THE BELL CURVE:High-road, low-road politics in Newport

I checked in at the Oasis Senior Center last Friday to pledge allegiance to the flag and sing “God Bless America” before sizing up 12 candidates in the upcoming election for seats on the Newport Beach City Council. Ten were there in person and two — Jack Wu and Edward Selich — by proxy. One was missing.

The time element with such a crowd of speakers makes the possibility of offering up much substance unlikely within the four minutes granted each candidate. So mostly we tried to pick up nuances in speech and body language that offered an occasional useful perception. That wasn’t easy when there weren’t many issues in dispute — and when the incumbents and favorites were playing it cool.

It was compulsive to say kind things about Oasis and plant the flag firmly against any further expansion of John Wayne Airport. The new general plan of the city was also generally revered, with one dissident (incumbent Dick Nichols). The location of the new city hall got surprisingly little attention.

The only effort of levity I can recall was a play on the word “cartel,” introduced by Robert Schoonmaker, to identify the ruling clique on the present council. Several candidates who followed him parodied his charge by identifying themselves as members of the cartel — which they mostly were.

I’ll tell you how dull things got: Nichols, who is predictably mute at most council meetings, provided much of what passed for comedy. The candidates who raised their voices — Schoonmaker, Brenda Martin, Delores Otting — tended to be trailing at this stage and eager to get into some meaty issues, especially the growing tendency to perpetuate the “cartel” by appointing rather than electing council members.

The net result of all this was the strong feeling that what was missing tended to be more important than what we heard.

So let ‘s take two examples, one off the high road — and one, the low.

The highest road is being taken by Nancy Gardner, who sticks resolutely to her long record of public service without ever mentioning one vital and highly legitimate reason she should be elected: that her opponent, Dick Nichols, has done a lousy job of representing his district. Ever since his famous complaint about Mexicans monopolizing the grass above Corona del Mar beach, Nichols has been virtually shunned by the other council members, and his views thus rendered ineffectual.

Gardner told me she has been reluctant to air these charges even though they are not personal attacks but legitimate issues in an election.

The low road was what drove out the candidate who was missing: Barbara Venezia, who was opposing Leslie Daigle to represent me and my neighbors in Santa Ana Heights on the council. Venezia quit the race last week when the guns of Daigle political consultant Dave Ellis were leveled on her through an attorney in a neighboring city about an alleged conflict of interest.

The Pilot found no such conflict, but Venezia deplored the direction the campaign was taking and withdrew. That didn’t stop the Pilot editorial board from endorsing her candidacy, and that’s where we stand today.

So is she going to reenter the race? I phoned her to find out. What I got was conviction followed by ambivalence.

“I won’t reenter this race,” she said firmly. “I’m a girl of my word. I’m not a waffler. What you see is what you get.”

Does that mean she wouldn’t serve if elected?

“I haven’t thought that far ahead,” she said. “My name is still on the ballot, so I’m between a rock and a hard place. It’s a strange position, and I’m living one day at a time.”

Is she feeling a lot of pressure to get back in the fight?

“Nobody is pressing me. What I feel is a lot of love, sometimes so overwhelming that it takes me to tears. But I don’t feel pressure. The other day I woke up in the morning and found 300 e-mails supporting me. It feels good to think that I’m raising the consciousness level of people who never got involved in politics before and are getting involved now. I got people’s attention. They don’t want to let go of me because of what I stand for. Taking back our government.”

Didn’t she know there would be heat if she got into the political kitchen?

“It’s just wrong to drag my family into this. Just politics. I think voters have a bellyful of this. They can’t treat me this way. Not any longer. I have a fierce side of me regarding what is right and wrong . How we treat one another needs to change. That’s what this is all about. People don’t trust those in government, and if my pulling out helps to change that, it was a good thing to do. There are good, honest people running who aren’t part of a machine — people like Brenda Martin. I just hope this wakes people up.”

So what message does she have for the people who want to support her even though she has pulled out?

“I don’t like to tell people what to do. I would say to them just to go out and vote for yourself, for your own best interests. Do research. Read all you can. And, most of all, research candidates who will listen to your voice.”

And that’s what Barbara Venezia would have said to the folks at the Oasis Senior Center last Friday. In four minutes.