Thursday, August 21, 2008

Deja vu all over again in upcoming election

Yankee baseball great Yogi Berra’s “This is déjà vu all over again” remark could apply to this year’s City Council election: six of the nine candidates seeking three positions at the dais have appeared on Yorba Linda ballots a total of 28 times in past years.

Here’s a rundown of the veterans and their won-loss records to date:

Hank Wedaa is 8 and 2. He won eight council races, dating to 1970, placing first three times and second five times. In 2000, he lost a water district election, placing fourth of five candidates seeking two positions, and a Republican Central Committee contest, placing 10th of 16 candidates for six seats.

Mark Schwing is 9 and 3. He won three council races, placing second in 1988 and first in 1992 and 1996, and six straight two-year terms on the GOP Central Committee starting in 1998. He lost twice for council, 100 votes behind Allen Castellano in 2000 and 3 behind Keri Wilson in 2002, and once for water board, 657 votes behind Ric Collette in 2004.

Jim Winder is 2 and 0. He won twice for council, placing first of 10 candidates for three seats in 2000 but dropping to third of five contenders for the three slots in 2004.

Mark Abramowitz is 1 and 1. He defeated an incumbent in a water board race in 1998 but lost to a former director, Bill Mills, in 2002 by 268 votes.

Ed Rakochy is 0 and 1. He lost for council in 2004, placing fourth of five candidates for three seats, 4,307 votes behind Winder.

Doug Dickerson is 0 and 1. He lost for council in 2006, placing third of seven candidates for two seats, 781 votes behind John Anderson.

Rookies in the race are Michael Marien, Nancy Rikel and Richard Wolfinger, all 0 and 0.

Retiring from the field is Allen Castellano, who holds the record for most votes in a council contest (16,879 in 2004) and is 2 and 1. He lost in 1998, placing fifth of six candidates for two seats, but won in 2000, placing third of 10, and 2004, first of five.

Left on the bench are six prospects who picked up but did not return nomination papers: Jeri Bailey, Scott Bourdon, Shannon Eggers, Bob MacCulloch, John Roberts and former Councilwoman Keri Wilson, who has $13,266 in campaign cash from past races.

Wilson stays at 1 and 2. She won for council in 2002, placing second of eight candidates for two positions, ahead of Schwing by three votes, but she ran behind Anderson in 2006 by 1,456 votes and lost to Wedaa in 2007 by 805 votes.

A total of 185 names have appeared on the ballots for the 22 past council elections. A chronology of all candidates with vote totals is at www.yorbalindahistory.blogspot.com.

Currently, 41,592 residents are signed up to vote Nov. 4. Last day to register is Oct. 20.