Venezia: Buckle up as campaigns get interesting

Political twists and turns are coming fast and furious these days in the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa council races — and beyond.

The Aug. 8 filing deadline saw the exit of two candidates.

Newport’s Michael Glenn dropped his bid for the Balboa Peninsula-area District 1 seat, assuring his sole opponent, Diane Dixon, an automatic win.

He cited business demands and pledged to refund his donors’ money, about $4,000, according to his last state filing.

Repaying donors shouldn’t take too long since the only ones listed were three of the four owners of Woody’s Wharf restaurant, Greg Pappas, Christopher Pappas and Mark Serventi, each contributing $1,100.

Funny thing is last Friday I wrote how Newport candidate Scott Peotter was in hot water with City Clerk Leilani Brown over a similar campaign contribution from this group.

Woody’s was far more generous with Peotter than Glenn. Not only did each of the guys named above donate to his campaign, so did their other partner, Ralph Nudo, as did the restaurant entity itself.

Woody’s $1,100 put Peotter in potential violation of the city’s campaign-contributions limitations, according to Brown’s Aug. 1 letter to him.

Peotter disagreed and went to the California Fair Political Practices Commission’s help line looking for clarity.

“We have been in touch, and they want me to submit formally, which I will do,” he said in an email regarding the FPPC. “Since the city clerk is out of town this week, I will probably decide what to do next week.”

He has the option of returning the $1,100 or rolling the dice with an FPPC ruling.

And then in Costa Mesa, council candidate Harold Weitzberg threw in the towel, which surprised me.

In 2012, the businessman garnered 11,697 votes — not enough to win, but he did gain citywide name recognition, which should’ve helped him this go-around.

But I guess losing the support of a group he’s worked closely with for the past two years — Costa Mesans for Responsible Government (CM4RG) — Weitzberg saw the writing on the wall and gracefully stepped away.

CM4RG favors candidates Katrina Foley, a school board member and former councilwoman, and Jay Humphrey, a former councilman.

It’s not only the local council races that have odd twists and turns.

Dave Ellis, campaign consultant to Newport council candidates Peotter, Dixon, Marshall Duffield and Kevin Muldoon, is running for office himself. He identifies as a “businessman/water consultant” on his ballot designation in the Division 5 race for the Municipal Water District of Orange County.

“For the past 15 years one of my favorite clients has been a retail water agency in the Inland Empire that is at the forefront of recycled water at the headwaters of the Santa Ana River,” he wrote in an email to supporters.

Other candidates include water-quality engineer Saturu Tamaribuchi; Jose Vergaga, director of the El Toro Water District; and Ron Varasteh, who is entered in more than one race (more on that later).

And then there’s the Orange County Water District Division 5 race, which looks to be getting nasty. Incumbent Steve Sheldon is up against businesswoman and educator Dorothy Malsack, Irvine businesswoman Alisee Phillips and termed-out Newport Councilwoman Leslie Daigle.

Varasteh, who still has a Facebook page tied to a congressional run, threw his name into this race too!

Daigle is already going after Sheldon.

On July 29 she sent an email saying, “I hope you can circulate this on the Internet via email to your friends. OK to take my name off it.” It included a link to a Facebook page called “Steve Sheldon Watch.”

The page went up July 27 and states it’s “a transparency project sponsored by the taxpayers of Orange County,” though it’s not the better-known Orange County Taxpayers Assn.

The page disparages Sheldon, highlighting tax liens and other problems he’s had.

Of course, people love to forward this gossipy stuff, and someone even sent it to Sheldon, who openly admits he’s gone through a divorce and had problems caused by the Great Recession.

Sheldon says he’s paid off 90% of his debts and is working on the balance.

Needless to say, Sheldon’s not happy with the email. Reached by email Thursday night, Daigle (disclosure: I ran against her for council years ago) said the email had been circulating for weeks. “I’d hate to keep something like Steve Sheldon Watch a secret,” she said, adding that those who forward the note are “Jerry is doing a public service by forwarding it.”

Candidates were recently asked to sign a code of Fair Campaign Practices when they file with the Orange County registrar’s office.

According to the document, candidates pledge not to “use or permit character defamation, whispering campaigns, liable, slander or scurrilous attacks on a candidate or his or her personal or family life.”

Both Daigle and Sheldon have signed the agreement.

BARBARA VENEZIA, whose column appears Fridays, lives in Newport Beach. She can be reached at bvontv1@gmail.com.