mesa when nearly seven out of every 10 contributors to his campaign can’t vote in this town? It says to me that his support is pretty thin.

The money picture is much the same for the mayor’s tag-along candidate, Wendy Leece. Of the 59 contributors identified in her campaign finance disclosure form, 32 (54.2%) don’t have Costa Mesa addresses. And nearly half of her money is sourced to these non-Costa Mesa contributors. The largest of her Costa Mesa contributors are the mayor himself and the treasurer of his campaign.

So then, while it may be true that the mayor has raised the most money, it certainly isn’t indicative of any groundswell of Costa Mesa-based support for his candidacy.

It only shows he’s popular in Newport Beach, Lakewood, Laguna Beach, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Beverly Hills, Long Beach, Brea, Fountain Valley, Placentia, Irvine, Orange, Anaheim, Fullerton, Westminster, Temecula, Huntington Beach, Rancho Santa Margarita, Laguna Hills, San Francisco, Monarch Beach and Corona del Mar. After all, these are the cities where the bulk of the mayor’s contributors reside.

Costa Mesa’s destiny will be steered by its residents, not by the deep wallets of the folks who can’t vote here but who are propping up the mayor’s campaign nonetheless.

BYRON DE ARAKAL

Costa Mesa

Thanks for showing Newport’s dirty politicsThank you to Pilot Publisher Tom Johnson for his front-page column about dirty politics in Newport Beach (“Newport can stop the dirty politics,” Fair Game, Friday). Good for you for exposing Dave Ellis and his contemptible political strategies that have gone on far too long. Newport Beach should no longer tolerate this kind of campaigning that keeps good people from running for office.

By these machinations, we now have a majority of the City Council not elected by the residents but appointed. Sometimes, it has become so ridiculous that appointees are appointing. How can we export democracy to the rest of the world when we do not even practice it in a local city election?

JEANNE PRICE and NANCY ALSTON

Newport Beach

Daily Pilot marches to a negative drumThere’s an old expression, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” One candidate for the District 4 Newport Beach City Council race, Barbara Venezia, spent years before a hot stove on her TV show “At Home on the Range.” Yet she recently bowed out of the District 4 race because of the heat on the political campaign trail. Also, there was an allegation of a conflict of interest. Despite this, the Pilot is urging voters to write her name in on the ballot.

The only candidate still officially in the race is District 4 incumbent Leslie Daigle. Daigle has demonstrated hard work and integrity on the council and is well liked in the community. Yet the Pilot says she no longer deserves the community’s support because she stood up for her right to jog around the Corona del Mar High School track.

Give me a break! If the voters were to somehow elect Barbara Venezia and it turns out that she does have a conflict of interest, she would have to resign her council seat. Then the council would have the unenviable task of appointing a District 4 council member, something virtually everyone opposes.

On the other hand, if Leslie Daigle is elected, we will have a quality incumbent who stayed in the race, despite the heat created by the Pilot.

If the Pilot keeps up its negative drumbeat, we will be lucky if anyone but hack politicians will want to represent us in the future. Our elected officials are entitled to keep their private lives private and run for office based on their qualifications and accomplishments. Newport is lucky to have dignified citizens such as Leslie Daigle who are willing to work on the public’s behalf despite the campaign heat. I hope she receives the support to win that she deserves.

DON ABRAMS

Balboa Island

Time for trustee to mentor a successorThe Daily Pilot stated in its Sunday editorial that school board member Judy Franco needed to add another four years to her present term of 26 years to see her goals met.

As a teacher of 35 years, I mentor new teachers. Why doesn’t Franco impart her 26 years of knowledge to a successor?

MARTIE O’MEARA

Costa Mesa

Consultant took out a good candidateShout out Leslie Daigle — I hate bullies! When my son was in high school, I fought them because the school administration had become accepting of bad behavior.

This is what seems to have happened in Newport. A bully — Daigle’s campaign manager, Dave Ellis — went after Barbara Venezia. I do not know Venezia, but my friends who know her said she is the salt of the earth. Daigle wanted Venezia gone because, I don’t know, Daigle was the queen bee? And, psst, Venezia disappeared.

But Ellis and Daigle must think they are kidding all of us. Whom did they fool? Daigle apparently had a misstep at Corona del Mar High School, and when the queen bee has a misstep, heads will fall. In this case, Venezia’s.

Why can’t Daigle just apologize for being arrogant and trying to bully a security officer for doing his job? I hope she realizes that on Corona del Mar High School’s campus they do disaster drills every few years. The reasons they do that is because there are school shootings. The Corona del Mar campus was not a secure site because the school allowed joggers on the field during the school day. The Police Department warned the school, and then the principal upheld the policy of no one on the school campus unless he or she goes through the school office.

I was not there, but I believe there was a problem and Daigle decided she was above the law, which ultimately puts our kids in peril. Because if one stranger goes on campus, then the whole campus is compromised.

Whom now do the voters choose? Not Daigle. I am still voting for Venezia.

CYNDIE BORCOMAN

Newport Beach