POLITICS ASIDE:Newsroom play-by-play

Figuring there won’t be much time to write a column Wednesday, what follows is a running log of Tuesday’s election night. Maybe it will pull the curtain back a bit on newsroom happenings.

6:28 p.m.: Order pizza for the staff. Lots of it. Realize I need to figure out how much pizza people really eat.

6:35 p.m.: Some staff members seem to think the Democrats are going to take both houses of Congress. My response: Never count out Karl Rove.

6:51 p.m.: Am starting to see the returns more. Ohio and Pennsylvania go Democratic. Maybe count out Rove?

6:53 p.m.: Go out to get the pizza. Wrong order.

6:55 p.m.: Right pizza arrives. Hope it isn’t a sign of how election results will come in.

7:21 p.m.: We all are just watching the national returns since nothing yet is happening here.

8:05 p.m.: Registrar’s website won’t come up. Good start.

8:15 p.m. My city editor, Carol Chambers, just came in my office to say two reporters have called to report they are at election-night events where there is also trouble with the Registrar’s website.

8:20 p.m.: Just e-mailed our first story to copy editor Matt Ballinger. Wow. Measure X is down initially. And Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor and Wendy Leece are up.

8:25 p.m.: Our first story is live online. Not bad.

8:36 p.m.: Receive my first e-mail from someone worried about the Leece and Mansoor results. I suggest that it’s possible their support would be stronger in the absentee balloting since nationwide trends suggest that more conservative voters might not come to the polls today. But we’ll see how they hold up.

9:25 p.m.: It’s about time for the second update of results. Oh, and apparently the Democrats just officially took control of the House of Representatives.

9:40 p.m.: Not much changing. Measure X is so far behind it’s mind-blowing.

10:05 p.m.: Third Web update is done. Realize we need to focus on our “print” product now.

10:15 p.m. Just heard that the Greenlight people tossed our photographer out of their party. And they won’t comment to our reporter. They apparently aren’t thinking things will get better.

10:27 p.m.: Realize that, to reader, it must look like I’m not doing that much. All the time in between notes here I’m out in the newsroom leading our troops. Really. Ask them.

10:55 p.m.: Racing around in preparation for the next update.

11:02 p.m.: Things are not changing. I expected after the initial absentee returns to see the numbers move in Measure X’s favor and in Garlich and Scheafer’s favors. It isn’t happening yet.

11:10 p.m.: With all the focus on Costa Mesa, I’m not focusing on the fact that Measure X is getting so soundly defeated. I always figured at some point Greenlight would lose this kind of election, but I didn’t think it would be this one. I assume the possibility of Greenlight II hitting people’s homes turned off many voters.

11:23 p.m.: Stories are getting through. Which is good. We need to be off the floor in 20 minutes.

12:03: A source calls the Costa Mesa election over. At this point I’m sure the second-guessing has begun. Should there have been only one candidate running against Leece and Mansoor? Would either planning commissioner Bruce Garlich or former Councilman Mike Scheafer have been the top vote-getter had they been running alone? Would Mirna Burciaga or Chris Bunyan dropping out and supporting Garlich or Scheafer have made a difference?

It is hard to judge by the numbers. You can’t say that all or even any of Scheafer or Garlich’s votes would have simply transferred to the other — likely they shared a number of votes and, as a result, are not a pool from which the other could have drawn.

Really, what jumps out is how low the numbers are. Everyone I talked to expected 10,000 votes to be the winning total. It isn’t even near that. I think the difference in this election is the people who stayed home.

What I do know is the Mansoor and Leece victory means plenty of great news stories coming out of Costa Mesa City Hall. So readers can expect that, at least.