Contemplating The Election
CONTEMPLATING
With two hours before the polls close here in Orange County and national media beginning their non-stop avalanche of news about the big election, I find myself with a few things on my mind about our local elections.
As you all know, in the last two council elections seats were captured with fewer than 200 votes - 155 votes blocked John Stephens and 47 blocked Jay Humphrey. For this reason I doubt anyone will be calling the council election tonight. It will likely take a couple days to get all the votes tallied and the celebrating will begin.
IMPACT OF ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA?
I find myself wondering what impact, if any, social media - actually, the "anti-social media" - will have had on this election cycle locally. The evolution of the Costa Mesa Public Square and other sites makes me curious about just what real impact they will have. The CMPS is a closed site, so proponents of the existing power elite in Costa Mesa - the council majority and their sycophants and other appointees - jabber back and forth with each other on important issues but other residents with opposing viewpoints are blocked from participating. That fact makes me question the value of the site. They claim more than 8,000 members, but more than a few of those are outside Costa Mesa - outside the state, for that matter. And, since some of the primary participants on that site are proven liars, I wonder how much you can trust the stuff being spewed there.
I wonder about the impact of the hundreds of volunteers who have walked the precincts for the past couple months in support of the slate of candidates opposing the Mensinger/Mansoor/Ramos slate - John Stephens, Sandy Genis and Jay Humphrey? I wonder how the firefighters participation in those precinct walks will be interpreted?
I wonder about the impact of the candidate forums this year. How will the voters interpret the absence of the MMR candidates? Will they presume they were afraid of being required to answer questions important to specific segments of the electorate?
I wonder about the impact of the decision by Judge Dunning that Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer, candidate Lee Ramos and three other residents who signed it actually produced misrepresentations and flat-out lies on the rebuttal argument to Measure Y, the Smart Growth Initiative? Will the fact that they have been adjudged as liars impact the election?
IMPACT OF THE BOGUS, CONFUSING INITIATIVES?
I wonder about the impact of the placement of expensive, confusing, competing ballot measures to try to defeat Measure Y, Measure AA - the Preserve Fairview Park Initiative - and the two medical marijuana initiatives. In theory, Measure X competes with Measures V and W, but it has no retail sales element. I wonder how the electorate feels about paying $8,500 each for mailers to promote those issues?
I wonder if the pubic will be snookered by Righeimer's hijacking of the vote-by-districts issue when he demanded, and got, Measure EE - the 6-districts and directly-elected mayor - placed on the ballot instead of the resident-preferred 5-district choice? Will the the voters see through that scheme and vote Measure EE down and let a judge choose the districting map for us?
Will the voters see through the plan by the Mesa Water District Board to implement a hostile takeover by the financially solid Costa Mesa Sanitary District? Despite all the money spent by Mesa Water - estimated by election day to be in excess of $400,000, including a couple misleading mailers - will the voters reject Measure TT?
Will the electorate re-elect proven leadership for the Costa Mesa Sanitary District by returning Jim Ferryman and Art Perry to the board, or will they decide to select addiction providers Gary Monahan and our village idiot, defrocked board member, marijuana advocate and campaign cheater, Jim Fitzpatrick?
WILL THE VOTERS TOSS FISLER FOR REICH?
Will the voters toss out Mesa Water District Director Jim Fisler in favor of a really smart, dedicated breath of fresh air, Alex Reich?
Tonight I will check the Registrar of Voters site, HERE, to see what the early results are and, depending on what happens, report on them. However, history in Costa Mesa tells us that it may be a couple days before we know who was successful in winning seats on the City Council and which of the eight ballot measures will pass and fail.
If my vote was the only one that was counted tonight Genis, Humphrey and Stephens would win, Measure Y and Measure AA would win and all the rest would fail. We could have saved Neal Kelley a lot of time and trouble if we'd just go with my vote.
More later... Since it's unlikely that the critical council races will be finally determined until later this week, those who know her can tell Jami Joanne Russell that she doesn't need to limber up her pipes until later.
Labels: 2016 Election, Alex Reich, Jay Humphrey, Jim Fisler, Jim Fitzpatrick, Jim Righeimer, John Stephens, Measure AA, Measure EE, Measure TT, Measure Y, Sandy Genis
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 11/08/2016 06:00:00 PM
1 Comments:
Somewhat surprisingly, Sandy and John from our side prevailed. Interestingly, so did Allan Mansoor; he beat Mensinger by 403 votes, and Mensinger polled 46 votes more than did our man, Jay Humphrey. Measure Y passed by a whopping majority; we love the character of our city. Measure Z passed but with far fewer votes, and thus we won't have to worry about it. Measure AA was in by a landslide, and BB failed.
Jay's defeat was something of a surprise. I had expected him to out-poll John Stephens; it seemed as though he was working quite a bit harder than John. But maybe I've got a mistaken impression.
All in all, it was worth staying up until 2:00, and the campaign was also worth doing -- I learned a lot about friends and neighbors and the grassroots, and gained a lot of respect and admiration for a large number of colleagues and friends in this city.
Thanks for hangin' in there, Geoff.
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