Venezia quits Newport council race

Newport Beach City Council candidate Barbara Venezia late Tuesday announced that she is withdrawing from the race.

Her announcement came during a meeting with the Daily Pilot's editorial board. Venezia was at the Pilot's office to interview for the newspaper's endorsement. The paper's editorial board — consisting of Publisher Tom Johnson, Editor S.J. Cahn, City Editor Carol Chambers and websites General Manager Tony Dodero — has been meeting during the last week with the candidates running for Newport Beach and Costa Mesa city councils and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board of trustees.

Venezia was challenging appointed incumbent Leslie Daigle for the District 4 seat, which includes Santa Ana Heights and Eastbluff.

It is a race that in the last week had become more contentious.

First, Venezia was the target of an attack suggesting that she had a conflict of interest if she served as a councilwoman because her husband, Stan Tkaczyk, used to own Rainbow Disposal, which operates in Newport.

The lawyer who raised the issue, Mark Bucher of Tustin, would not identify his client. But the only person to check on Venezia's financial forms before the issue arose was political consultant Dave Ellis, one of several consultants on Daigle's campaign.

Venezia strongly denied any conflict, which seemed to be born out by the documents she filed with the city. However, the issue could not have been resolved unless Venezia had won the race, at which point Newport's city attorney would have had to investigate it.

Following that story, long-standing rumors that Daigle had had a confrontation with a Corona del Mar High School security guard surfaced. The he-said-she-said story involved an incident last spring in which the guard asked Daigle and other women to leave the school's track. Daigle said she was surprised she was told she couldn't use the track and felt intimidated by the guard, Fernando Ospina.

Ospina, however, said that Daigle did not want to follow the rules, became hostile and, he told the Pilot: "Then she said, 'You must live in Costa Mesa. I'll have you deported. I'll have your job.' "

In withdrawing from the race, Venezia presented the following statement exclusively to the Pilot on Tuesday:

"I am extremely saddened that I have decided to withdraw my candidacy for city council. I pray that the hundreds of volunteers that believe in me and my goals will understand my situation and not be disappointed.