Rarely a suprise in YL politics

I started covering suburban city councils and school boards for community newspapers in 1966, and I’ve penned this column on local government and politics for the Yorba Linda Star since 1998, so I’m not shocked at the twists and turns in small-town political affairs.

Through the years, I’ve witnessed changes in political alliances, the escalation of personal differences into political feuds and efforts by council members and their loyalists to rewrite history by misrepresenting past positions.

But I must admit to mild surprise when Mayor John Anderson reversed his decision to not seek a second council term and joined the race just hours before the filing deadline, since he told me firmly a few weeks ago he was out.

Of course, it’s very good politics to appear to respond to a draft-like request by a large number of supporters to fight another electoral battle but Anderson’s partisans, at least, say his about-face was due to their fervent appeals and was not a pre-planned strategy.

This city’s registered voters—43,121 by current count—shouldn’t expect a replay of the 2006 contest, in which Anderson and Jan Horton, who announced her bid for re-election months ago, ran and won on nearly identical platforms and pronouncements.

Certainly, the pair won’t be sitting side-by-side on a fire truck during a Fiesta Day parade (if there is a parade this year), as they did a few days before the 2006 ballot, because they long ago parted ways on many key city issues.

And policy differences obviously have turned personal, as is in evidence at several of the twice-monthly council sessions and especially on their combative websites and Facebook pages, where they mince fewer words in describing the other’s actions and attributes.

Also, each has found a different person to support in this year’s contest for the two open seats on the governing body. Anderson is backing Tom Lindsey, and Horton is cheering for Brenda McCune.

Holdover council members Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing are expected to endorse Anderson-Lindsey, while Jim Winder is likely to back Horton-McCune, so residents could be changing the council’s current 3-2 balance of power when they cast ballots.

Maybe two other candidates, Tim McCune (not related to Brenda McCune) and Richard Wolfinger, can position themselves as independents. Wolfinger placed eighth out of nine contenders in 2008, and six-year resident McCune needs to build name identification.

My July 29 column on the city’s recent history of political bickering—“Yorba Linda voters send messages with ballots”—drew several e-mails, including the following:

“I am in total agreement with your editorial, especially the part about residents wanting a healthy discussion of issues. Name-calling and personal attacks can be done elsewhere, if at all. It’s about time we vote out those who cannot be fair, impartial and use integrity in their office.”