The Effectiveness of $250,000 IE's

When Keith Curry and I tried to introduce to the Newport Beach City Council the idea of giving the people of our city a say before their public employee unions bullied themselves a better pension agreement, Dolores Otting stood up at the council meeting and said something to the effect that "this is a move from the Lincoln Club, and they didn't support my candidacy; in fact, I didn't have any big money people blah blah blah". How that justified her rejection of an idea so fundamentally fair and necessary for our city is beyond me, and apparently 75% of the people in Orange County agree (see Measure J's landmark passing yesterday).

But what I have been mystified by throughout this campaign is the change of heart Dolores appears to have had about the support of one's campaign. While apparently is what offensive to her that God and country loving Americans like myself and other LC members would give $500 whopping dollars to Keith Curry, apparently rallying with $250,000 of independent expenditure money from Jack Croul was just fine. I actually happen to think it was - I don't begrudge this guy the right to waste his money on whatever grudge and political score he wants. I believe in the first amendment, and despite some of the extraordinary things one reads even on the comments section some time of this excellent blog, a candidate is not "in bed with big business" when someone freely supports the candidate they believe in. Quid pro quos are already against the law, and no slanderous mailer can make lemons out of lemonade. So, I reiterate, IE's, Jack, 250k, Dolores - it's all good by me. It is a free country. BUT, I have to say, it may not be a wise investment for the rest of us looking to spend 250k in the future to dethrone a city council member. As one will see from the below exact election results, this 250k ADDED 1,000 votes to Keith Curry's margin of victory. I have to think that if I ever get tempted to do an IE, this would scare me a bit.

2008 Results - Curry win by 2924 votes

Vote Count
Percentage
KEITH D. CURRY
16,606
54.8%
DOLORES OTTING
13,682
45.2%

2006 Results - Curry wins by 1999 votes

Vote Count
Percentage
KEITH D. CURRY
13478
54.0%
DOLORES A. OTTING
11479
46.0%

I hope Keith will govern the city well. I think he will. I believe there is a lot of good happening in the city, and I believe there is a lot of work to be done. I hope those of us who love the city will calm the rhetoric a bit, and move on with the job of civic responsibility and improvement.