Daigle, Hill, Measure V winning in Newport

Voters in Newport Beach on Tuesday appeared poised to choose the familiar: the insider over the outsider; the incumbent over the challenger; and yes to a package of laws blessed by the City Council and the Chamber of Commerce.

If trends seen in early returns hold, it looks as if Rush Hill will beat Ed Reno for the District 3 City Council seat, Leslie Daigle will beat Mark Tabbert for the District 4 seat, and the Measure V package of charter reforms will pass.

Hill, an architect and longtime actor in civic affairs, was leading Reno by a wide margin at 10:30 p.m.

District 3 represents Dover Shores and Mariner’s Mile.

This contest for the termed-out Councilman Don Webb’s seat was the most heated race in Newport and drew attention from wider political circles. The Republican Party supported Reno, a lobbyist with strong political ties. Public employee pension reform was the GOP’s main issue.

“This campaign boiled down to, ‘Do you elect someone who understands the issues or do you elect someone who is the Republican nominee?’” Hill said.

Voters were asked to choose between Hill, 65, a past Citizen of the Year and 35-year local business owner, and Reno, 41, a parent of a school-aged boy who sought to connect with younger voters.

In some circles, Hill is called the “eighth city councilman” because of his extensive involvement in civic affairs. He has twice served as chairman of the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce and helped found the city’s Economic Development Committee. An architect by trade, Hill has also been a consultant in public-private partnerships. He has owned and operated Hill Partnership, an architecture firm in Newport, since 1975.

Hill served on the citizens’ design oversight committee for the Civic Center, and made recommendations to the City Council on the project. Reno hammered on the project during the campaign, pointing out aspects that ballooned in cost. He sought to tie Hill to the Civic Center and other city spending that he characterized as unnecessary.

Reno also criticized the city for spending too much on employees, while Hill called public safety employees part of the Newport “family.” The Newport Beach Firefighters Assn. spent more than $6,000 for mailers supporting Hill.

In total, the two candidates raised about $190,000, including self-financing. That’s about twice as much as the other competitive council race and almost equal to the 2006 race for District 1, when victor Mike Henn and three other candidates generated a total of $210,000 in contributions. That race had a hotly contested slow-growth initiative, Greenlight II, whereas this year there isn’t a comparable controversial issue.

Discussion this time turned to a critique of the current City Council, including its support of the Civic Center project.

THE INCUMBENT PULLS AHEAD

Daigle, the District 4 incumbent, had a commanding lead over Tabbert after early results had been tabulated

Neatly twice as many voters had chosen Daigle over Tabbert, according to early reporting.

“It looks like the race is breaking my way,” Daigle said, “and I appreciate the confidence the voters have placed in me.”

Daigle had fought back challenges from Tabbert, a political newcomer and environmental activist. Tabbert had criticized the City Council of being too compliant to developers and of favoring cell phone companies over residents; Daigle is a consultant in the wireless communications industry.

MEASURE V LIKELY PASSES

Taking the cue from city leaders, voters appear to have passed a bundle of 13 different laws in Measure V.

By a margin of 2 to 1, voters said yes on Measure V in early reporting.

City officials had promoted that the measure closes a property tax loophole and imposes oil drilling restrictions. The laws involved were remarkably varied — covering issues from the city Civil Service System to redistricting. What they all had in common is that they came from a City Council-mandated reform to the charter — the city’s constitution, in essence.

Besides the charter reforms and a related change to municipal employment rules, Measure V included a provision to repeal a cap on public funding to the Chamber of Commerce.