Politics

Residents in the Halecrest-Hall of Fame area of Costa Mesa sponsored a chili cookoff over the weekend that attracted several politicians. Mayor Allan Mansoor and his challenger in the November race for Assembly, Phu Nguyen, a businessman, each prepared dishes for the cook-off. Neither man won the contest. Also in attendance were Councilwomen Wendy Leece and Katrina Foley. Leece is running for reelection. Foley is running for school board. Planning Commissioner Jim Righeimer, who is running for council, also attended the event.

COSTA MESA — Chad Petschl made up his mind to run for City Council two days before the deadline for filing the paperwork. He said that his chances of winning are slim, but he believes that he brings a fresh face to the community and is someone who is willing to listen. Petschl doesn't like seeing all of the empty buildings and storefronts around Costa Mesa and wants to find a way to fill them with businesses that bring revenue to the city. "We have to market the city to get businesses to come to the city," he said.

Jack Croul, a former paint industry magnate, has added splashes of color to election year politics in Newport Beach. The longtime Newport Beach resident pumped nearly $1 million of his own money into two separate political campaigns in 2008. “I’d like to see the city run well,” Croul told the Daily Pilot earlier this year. Croul bankrolled the successful Measure B earlier this year. He poured about $680,000 into the Measure B campaign, outspending the opposition several times over with polling and direct mail.

Alicia Robinson The most important political issues for women are safe streets, quality education and jobs, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Bill Jones said this week. Jones gave the briefest of stump speeches tailored to a mostly female audience at Costa Mesa's Shark Club on Tuesday at an event launching Women-Count, a new state GOP outreach program to get women more involved in party politics. "Women have been the backbone of the Republican Party in California as long as I can remember," Jones said before giving his talk.

When a group of Iranian Americans met with Barack Obama this week at the Balboa Bay Club, Melahat Rafiei, the executive director of the Orange County Democrats, took a particular interest in the conversation. Rafiei, who was born in Iran and moved to California when she was 5, thinks it’s time for Iranian Americans to assert themselves politically. “This community has been taken for granted,” she said. “And they’re partly to blame. They haven’t stepped up and voted.

Tom Titus If, like many of us, you're fed up to here with all the mud-slinging of the presidential campaign and are looking for two hours' worth of escape from politics, then "View of the Dome" at Orange Coast College probably isn't for you. The OCC production of Theresa Rebeck's comedy of sex and politics in our nation's capital obviously is scheduled to be as timely as possible, opening as it does this close to...

It's every journalist's biggest fear: You put your heart and soul (not to mention overtime) into a story, and no one reads it. For journalists covering politics, it's a problem faced now, still more than a year away from elections. The "horse race" coverage has begun, along with the quests to determine whether George W. Bush broke drug laws in his youth and just how bad a temper John McCain has. And the bulk of readers don't care. A recent Pew Research Center study found that in September, only 46% of Americans were paying any substantial attention to the presidential race.

Several religious leaders across the country told their congregants Sunday which presidential candidate they ought to vote for. It’s an act of civil disobedience meant to force a confrontation over the IRS’ prohibition on tax-exempt organizations from participating in partisan political activities. Should religious leaders have more latitude to discuss politics from the pulpit?   Having a tax-exempt status is not an automatic right for any group that calls itself a church.

Amy R. Spurgeon NEWPORT BEACH -- Not even rush-hour traffic could keep Tom Brokaw from sharing his views on the need for an overhaul of national elections. Brokaw, anchorman of NBC's Nightly News, arrived 45 minutes late to his speaking engagement Friday at the Newport Beach Public Library after battling Southland traffic on his way from Burbank. He was the second guest speaker in the library's third annual Martin W. Witte Distinguished Speakers Lecture Series.

Political activist and professor Humberto Caspa’s new book about Costa Mesa politics was inspired by recent turmoil at City Hall. “There was a lot of stuff going on in the community, and a lot of problems in the local government, things that I wasn’t aware of even though I lived here for 15 years,” Caspa said. “My goal is to raise consciousness.” Caspa will talk about his new book, “Terror in the Latino Barrio: The Rise of the New Right in Local Government,” Thursday at OCC. In the book, the one-time Daily Pilot columnist gives a history of immigration issues in Costa Mesa and rebukes some city council members for policies he says are racist and aimed at changing city demographics.

