Race to replace Duvall further erodes confidence
The negative tone of the campaign to replace former two-time Mayor Mike Duvall in the state Assembly is likely to further erode confidence in the values of political leaders who seek to represent Yorba Linda in Sacramento.
The two top contenders for the year remaining on Duvall’s second term in the state’s 80-member legislative body appear ominously adept at using the most damaging vocabulary they can find to describe their chief opponent—and both are Republicans.
Thus, Chris Norby mailers trumpet “corruption,” “abuse,” “carpetbagging,” “money laundering” and “lies” to discredit Linda Ackerman, while Ackerman materials cite Norby’s “rude, inappropriate and offensive behavior” and “sexual harassment” trial.
And tellingly, both candidates drag out terms they think will be most effective in today’s corrosive political climate: Ackerman labels Norby “another politician,” and Norby tags Ackerman a “political insider.”
Meanwhile, Richard Faher, a third Republican candidate, Democrat John MacMurray and Green Party contender Jane Rands don’t have the money to hit voters with a heavy barrage of mail and telephone calls, although MacMurray recycled signs from his 2006 and 2008 campaigns against Duvall, in which he won 37.6 and 45.2 percent of the vote.
About one-half of Yorba Linda’s 42,823 voters reside in the 72nd Assembly District, which has 219,801 voters in Brea, Fullerton and Placentia and parts of Anaheim, La Habra, Orange and Yorba Linda. Registration is 43 percent Republican, 34 percent Democrat and less than one-half percent Green.
If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote when mail-in and precinct ballots are counted Tuesday night, the top Republican, MacMurray and Rands will appear on a Jan. 12 runoff ballot.
The county Registrar of Voters sent out 80,705 mail-in ballots as of Nov. 4, with 21,631 returned as of that date. To comply with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, 4,300 of the mail-in ballots were printed in Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese.
Although the current shortened campaign period has taken a negative turn, the district’s nastiest election came in the 2000 GOP primary, when the 72nd included the entire city, and winner Lynn Daucher and Bruce Matthias traded insults in an especially foul battle.
Interestingly, 2009 has been a tough year for all of the city’s Sacramento representatives.
Predominant, of course, was Duvall’s self-described “inappropriate storytelling” that led to his Sept. 9 resignation, ending a nearly 10-year political career.
Curt Hagman, who represents the city’s eastern half in the Assembly, was required to return $6,100 in donations from religious organizations, while Bob Huff, who represents the city in the Senate, is a recall target by conservative critics. Duvall, Hagman and Huff began their political careers on their hometown city councils.
The two top contenders for the year remaining on Duvall’s second term in the state’s 80-member legislative body appear ominously adept at using the most damaging vocabulary they can find to describe their chief opponent—and both are Republicans.
Thus, Chris Norby mailers trumpet “corruption,” “abuse,” “carpetbagging,” “money laundering” and “lies” to discredit Linda Ackerman, while Ackerman materials cite Norby’s “rude, inappropriate and offensive behavior” and “sexual harassment” trial.
And tellingly, both candidates drag out terms they think will be most effective in today’s corrosive political climate: Ackerman labels Norby “another politician,” and Norby tags Ackerman a “political insider.”
Meanwhile, Richard Faher, a third Republican candidate, Democrat John MacMurray and Green Party contender Jane Rands don’t have the money to hit voters with a heavy barrage of mail and telephone calls, although MacMurray recycled signs from his 2006 and 2008 campaigns against Duvall, in which he won 37.6 and 45.2 percent of the vote.
About one-half of Yorba Linda’s 42,823 voters reside in the 72nd Assembly District, which has 219,801 voters in Brea, Fullerton and Placentia and parts of Anaheim, La Habra, Orange and Yorba Linda. Registration is 43 percent Republican, 34 percent Democrat and less than one-half percent Green.
If no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote when mail-in and precinct ballots are counted Tuesday night, the top Republican, MacMurray and Rands will appear on a Jan. 12 runoff ballot.
The county Registrar of Voters sent out 80,705 mail-in ballots as of Nov. 4, with 21,631 returned as of that date. To comply with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, 4,300 of the mail-in ballots were printed in Chinese, Korean, Spanish and Vietnamese.
Although the current shortened campaign period has taken a negative turn, the district’s nastiest election came in the 2000 GOP primary, when the 72nd included the entire city, and winner Lynn Daucher and Bruce Matthias traded insults in an especially foul battle.
Interestingly, 2009 has been a tough year for all of the city’s Sacramento representatives.
Predominant, of course, was Duvall’s self-described “inappropriate storytelling” that led to his Sept. 9 resignation, ending a nearly 10-year political career.
Curt Hagman, who represents the city’s eastern half in the Assembly, was required to return $6,100 in donations from religious organizations, while Bob Huff, who represents the city in the Senate, is a recall target by conservative critics. Duvall, Hagman and Huff began their political careers on their hometown city councils.
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 PM
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