IT'S MONAHAN, BEVER, FOLEY
With all precincts reporting, here are the unofficial vote totals:
Gary Monahan 13,645/ 21.1%
Katrina Foley 11,935/ 18.5%
Eric Bever 11,346/ 17.6%
Jim Righeimer 9,904/ 15.5%
Lisa Reedy 5,604/ 8.7%
Chris McEvoy 5,172/ 8.0%
Bill Sneen 3,124/ 4.8%
Chris Bunyan 2,322/ 3.6%
Nick Moss 1,476/ 2.3%
Katrina Foley 11,935/ 18.5%
Eric Bever 11,346/ 17.6%
Jim Righeimer 9,904/ 15.5%
Lisa Reedy 5,604/ 8.7%
Chris McEvoy 5,172/ 8.0%
Bill Sneen 3,124/ 4.8%
Chris Bunyan 2,322/ 3.6%
Nick Moss 1,476/ 2.3%
OUR QUICK ANALYSIS
Foley benefited from the fact that nationally this was a Democrat year. Otherwise, we believe she might have been defeated by Righeimer.
Righeimer had the most money to spend in the campaign, but he's only been living in Costa Mesa a couple of years and this hurt him.
In addition, we believe there was a gender factor that helped Foley. This can be seen when you look at Lisa Reedy's fifth place finish. Reedy ran almost no campaign other than putting her name in the official voter's pamphlet.
Had Righeimer been a woman, he might have won. If Righeimer runs again in two years, he may stand a better chance of winning, but our suggestion to him is that he has to hit improvement issues (lower crime, better schools, etc.) harder and not put so much emphasis on development per se.
And, he has to develop the common touch. During the campaign, many Improvers told the CM PRESS that Righeimer didn't seem to listen to their concerns and was often cool to them and acted more like an important GOP Bigwig than the guy next door. In other words, he didn't connect with them.
Righeimer also sent signals that he was too willing to get along with the other side and would compromise too easily on important improvement issues.
The CM PRESS had believed all along that Gary Monahan would be the top vote getter and that Nick Moss (who ran almost no campaign) would come in last. And, that's what happened.
YOUR NEW CITY COUNCIL
The new Costa Mesa City Council will have an improvement minded super-majority of Eric Bever, Allan Mansoor, Gary Monahan, Wendy Leece. This will be good for making some real strides toward getting Costa Mesa back on track.
The new Costa Mesa City Council will have an improvement minded super-majority of Eric Bever, Allan Mansoor, Gary Monahan, Wendy Leece. This will be good for making some real strides toward getting Costa Mesa back on track.
Katrina Foley will be powerless to screw up our city.
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Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
