Editor,
The eruption of outrage regarding Laguna Beach City Council candidate Jon Madison’s questionable educational and career history was like watching the flag come down at the Indy 500: Let the dishing dirt phase of the 2014 Election Games begin!
I was informed this week that several public officials thought that I was the “mastermind,” the architect of the anti-Madison campaign.
Whoever started that rumor is obviously trying to make me the scapegoat to deflect culpability. I avoid politics like the plague and have never worked on a campaign committee.
It’s obvious that some entity did the heavy lifting, did research Madison’s background extensively, otherwise media wouldn’t have taken it up.
Media are always appreciative when a story is handed to them all wrapped up, due diligence a fait accompli.
The reality is that there are four or five strong candidates for three seats this year.
Like musical chairs, someone’s going to be left out. Incumbent Toni Iseman’s supporters hit the panic button. Her PAC pals are the answer to who initiated the anti-Jon movement: “Cui bono?” (Who benefits?).
She’s the “Red Queen” enthroned at City Hall (Wonderland) because of the constituency that delivers at minimum several thousand progressive votes in each election.
The information released, typified as mudslinging, helps move her up in line. She was sitting in fourth place according to insider polls and needed a bump. Negatively affecting Madison’s campaign was a no-brainer.
Iseman would do us all a service by explaining why she has fluffed her portfolio. She was appointed to the California Coastal Commission to fill in a vacated seat. She was not re-appointed for many reasons. The Sierra Club and the Surfrider Foundation lobbied to block that re-appointment. Contemporaneously, she got poor marks from the League of Conservation Voters.
When the Pacific Marine Mammal Center lease was up for renewal over a decade ago, she wanted to force them to neuter sick sea lions as part of the agreement with the city-owned property. Being Jewish, you’d think eugenics would automatically repulse her.
What would be equitable is data mining, vetting all of the candidate’s bona fides. Iseman and her power base need to openly address these two eco-portfolio deficiencies, explain her checkered, questionable environmental track record.
Connecting the dots, following the breadcrumb clues regarding Madison isn’t rocket science. But the resulting chaos is disheartening and takes the focus away from legitimate burning issues.
Roger E. Bütow, Laguna Beach
