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Council candidate backs Genis

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Costa Mesa City Council candidate James Rader will not actively campaign and instead endorsed former Mayor Sandy Genis for election, he announced Wednesday.

“I’m in a little over my head here,” he said. “Hopefully, I can just fade away into anonymity.”

Rader, 68, has been an engineer for almost 30 years and was a last-minute entrant into the crowded race.

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“When I decided to run for City Council, my goal was to be an active part of the process, and help move the city forward,” Rader said in a prepared statement. “Unfortunately, I waited until the last day of the nomination period to declare my candidacy. Now that I am a candidate, I see that there isn’t enough time to create a campaign plan and build a viable organization before the November election.”

However, he praised Genis, who in years since she left office took an active role in working to stop the proposed sale of the Orange County Fairgrounds.

“That being said, I still plan to take an active role in the process by supporting Sandy Genis for City Council,” he said.

Rader admitted he doesn’t know much about the biggest issues of the day for Costa Mesa — a proposed city charter or outsourcing city services — and was motivated to run because of the homeless at Lions Park, across the street from his home.

He was unaware the city had organized a Homeless Task Force that has proposed long-term remedies to the city’s transient issues.

It is too late to have his name removed from the ballot.

The other candidates are Planning Commission Chairman Colin McCarthy, retired certified public accountant Al Melone, Councilman Steve Mensinger, Councilman Gary Monahan, business attorney John Stephens and businessman Harold Weitzberg.

joseph.serna@latimes.com

Twitter: @JosephSerna

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