When developer George Argyros fired the first shot over the bow by successfully getting an uninformed and unsuspecting public to vote for an international airport at El Toro, who would have predicted that eight years and $54 million later, the county would be no closer to building an airport than it was before the Marines left El Toro?
The battle over the airport went beyond the Board of Supervisors. It generated tactics that test the limits of campaign spending rules on both sides. The drive to turn El Toro into an airport without a doubt severely damaged the public's confidence in county government, and it increasingly has undermined the integrity of our local elections.
I view this impact on local elections with concern.
This was first detected in Irvine's November 2000 elections for mayor and three council seats. A couple of individuals active in Irvine politics formed a slate mailer organization called Hometown Voter Guide.
By labeling their efforts as a slate mailer organization, the group was able to collect contributions from a number of anti-airport sources far in excess of Irvine's regular limit of $310 per person. With these funds, Hometown produced more than a dozen slate mailers that promoted Larry Agran for mayor and Agran's endorsed candidates for City Council--Beth Krom, Chris Mears and Anthony Dragun.
State law could have been violated because the state Political Reform Act clearly prohibits a candidate or officeholder from being involved in the operation of a slate mailer organization. I've asked the Fair Political Practices Commission to look into the matter and determine whether any candidates were involved.
In June 2001, the Airport Working Group, a pro-airport political action committee supported mostly by Newport Beach residents, paid for a series of campaign mailers in an Orange City Council election. These mailers promoted the election of certain pro-airport candidates and opposed those who were neutral or anti-airport. In so doing they and some of their large contributors allegedly ran afoul of Orange's campaign finance ordinance. The city of Orange filed charges, and the matter is now in court.
