About six weeks ago, the Pilot ran an editorial asking -- more in
sadness than censure -- why so few candidates seek election to local
public offices. A few days later, a local citizen who had just filed
wrote a letter that was published on the Community Forum page and offered
some very specific answers to that question. His name is John Heffernan,
and he is running from District 7 for the Newport Beach City Council.
Heffernan is now six weeks older and wiser, and I thought it might be
interesting to see if the views expressed in the Pilot letter had changed
after this brief brush with the political system. So I asked him that
question over a cup of coffee.
It is now clear to him that most of the points he made in his letter
are givens in any political contest and aren't going to go away. These
include complex and detailed public disclosure of personal finances, long
hours of work at the expense of family time, public scrutiny of highly
personal affairs, and the constant risk of alienating both friends and
fellow citizens. He went in aware of these shortcomings, and nothing that
has happened since has changed these perceptions.
What has changed is a much more acute awareness of how the political
system works -- and the impact of money on any political race. He had
made a rather ingenuous pledge to himself to finance his own candidacy
completely and avoid all political debts by not seeking any outside
money. This determination was challenged very quickly by the realities of
setting the table properly for a serious effort to win political office
at virtually any level.
Although Heffernan is a successful attorney, he says he doesn't even
come close to the personal financial resources needed to try to buy an
elective office. He and his wife, who teaches science at a local high
school, have two young sons, and Heffernan has a long history of social
service -- Hoag Hospital board member, Orange County Food Bank chairman,
for example -- and deep family roots in this area, where his father once
practiced law.
But none of this prepared him for the financial bare bones needed just
to compete for a seat on the Newport Beach City Council, especially in a
district where his two opponents were both substantial and better known.
It started with an outlay of $900 to provide a candidate statement for
the ballot. Then it got serious as he looked into what are deemed two
necessary accouterments for a successful political campaign: inclusion on
