Candidates differ on issue priority

With the El Toro runways safely plowed under, candidates for the 5th District Orange County supervisor’s seat have had to look farther afield for campaign issues.

Four candidates ? three of whom are from Laguna Niguel ? will be on Tuesday’s ballot. They include former Assemblywoman Patricia Bates, 66; Laguna Niguel Mayor Cathryn DeYoung, 49; and engineering consultant Eddie Rose, 68; all of Laguna Niguel; and educator Gary V. Miller, 63 of Aliso Viejo.

The 5th District represents the bulk of southern Orange County, including Newport Coast, Laguna Beach and nine other cities.

The campaign has raised an interesting crop of regional issues. Candidates have debated transportation ? namely proposals for a toll road that would pass through San Onofre State Beach and a tunnel through the mountains between Orange and Riverside counties ? and illegal immigration, over which supervisors have little control.

Which issue is most important depends on who’s talking. To Rose, it’s preserving open space in south Orange County ? he opposes the San Onofre toll road proposal and has pledged, if elected, to join California Atty. General Bill Lockyer’s lawsuit blocking the road.

“The one major issue is the preservation of open space,” Rose said. “Both DeYoung and Bates owe their allegiance to developers.”

Bates said aside from illegal immigration the biggest issue in the 5th district is transportation, which causes secondary problems with air quality. But immigration, she said, is “very much a quality-of-life issue, and I think it’s something that we have a role to play in our county, very definitely.”

DeYoung sees the race as a battle between her “independent voice” representing the residents of southern Orange County, and the “Sacramento machine” that’s backing Bates.

“At the end of the day the most important issue is really who’s funding the campaigns of individuals and who those individuals are going to represent,” DeYoung said.

Miller did not return calls for comment. He has purchased a ballot statement that lists priorities including strengthening the economy and protecting open space.

The race also has attracted notice because of how much has been spent and the bickering between Bates and DeYoung, neighbors who were once close but now accuse each other of unfair attacks.

Campaign finance reports show DeYoung has spent $1.8 million on her campaign this year, most of it her own money, while Bates spent about $556,000.

The two also have tangled in court over a DeYoung mailer that referred to a vote Bates cast in the Assembly.

Bates said DeYoung’s campaign has been “rife with fraudulent information about me and my record.” DeYoung, however, said she’s taken the high road by criticizing Bates’ record, while Bates’ campaign has resorted to name-calling.

Aside from the personal and financial dramas, issues in this race don’t seem very clear-cut ? or maybe there just aren’t many issues to begin with. Incumbent 5th District Supervisor Tom Wilson, who is termed out, said in his experience the issues have to be ferreted out, but voters care about “quality-of-life” topics such as public safety services and coastal protection.

“It’s hard to find an issue, but I would hope that they would pick up on the quality-of-life issues,” he said.

Bates and DeYoung say illegal immigration does affect the quality of life here, but there may not be much supervisors can do about it, beyond lobbying federal officials.

But as an issue, immigration could be valuable in attracting voters to a typically low-turnout election.

Even if supervisors have “as much control over immigration policy as they do over NASA,” UC Irvine political scientist Mark Petracca said, “it’s still fair game. It just hardly seems sufficient grounds upon which we should elect a supervisor.”