THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:The candidates square off

Leave it to a candidates’ forum to bring out the real issues in a City Council campaign. A Wednesday night forum held by Speak Up Newport was all very civil in appearance, but the gloves came off fast.

In the ring were the 12 candidates for five of Newport Beach’s seven council seats. Mayor Don Webb also is on the ballot but is running unopposed. The event’s first half had more than 100 people packed into the lower level of the Newport Beach Yacht Club, among them Democratic congressional candidate Steve Young, former state Assemblywoman Marilyn Brewer and local political veteran Marian Bergeson.

Candidates in Districts 1 and 4 stated their positions on the city’s general plan update and Measure X, the citizen-driven ballot issue that would require public votes on some development projects, but when they got to ask questions of their opponents, it got interesting.

District 1 candidate Jack Wu, first out of the gate, asked Michael Henn how voters could trust him, since he is one of a number of people named in a recently filed lawsuit alleging KB Home executives improperly backdated stock options.

Henn responded as he has all week when asked about the suit, that he had nothing to do with handling stock options, and he’s proud of his tenure at KB Home. When he got his turn, he leveled at Wu what could in Newport be a damaging accusation: that Wu campaigned against the El Toro airport proposal.

Wu’s answer was that not just in Newport, but in all of Orange County, a large airport isn’t wanted.

The entire forum will be broadcast on local Time Warner and Cox cable stations. Speak Up Newport’s time slots are 8:30 p.m. Mondays and Saturdays, but it could take a week or two to edit the program for broadcast.

HENN ENDORSED

The fact that Henn was named in the stock options lawsuit didn’t diminish the confidence of some supporters. New Majority Chairman Tom Tucker this week announced he is making his first endorsement in a nonpartisan race on Henn’s behalf.

The endorsement is from Tucker personally — the New Majority stays out of nonpartisan races, Tucker said — and it wasn’t shaken by Henn’s involvement in the suit.

Tucker said his brother, Larry, who served with Henn on the city planning commission, introduced them. Tucker was impressed by Henn’s resume: former chief financial officer of builder KB Home and Vons Supermarkets.

“He’ll bring an awful lot to the table for our city,” Tucker said.

He added that he has no concerns about the lawsuit.

“He made it clear to me that he had absolutely nothing to do with stock options. It was never his responsibility,” Tucker said.

Before bringing up the lawsuit at Wednesday’s candidates forum, Wu, who was the first to throw his hat in the District 1 race, said Henn is “innocent until proven guilty in the American legal system. The basic idea [is] that lawsuits throw something at everybody hoping something will stick.”

But he was less clear on whether the suit will play into Henn’s council campaign.

“I think people will bring it up,” he said. “Whether I will or not, I don’t know yet.”

AGAINST X ON THE WEB

Newport politicos who oppose Measure X, the issue that would require public votes on some development projects, on Wednesday launched a website at www.measurexisflawed.org. The site includes news articles about the measure, a link to voter registration information on the Orange County Registrar of Voters website, and the full text of the measure.

The “No on X” committee includes former city Mayor Dennis O’Neil, Newport Beach Fire Chief Tim Riley and West Newport Beach Assn. President Paul Watkins.

NARROWER IMMIGRATION REFORM IN HOUSE

U.S. House members are expected to decide today which border security proposals they want to bring forward in lieu of a more comprehensive immigration-reform bill, Newport Beach Rep. John Campbell said Wednesday.

While he didn’t have specifics, such as whether a border fence will be included, Campbell said, “It will be security only, but it will be much narrower in scope than what was passed before.”

GOP WANTS ABSENTEES

With the reelection of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the line in November, the Orange County GOP has been stepping up its efforts to get Republicans to vote. Volunteers will begin a major precinct-walking effort this weekend, county GOP executive director Erik Weigand said.

And in a perfect Republican world, there might be no need for “election day.” Weigand said the GOP already started mailing absentee ballot applications, with the goal of registering as many people as absentee voters.

“When you have ballots in people’s hands by the first week of October, we can contact those voters easier … instead of on election day, we have to contact everyone and say, ‘Go vote,’ ” Weigand said.

To contribute to the party effort, the Newport Harbor Republican Women and Huntington Beach Rep. Dana Rohrabacher will hold the grand opening of a Newport Beach GOP headquarters from 4 to 7 p.m. Sept. 23. The Orange County GOP has dotted the county with offices that are the bases for phone banks, precinct walks and other party activities.

The Newport Beach office will be at 400 W. Pacific Coast Highway. For information, call Lee Frodsham at (949) 837-0278.

MEMORABLE COMMENT

Sometimes a source gives too many good quotes to include in one story. Rohrabacher made the following comment in an interview about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and though it didn’t fit into the story, it was too good to waste.

“I kept hearing people tell the press, ‘Oh, this is a terrible thing that we could never have known,’ and I said, ‘No, this is the worst intelligence failure in American history.’ ”