Aliso Viejo City Council Elections 2014 - Getting Started

My bride and I moved to Aliso Viejo in August of 2013 after spending 17 years and raising three of our five children in Valencia, California.  During that time I became interested in local Santa Clarita politics and issues, even writing a weekly “community column” for the local daily newspaper.  (For those with tons of free time, google “Myers Musings Santa Clarita Signal” and use as samples for how NOT to write.)

While many things fascinate me about local elections the thing that always stood out in my mind was the power of incumbency.  For example, in the (relatively) short 27 year history of Santa Clarita only THREE incumbent council members have lost their bids for re-election.  In Camarillo, California where our youngest daughter attended college, the five current council members share some 120 years of incumbency!

Now while other Orange County cities, like Irvine and Laguna Niguel, have instituted CONSECUTIVE council term limits (no more than two terms in a row) Aliso Viejo is unique in California because, just ten years into its short history the voters turned out TWO out of three incumbent council members (Greg Ficke and Donald Garcia) in favor of Ross Chun and Mike Munzing, the local politics equivalent of a 7.8 earthquake.

What drove this anti-incumbency vote?  Since moving to Aliso Viejo I have attended several City Council meetings expecting to see disquiet but have found only peace and consensus.  Part of the reason of starting this blog is to help tease out local machinations that are driving these astounding results.