Former mayor gets ready for another round

In politics, some things never seem to change. In Costa Mesa, some of those things are the names on the ballot.

Former Mayor Gary Monahan, who left the City Council in 2006 due to term limits, is serious enough about running for office next year that he has opened a council campaign to start raising funds.

“I’ve gotten ready in case I decide to do it,” he said this week. “There’s still issues ... that I was involved in, that were dear to my heart, that I can still make a difference on, and I think there’s still some people that would support me.”

Monahan was first elected to the council in 1994, which allowed him to squeak by the term limits law city voters adopted in 1996. It restricts council members elected since then to two consecutive terms, but they can run again after time off the council.

Three of five council seats are up next year, and incumbents will vie for at least two of them.

Councilwoman Katrina Foley and Councilman Eric Bever say they seek reelection and have begun fundraising.

Councilwoman Linda Dixon, whose term also expires in 2008, has not said whether she’ll run and could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Bever will likely have the backing of the so-called “improvers,” a group mainly advocating a revitalized Westside that has supported him since his first council run in 2004.

And Monahan may have support from Bever, who said it’s still to early to predict, but alliances between candidates are a possibility.

“I think it’d probably be a natural for Gary and I to work together, much the way [Councilwoman] Wendy [Leece] and [Mayor] Allan [Mansoor] worked together” in 2006, Bever said. “We probably agree on 99% of the issues.”

One big question about Costa Mesa’s 2008 council elections is whether they will follow the pattern of unprecedented campaign spending set in 2006, when Mansoor spent more than $100,000.

While Foley is hedging her bets by starting to raise money early, she hopes to keep 2008 spending out of the stratosphere with a “clean money” ordinance she’ll propose to the council.

Under the rule Foley suggests, candidates would agree to public financing, only raise an amount set by the ordinance and then receive matching funds.

“I think we all try to be independent, but I think there’s a perception in the community that if you get large amounts of money from any one particular individual or group that you’re somehow beholden to them,” she said.

“This is a City Council election — we’re not running for Congress. We shouldn’t be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to run for City Council.”

ALICIA ROBINSON may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at alicia.robinson@latimes.com.