Marshall B. Krupp wants to see business handled differently in Costa Mesa, so he has added his name to the list of City Council candidates. "It's time for there to be a new, refreshing approach to representing the community," said Krupp, a business consultant who has lived in the city for eight years. "I want to bring a nonpolitical approach to decision-making. " Although a registered Republican, Krupp, 62, said he doesn't align himself with any one political party or a particular member of the council.

Disguised as men, female soldiers slung revolvers and fired cannons alongside their male counterparts in 1861. This is just one of many truths to discover this weekend at the fourth annual Battle of Costa Mesa, a Civil War reenactment event in Costa Mesa's Fairview Park on Saturday and Sunday. Transforming the quiet grasslands off Placentia Avenue, more than 350 blue- and gray-clad participants will ignite a historic scene of foot soldiers, cavalry, smoking guns and North vs. South political rhetoric.

The most interesting feature of Colin McCarthy's commentary, " Can Costa Mesa affords $300k firefighters?" isn't that he gets so much wrong, but that he describes himself with such humility. At the end of his essay, published in Sunday's Daily Pilot, McCarthy identifies himself only as "president of the Costa Mesa Taxpayers Assn. " He is, of course, much, much more than that: a council appointee to the Costa Mesa Planning Commission and a likely candidate for a seat on the council itself.

COSTA MESA - At the Costa Mesa Taxpayers Assn. meeting meant to inform the public about a proposed city charter, audience members also got an earful of anti-union rhetoric. Nearly 100 audience members gathered at the Neighborhood Community Center on Thursday to learn about the charter, essentially a city constitution that would, if approved by voters, allow the city to make more of its own laws rather than rely on a state-provided template. "The elected officials are the ones who created the problem," Councilman Steve Mensinger said in describing the city's rising pension costs.

SANTA ANA - Occupy Orange County took a different turn Friday for the two-year anniversary of theU.S. Supreme Courtruling involving Citizens United. They went for laughs. Still, the day in downtown Santa Ana was all about raising awareness of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the January 2010 decision that prohibited the government from limiting funds from independent parties, such as corporations and labor unions, for political purposes. "People driving by will hopefully see the signs saying, 'Corporations are not people,' and, 'Your voice should not equal a dollar bill,' and take that [message]

COSTA MESA — The city finished the 2010-11 fiscal year $3.8 million in the black, thanks to better-than-expected sales tax receipts and cuts to city programs and staffing levels, city officials said. Going into budget discussions over the summer, the city projected a $1.4-million deficit. However, taxable sales in the area rebounded, which was part of the 4.2% increase in revenue for Costa Mesa last year. "We're not in the critical period, but we're still in the hospital," Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer argued.

Mary Hornbuckle has gone by lots of titles over the years: Costa Mesa mayor, city councilwoman, school director, community college district trustee. Next summer, she'll have a new one: retired. Hornbuckle will serve her last day as director for St. Mark Community Preschool on June 30, 2012. She has served as director of the Newport Beach since 1988 and taught there for a decade before that. "I don't know what I'm going to do when the new school year begins," the 68-year-old said.

State Sen. Tom Harman (R-Costa Mesa) this week blamed partisanship on Gov. Jerry Brown's choice to veto one of his bills that could let private companies operate cash-strapped state parks. The state budget crisis has forced the state to temporarily close many of the parks to the public. "California should use every tool in the tool box to keep these parks open and profitable," Harman wrote in his weekly report to supporters. "There should be no excuse for closure when there are other, untapped options available.

SANTA ANA - A UC Irvine professor overstepped his boundaries when he told students that no disruptions were allowed during the Israeli ambassador's visit last year, according to testimony given during Wednesday's Irvine 11 trial. According to UCI comparative literature professor Rei Terada's testimony, before introducing Ambassador Michael Oren on Feb. 8, 2010, political science professor Mark Petracca, who emceed the event, told the audience he had the highest expectation for civility for the ambassador - a level that would exceed the respect given even during a joint session of Congress.

Director John Madden and Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren first teamed up in "Prime Suspect," the acclaimed detective series on British television. They transfer much of the gritty tension created in that effort to "The Debt," their new political thriller. Espionage and international intrigue are front and center in this pressure-packed drama that spans decades of late 20th century history. Mirren stars as the elder version of Israeli Mossad agent Rachel Singer. Jessica Chastain is riveting, playing the same character as a younger woman on assignment in East Berlin in 1965.