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Newshound (Newshound)
| | Posted on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 8:25 am: | |
KEY FIGURES IN IRVINE ELECTORAL FIGHT ,OC Register
Larry Agran
• Age: 59
• Education: UC Berkeley, bachelor’s degrees in history and economics; Harvard Law School grad specializing in public policy law
• Occupation: Irvine mayor
• Political career: 18 years on Irvine City Council, 10 as mayor. Democrat, ran for U.S. president in 1992
Chris Mears,
• Age: 53
• Education: Cal State Fullerton theater major
• Occupation: Lawyer, graduate of Western State University College of Law, specializing in personal-injury work
• Political career: Four years on Irvine City Council, not seeking re-election; chairman of state athletic commission
Ed Dornan
• Age: 65
• Education: Cal State Los Angeles, master’s degree in literature
• Occupation: 30 years at Orange Coast College, professor of English; textbook author; political adviser and proprietor of Hometown Voter Guide, a political mailing company
• Political career: Irvine councilman from 1986 to 1990
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Newshound (Newshound)
| | Posted on Friday, September 24, 2004 - 8:23 am: | |
Sept. 24-City that loves itself has hateful politics,OC Register
There's been little discussion of issues like the Great Park as Irvine candidates get personal.
By JEFF ROWE
The Orange County Register
IRVINE – A national-style political campaign is evolving in Irvine that experts say is the future of local politics.
If so, many here find it repugnant.
Life is outwardly calm here in Orange County's Switzerland, where practically everything is excellent.
Crime is low, the streets are scrubbed, and the schools are revered. The paint is fresh, lawns neatly trimmed and the arts and athletics flourish. It's widely regarded as the most prestigious corporate address in the county.
The El Toro airport dragon appears to have been slain, and the Great Park looms as the most ambitious public project in the state, perhaps the nation. No great issues divide the citizenry.
What's at stake in this November's election is who will guide the city as it develops the Great Park, an ambitious 4,700-acre mix of wilderness areas, museums, schools, farms, shops and dwellings that has attracted attention around the world.
Who best to guide that effort? Voters have heard little discussion on that because the candidates' attention has been focused on pelting each other with personal invective.
Political experts say the election fight in Irvine mirrors national political tactics, which increasingly rely on polling, negative personal attacks and aggressive pursuit of potential voters. "We're seeing much more sophistication at local levels," says Raphael Sonenshein, political science professor at Cal State Fullerton.
His colleague, Alan Saltzstein, agrees. "Because of population growth, city council races are more important and more money is going into them."
At the nexus of the Irvine election is the persona of Larry Agran, the city's four-time mayor, key figure in the fight to defeat the El Toro airport plan and the patriarch of the Great Park. Agran is now running for the City Council because he has reached the mayoral term limit.
Agran presides over the city with the fussy attention of a base commander. He's a housemother in a suit, urbane and undeniably bright, a visionary to some, a control maniac to others.
Supporters praise his stewardship and have re-elected him over a 20-year span.
Others loathe him.
Carol Liitschwager waited until after midnight at a recent City Council meeting for her opportunity to lampoon Agran during the public-comment period, suggesting that he would lose the election but that alternative newspaper OC Weekly would run a "position wanted" ad for him as an unemployed politician.
"I think (Agran) is condescending; he has to be in control totally," said Liitschwager, a political activist working this campaign for council candidate Greg Smith. "He doesn't show respect for people who oppose him."
Agran would seem to personify the adage that in politics, issues come and go but enemies accumulate.
His newest adversary is former friend and fellow lawyer Chris Mears, who decided against running for re-election to the City Council. Mears was irate when Agran declined to back Cal State Fullerton President Milton Gordon for a seat on the Great Park board.
Agran said he thought Gordon would be conflicted because the university wants to expand its satellite campus at the old base, soon to be the Great Park. Mears faxed an angryletter to Agran saying he felt betrayed after years of supporting Agran.
Earlier this summer, Mears went to OC Weekly with a soul-baring tale of political anguish he blamed on the mayor. In subsequent weeks, the paper published more accusations against Agran of cronyism and political maneuvering. Many of the charges originated with Mears and focused on Agran's political tactics and his long relationship with political adviser Ed Dornan.
Mears said Dornan stood to gain financially if the city contracted with Enco Utility Services, a company Dornan introduced to the city as a possible provider of electric power in future development areas. But the city never went beyond the study stage in setting up a working utility and the company backs Dornan's assertion that he didn't get a cent from Enco.
The complexity of the utility proposal, laced as it was with whiffs of favoritism possibilities, exemplifies what opponents see as lamentable big-city politicking that Agran has brought to sedate Irvine.
Agran typically raises more money than his opponents and some have complained that they felt intimidated by letters Agran fired off threatening legal action when he thinks his positions have been misstated or his integrity questioned.
"It's ugly politics," says Councilman Mike Ward, who is running for mayor. "We never had this before."
Agran is backing fellow council member Beth Krom for mayor.
Ironically, Agran's adversaries say they might like him better if he spent less time at City Hall. The mayor and City Council jobs are designed to be part time and pay just $20,000 a year. But Agran, whose wife is a pediatrician, works at the job full time, fulfilled, he says, in the desire to help guide the Great Park to completion.
Agran, Ward and other candidates agree that voters are suffering from a lack of discussion about the city's future and how the Great Park will be developed. But the race seems unlikely to veer that way any time soon.
Political mailers haven't yet been produced, although Dornan - Agran's political adviser - says he will be creating one for this election. Such mailers typically seek to distill candidates' positions into brief bullet points.
Ward and others say Dornan's tactics appall them. Ward, for example, says a recent Dornan poll misrepresented his positions. Cal State Fullerton conducted the poll, drawing sharp criticism from Agran opponents and ultimately an apology from the university.
"How can you ensure the process is clean? I doubt you ever can," says Saltzstein, the CSUF professor. "Orange County is pretty clean compared to other places."
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