While You're Waiting... Other Election News

THINGS TO CONTEMPLATE
Since we have another seventeen hours or so until we get another tally from the Registrar of Voters, HERE,  here's some things to consider involving this year's election.

LAGUNA WOODS
First, if you think that 21 vote margin between Jim Righeimer and Jay Humphrey is close, consider the race for the second seat available in Laguna Woods. (See below)  In this one Rae C. Tso leads Carol A. Moore by one (1) vote!  Yikes!

THE PEOPLE SPEAK - AGAIN!
Back here in good old Costa Mesa, the two ballot measures of local significance are Measure O - the bastard child of soundly-defeated Measure V from two years ago - and Measure P, the unnecessary, insignificant advisory measure about the I-405 toll lanes.  Measure O suffered even a more severe beating at the ballot box than Measure V.  It is getting crushed with more than 63% of the voters saying not only NO, but HECK NO! - or words to that effect.

USELESS MEASURE "P" RESULTS

Measure P - the ego boost for Mayor Jim Righeimer - was supposed to provide overwhelming support for the Costa Mesa City Council's unanimous vote to oppose toll lanes on the I-405 Freeway from Costa Mesa to the Orange County/Los Angeles County line in Seal Beach.  However, somebody on the city staff botched the ballot language, placing two questions when there should have been only one.  The result must be considered "inconclusive" - the kindest way possible to explain the result.  I suspect Righeimer thought he'd get something like an 80% plurality, which he could wave under the noses of the officials making the decision on the toll lanes to demonstrate overwhelming public opposition.  Instead, because of the screw-up on the ballot we have a 54.5% - 45.5% result.  AND,  sources tell me it cost us more than $12,000 to put it on the ballot and probably at least that much to publish and distribute three (3) explanatory fliers to the voters attempting to mitigate the gaffe.  Incidentally, no other member of the so-called "corriedor cities" chose to place such a measure on the ballot.  Only down here in "Ego Central" was it done - badly!

JUST BE CHILLIN', CHIL'N
So, dear neighbors, let's all just chill out a little and wait for the next batch of numbers from the ROV Wednesday afternoon.  I'll write about it when the numbers are released.

Righeimer Stretches Lead Over Humphrey to 112

THE NUMBERS FROM 5:00 P.M., THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6TH
OK, here's how it looks now.  If you want to check the Registrar of Voters site, click HERE.

COSTA MESA CITY COUNCIL

Jay Humphrey lost ground to Righeimer significantly in today's tallying.  He now trails the mayor by 112 votes.  Katrina Foley continues to hold a commanding lead and each of the other candidates picked up a few votes, too.  Foley gained 479 votes.  Righeimer gained 435.  Humphrey gained only 341 during today's counting.  Lee Ramos picked up 305.  Tony Capitelli gained only 89.  Al Melone gained 84.  Rita Simpson gained 80 and Chris Bunyan picked up only 52, to continue to bring up the rear.

NUMBERS GAME
If you combine the votes cast for Foley and Humphrey you get 12,893.  If you combine those cast for Righeimer and Ramos you get you get 9,893.  Those numbers are not significant, but interesting to observe. 

MORE THAN 100,000 VOTES LEFT, COUNTY-WIDE
According to the ROV website, there remains 106,513 votes left to count.  All the vote-by-mail ballots have been counted.  There remains 38,513 provisional ballots to count and 62208 vote-by-mail ballots returned at the polls are uncounted at this time.  The last guess by Neal Kelley, the Registrar of Voters, made was that the count would be complete by November 14th.  So, we have a week and a half of agony left with lots of votes remaining to be counted.

MEASURE "O" - THE BOGUS CHARTER
No change to speak of in the Measure "O" race.  It is still being soundly thrashed.  Not surprised.  So far, 14,616 votes have been tallied in this race.

MEASURE P - THE I-405 TOLL LANE ADVISORY
No change to speak of in the insignificant, irrelevant and unusable information from the Measure P tally.  So far, 14,814 votes have been counted in this race.

HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THAT?
One of the interesting aspects of the Costa Mesa races is that virtually all other cities around us, throughout the county and state AND nationally, MY Republican Party has made major inroads.  That makes me smile.  Not in good old Costa Mesa, though.  Here, the party apparatus - "managed" by Righeimer's version of Scott Baugh's mantra - is a miserable failure!  All the candidates associated with the Riganistas in local races, except Shawn Dewane for the Orange County Water District seat he already held and possibly Righeimer, didn't just fail, but failed in epic style!  How do we explain that?

