S.D. Supervisor Says Voters Will Regret Ousting Him

VISTA —  When Paul Eckert’s contributions to North San Diego County politics are tallied, humility is not likely to head the list.

And Wednesday, as Eckert began to contemplate the stunning primary election defeat that cut short his quest for a third term on the Board of Supervisors, he showed why.

Although relaxed and friendly, open as always about his views on government and people, Eckert refused to acknowledge in an interview that his rejection by more than 75% of those who voted Tuesday means that North County residents don’t want him around anymore.

Maybe, on Tuesday, the voters who went to the polls thought they had seen enough of Eckert, he conceded. But, he added, they’ll be sorry.

“The people have made a choice,” Eckert said, leaning back in an easy chair in the living room of his hilltop home here. “They’ve said, ‘We don’t want Paul Eckert. We want somebody else.’ I can accept that.

“But I feel totally exonerated for everything. They’re not going to be saying a year from now, ‘Oh God, isn’t it great that we got rid of Eckert.’ They’re going to say, ‘Oh, maybe we should have kept him around.’ ”

And the voters are wrong if they think North County’s explosive growth, the main issue discussed in the months-long campaign, will be slowed by the absence of Eckert, a strong supporter of development, the 52-year-old moving and storage company owner said.

“They’re upset about growth,” Eckert said of the voters who sent Oceanside City Councilman John MacDonald and Escondido attorney Clyde Romney into a November runoff election for his seat. “But if they are looking for their supervisor to change it, it’s not going to happen,” he said, because the supervisor can only affect growth in the county’s unincorporated areas, not in the cities, where most of the new development takes place.

To Eckert, the political equation has always been that simple. If he is right, then those who oppose him must be wrong. The voters will see that and elect him. And reelect him. Easily.

But Tuesday, low voter turnout in Eckert’s one-time inland stronghold combined with high turnout on the coast, where voters were opting for cityhood over continued county control. Slow-growth advocates who have long despised Eckert went to the polls in droves. Six names, several of them prominent in their home communities, joined Eckert’s on the ballot to split the vote. And overconfidence appeared to plague the Eckert faithful, who, like the candidate, never believed he was in any danger.

In the end, Eckert got 18,662 votes, 1,534 short of what he needed to top Romney and qualify for the runoff. When he was reelected in 1982, Eckert received more than 48,000 votes in the primary.

“The toughest thing to do is to motivate people to go vote when they’re overconfident, and he didn’t get that job done,” said Al Steinbeck, a retired businessman and longtime Eckert ally.

Herb Williams, the veteran political consultant who mapped Eckert’s low-key campaign, said there was little he or Eckert could have done differently that would have brought about a victory.

“I have no regrets about the kind of campaign we ran,” Williams said. “It was a clean, upbeat campaign. It didn’t pick fights. It simply presented Paul’s record. . . . I think Paul’s supporters thought he was going to be in a runoff and they were just going to wait and vote for him in November.”

While Eckert insisted that he took nothing for granted, he and Williams have been talking for a year as if his reelection were assured.

First, Eckert said he thought he could frighten off opposition in the primary by collecting campaign funds and endorsements. When that failed, Eckert suggested several times that his opponents were not running because they thought they could beat him but were instead out to gain publicity for their other endeavors. Winning the primary by gaining a majority of the votes would be easy, he insisted. Finally, as the election grew nearer, Eckert conceded that he might not win it outright, but he vowed to take the race in November.

Through it all, one got the feeling that Eckert never really took the race, or the growing numbers of his detractors, seriously. While waiting to speak to a high school civics class Thursday, Eckert saw a wall poster on which was written a quote from Albert Einstein.

“ ‘Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds,’ ” Eckert said, reading the quote aloud. Then he cackled.

“I’ve never seen a quote that fit me better,” he said, pausing to consider those who opposed his bid for a third term. “If they don’t have mediocre minds,” he said of several coastal activists with whom he has been at odds, “nobody does.”

A few minutes later, he told the students: “I’m expecting to receive 51% or more either in this upcoming election or in November. Given all the things I’m involved in and what the other people have to offer, I don’t think it’s going to be difficult to identify that I have the experience, the knowledge, and that I’ve done the job.”

On Wednesday, Eckert reflected on the job he has done. He recalled how, in his first two years as a supervisor, he rarely spoke at the board meetings while he studied the issues and prepared himself to do battle with his colleagues. Then, as he gained confidence, Eckert began to fight for North County’s share of the county budget for health and social services, for jails and courts, libraries, transit centers, senior citizens programs and tourist tax dollars.

“I significantly changed the attitude of the county toward this whole North County region,” Eckert said. “I got the citizens up here spoiled enough that they’re going to make demands. They’re going to say, ‘We used to get this when Paul Eckert was here.’ ”

Betsy Schreiber, a close friend of Eckert and his appointee to the county Planning Commission, said she believes that whoever wins in November will find it harder to replace Eckert than it was to criticize him on the campaign trail.

“I truly believe Paul has been a good supervisor for North County,” she said. “He made North County stand on its own. He fought for it diligently. He got funds for North County that had always gone to the City of San Diego. He set the tone for what either Romney or MacDonald will have to follow.”

Steinbeck added: “I think Paul Eckert was the first supervisor to ever put the 5th District on an equal plane with the other districts. That is going to be sorely missing. The first two years when a freshman goes in there, the other supervisors just chew them up and spit them out.”

But as Eckert gained the experience that made him effective on the board, he also grew more arrogant, his critics said. He was less able to tolerate those who disagreed with him. Unlike many politicians, he did not disguise his feelings when he was angry with a colleague or constituent.

“Paul’s gotten too big for the job,” said one former supporter now in the Romney camp.

Finally, as growth and its effects on North County became the dominant issue in all the region’s politics, Eckert refused to acknowledge that voters would hold him responsible even for problems in areas over which he held no sway.

Supervisor Susan Golding, who helped raise money for Eckert’s campaign but otherwise provided only lukewarm support, said Eckert may have misjudged the electorate.

“Technically, he’s probably correct,” she said. “But when you’re in office, you are a symbol. You know that when there is a perceived problem in the community, you are either going to be perceived as a solution or you’re not. When you say that growth was an issue but it shouldn’t have been, you’re begging the question. If the public thought growth was an issue, then it was an issue.”

Richard Repasky, the feisty La Costa detective who finished fifth in the primary, was more blunt.

“He still refuses to believe that people were upset about what happened in North County,” Repasky said. “I don’t think he ever will. He still thinks he’s done a good job.”

Indeed, Eckert and his supporters insist that he will go down as North County’s finest supervisor. And Eckert said Wednesday that he hopes his public service doesn’t end when his successor takes office in January, 1987.

He said he wants to continue working on a program to eliminate drug abuse in San Diego, on the improvement of Guajome Regional Park, and on developing jobs through his role on the state Job Training Council.

But Eckert said he will no doubt lose effectiveness during his final six months on the board. He had planned to use his influence to help negotiate a split of Vista redevelopment tax dollars with the county, but he doubts he can be much help after his defeat.

“I was pretty powerful,” Eckert said quietly. “I’m pretty weak now.”