THE POLITICAL LANDSCAPE:

Comedian Stephen Colbert took aim at a bearded Rep. John Campbell in a recent episode of the “The Colbert Report.”

Colbert aired clips of an interview with Campbell last week as part of a satirical rant about House Republicans’ rejection of President Obama’s economic stimulus package.

“If Republicans can’t have a perfect bill to stimulate the economy, they’d rather have no economy at all,” Colbert quipped.

Campbell voted against the $819-billion stimulus package. The congressman called the bill “a horrible idea” that was full of pork-barrel spending.

News clips of a television interview with Campbell were edited together to show the congressman lavishing obsequious praise on Obama after a meeting with the president, despite his vote.

“The tone was very good, the atmosphere was very good, the president is, he’s very good,” Campbell said in the edited batch of clips.

“If it weren’t for Prop. 8, this guy would be Mrs. Obama by now,” Colbert said.

Sporting a newly sprouted beard, Campbell was a five-o’clock shadow of his former self in the segment. The congressman was even less recognizable because the clips identified him as “Jim Campbell.”

Campbell could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

Past hopeful alleges conflict of interest

Former City Council candidate Chris McEvoy lodged a complaint with the city, saying there may have been a conflict of interest in the recent appointments of commissioners.

The council picked two planning commissioners and two parks and recreation commissioners from a pool of about 30 at a meeting in late January by majority vote, and the new guys will have their first meeting Monday.

In a letter to the council and the city attorney, McEvoy took issue with the appointments of Planning Commissioners Steve Mensinger and Colin McCarthy and Parks Commissioner Jeff Mathews, who gave a combined $3,750 to Councilmen Eric Bever and Gary Monahan in their recent campaigns.

Under Costa Mesa’s municipal code, council members can’t participate in any decision that affects a person or business that gives more than $250 to that council member’s campaign within a year of the time the money is given.

The city contends that McEvoy is misinterpreting the code in applying it to this situation, though, and says that no rules have been broken. When McEvoy spoke at the council meeting Tuesday night, Assistant City Atty. Harold Potter said that the law is intended to apply to decisions regarding permits, licenses and other entitlements.

For instance, council members cannot take $250-or-more donations from developers who want to build projects in Costa Mesa and then vote on the developers’ projects. This is why candidates’ campaign balance sheets are littered with $249 contributions from local developers eager to scratch council members’ backs without disqualifying them from voting on their projects.

McEvoy says he is not 100% satisfied with the city’s response and is unsure how he will move forward.

“For all I know [Mensinger, McCarthy and Mathews] might be the best people for the job, but the thing is it doesn’t look good for the city,” he said.

Bever and Monahan said they checked with the city attorney before the appointment process and got the green light.

Here’s a relevant sections in the municipal code:

“Designated employees must disqualify themselves from making or participating in the making of any decisions which will foreseeably have a material financial effect, distinguishable from its effect on the public generally, on any reportable interest in that employee (except sources of gifts less than two hundred fifty dollars).”

Given that this sentence contains 48 words (including one that is not recognized as a word by the Merriam- Webster Dictionary) and more than five different clauses, discrepancies may be understandable.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected]. ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at [email protected].