DRAGGING THEM DOWN...

One might assume that Righeimer and his second attempt at a Charter actually became an anchor around the necks of his pals.  Now, if that trend in the council race can just be reversed...  Next report in 23 hours, 22 minutes or so.

11:30 Numbers Righeimer Leapfrogs Humphrey

OH, MY!
Well, who knows what to expect now?  With all 70 precincts reported, it looks like it's going to come down to the provisional ballots and others to decide the Costa Mesa Council race.  Katrina Foley is handily ahead, but Mayor Jim Righeimer and former councilman Jay Humphrey are playing an interesting game of leapfrog.  Righeimer leads Humphrey by 21 votes? Lee Ramos is well off the pace.


SAYING NO TO "O"
It looks like Measure O, Righeimer's latest attempt to change city government by imposing a Charter on it, has gone down in flames once again!

A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY!
Measure P, the useless measure that has cost the taxpayers thousands to place on the ballot and more thousands to try to repair the damage caused by the misleading language, appears to have produced an inconclusive result.  Nobody is going to wave a 53.6% - 46.4% in front of the governor and tell him "The People" have spoken!  What a gaffe!

SPECIAL DISTRICTS
It looks like the incumbents - Mike Scheafer, Bob Ooten and Arlene Schafer -  will hold their seats on the Costa Mesa Sanitary District Board, as will Jim Atkinson on the Mesa Water District Board.  Shawn Dewane has soundly trounced Wendy Leece in the race for his seat on the Orange County Water District Board.

OOPS!
I forgot... writer Honeyman pointed out I messed up my 10:30 entry... sorry about that... haste makes waste...  One more update coming after midnight, then I'm heading to bed.

A Little Light Reading For You

THE HOME STRETCH!
OK.. we're rounding the turn and heading for home.  Just a couple more days and all this rancor and rhetoric will be over.... HA!  Believe that one?  Nah, neither do I.

JUST A COUPLE DAYS LEFT
But, the election will be in the can a little over 46 hours from now and we anticipate at least some moderation of the dialogue, even though the actual, final results may not be available to us until sometime Friday.  Neal Kelley and his crew of stalwarts do a great job at the Registrar's office, so I'm keeping a positive thought.

SOME LIGHT READING
So, in case you've been snoozing for the past couple months, I decided to provide you with a little reading material this evening.  Here you will find more than a few links to help you with your decisions in Costa Mesa - decisions that will affect the future for the next four years and beyond.

NO ON "O" AND RIGHEIMER MUST GO!
Before I give you that list, understand that I feel Mayor Jim Righeimer is BAD for our city so my votes went for Katrina Foley and Jay Humphrey for city council and I voted NO on Measure O.  And, not that it makes any difference, I voted YES on Measure P - the inconsequential advisory vote with the confusing ballot language.

FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE
And now the list.  I've included discussions on both sides of issues for your consideration.

CITY COUNCIL RACE
 My commentary in the Daily Pilot on Righeimer, 10/21/14

My expanded version from this blog, 10/20/14

Jay Humphrey Daily Pilot commentary about trustworthiness, 10/20/14

"Jim Righeimer Is A Big, Fat Liar", 10/23/14

Katrina Foley Daily Pilot commentary about Righeimer and Public Safety, 10/28/14 

My observations of La Femme Wonkita - Numbers With A Vengeance, 10/30/14 

And The Campaign Paper Blizzard Continues... 10/30/14

Criminalizing Political Speech, 10/15/14

Tamar Goldmann Daily Pilot commentary, 10/31/14, Foley, Humphrey stronger than Bunyan 

Of Fecal Receptacles And A Campaign In Flames, 10/8/14  

Eric Bever Daily Pilot commentary on unions paying for political mail, 10/22/14

Kathleen and Christian Eric on Changes, 10/21/14 

Mailbag (w/Susan Shaw) refuting Bever, 10/29/14

Mailbag with various letters, 10/31/14

MEASURE "O"
Devin Lucas' Daily Pilot commentary on Measure O as a vote against unions
 
Bob Graham Daily Pilot commentary on Charter autonomy, 10/23/14

Bill Gilbert Daily Pilot commentary on Fairview Park, 10/28/14

Charles Mooney Daily Pilot commentary Charter would concentrate power, 10/28/14

Diana Gardiner Daily Pilot commentary city would be harmed by Charter, 10/29/14 

Overkill on Measure "O", 11/1/14

ENJOY!
There you go... you're on your own.  Remember, there's nothing at stake except the future of this city.

THANKS, AGAIN...
And, before I forget, I do want to thank those folks at Costa Mesa First who shocked me by placing ads in the Daily Pilot this weekend publicizing this blog.  As I said before, I knew nothing about it until after the fact and was as surprised as anyone when I saw that first one on Friday.  Then, the same ad appeared on Saturday and Sunday!  Thanks, again...

First "Measure P" Fix-It Piece Arrives

REMEMBER?
I've written to you recently, HERE, about the serious gaffe made by someone on the City staff when the ballot statement for Measure P, the inconsequential advisory item about toll lanes on the I-405 Freeway, was composed.  I showed you the copy:

And, I explained the confusion about how to vote on this item - two questions, one answer - if you actually care to vote at all on it.

THE FIRST OF THREE...
I also explained that the City has decided to spend even MORE money distributing mailers hoping to correct the confusion about this issue.  Well, the first one arrived today.  It is a little piece, folded.  When you open it up this is what you see: (click on the image to enlarge it)

GOT IT?
OK... got it?  "Yes" means yes and "No" means no... unless you're answering the first question, in which case it's reversed.... Never mind...

JUST VOTE "YES"!
So, if you DO NOT want to see lanes on the I-405 converted to High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes, VOTE YES!

MORE ON THE WAY...
Watch your mailbox for two more missives attempting to correct the mistake.  Good luck...

Hatch - Oops, My Bad On Measure P

RECALL THIS ISSUE?
You will recall that I recently wrote about the confusing language on the ballot for Measure P, the advisory measure regarding the scheme to make some lanes on the I-405 Freeway from Costa Mesa to the Los Angeles County line into High Occupancy Toll (HOT) lanes, HERE.

TWO QUESTIONS - ONE ANSWER
At the time I emphasized that the language on the ballot asked two (2) questions that were exact opposites, but you're given only one choice of an answer - YES or NO.  Here's how it looks on the ballot.

STONEWALLED...
Since my earlier blog entry I have communicated several times with city officials - specifically, CEO Tom Hatch, City Attorney Tom Duarte and Communication Director Bill Lobdell.  To date I have received NO direct reply to my requests.

...UNTIL TODAY
Today, however, Lobdell distributed the following information via email to an undisclosed number of recipients in which Hatch apparently falls on his sword on this issue:

From City CEO Tom Hatch:

In an attempt to summarize the I-405 toll lane advisory measure in a short ballot title, City of Costa Mesa staff used wording and punctuation that could cause confusion among voters. For that, we apologize.  We are reviewing the matter.  Ultimately, as the City CEO, I take responsibility for the title’s lack of clarity and hope that it does not detract from the purpose of this advisory measure.   

The I-405 advisory ballot question for voters to consider is: “Do you agree with the Costa Mesa City Council, which unanimously opposes the establishment of toll lanes on the I-405 Freeway in Orange County?”

We are taking several steps to reduce any potential confusion.  First, the city is sending three informational mailers about the ballot measure to each resident. The first mailer—which emphasizes the ballot question—has already been mailed.  For the remaining two mailers, the city will also emphasize the ballot question—and point out the difference between the ballot title and ballot question—to reduce any potential confusion.  The same material will also be featured on the city’s website and other media platforms.  

YOU MAY HAVE MADE A MISTAKE

Of course, many of you will have already mailed in your absentee ballots and a goodly number of you may have marked it incorrectly as regards Measure P.  Keep in mind that I don't care how you marked it as long as you understood what your answer meant.  

DON'T WANT TOLL LANES?  VOTE "YES" ON P

If you have not already marked your ballot, let me help you.  I, personally, don't want to see CalTrans hijack our Measure M-funded expansion lanes on the I-405 and turn them into HOT lanes.  So - follow me now - I'm voting YES on Measure P.  That means I agree with the City Council in their opposition to the toll lanes.

THE WHOLE THING IS UNNECESSARY!

Perhaps the most unfortunate part of this debacle - aside from it being a major screw-up - is that the whole thing was unnecessary in the first place.  Putting Measure P on the ballot - it cost at least $12,000 to do so and who knows how much more to distribute those "fix it" communications Hatch mentions above - is unnecessary because it's only an advisory item and has no strength of law, but it made a certain mayor who's running for re-election look firm and decisive.  If it was designed to tell Governor Jerry Brown that we don't want the HOT lanes - that's the alleged purpose - and if it was really THAT important, somebody should have paid more attention to it.  It wasn't really important, so they didn't.  Too bad, because it makes the city look like a bunch of rubes who can't get their act together.