Boating advocate wins council seat, tax measure defeated

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — Boaters gained a second voice on the Newport Beach City Council and dodged a tax bullet with the defeat of tax measure in South Orange County.

Voters overwhelmingly supported Brad Avery’s candidacy for Newport Beach City Council’s second district seat, electing him to the dais Nov. 8.

Avery, who is currently serving a four-year term on the city’s Harbor Commission, defeated his opponent by almost 17 percentage points. He joins Marshall “Duffy” Duffield as one of two boating voices on the dais in Newport Beach.

Duffield was elected to the Newport Beach City Council two years earlier, defeating then mayor, Rush Hill.

Interesting side note: once the three elected members are sworn into office in December, all seven members of the Newport Beach City Council will be in their first-term. All seven council members, come December, would have been elected in either 2014 or 2016.

The council staggers election of its council members, with 4 four-year seats up for grabs during mid-term elections and the other 3 four-year seats selected during presidential election years. No incumbents were re-elected in 2014 and no one ran for re-election this year.

Meanwhile voters in the Capistrano Unified School District area handily defeated a ballot measure proposing a tax hike to fund classroom repairs and school safety initiatives. Boat owners could have faced a tax increase on their vessels had Measure M passed.

Only 44.6 percent of voters supported Measure M.

Moving from Capitol Hill to Downtown Los Angeles is Janice Hahn, who was elected to the fourth district seat of the county Board of Supervisors. Hahn, who will complete her only term in the House of Representatives this month, succeeds Don Knabe in representing Marina del Rey, Redondo Beach, San Pedro, Wilmington and Long Beach boaters in the Board of Supervisors. She defeated Steve Napolitano by more than 50,000 votes.

Two high-profile State Senate seats were on the Nov. 8 ballot: District 19 in Santa Barbara and the 39^th District in San Diego.

Toni Atkins, whose 39^th District includes the Port of San Diego and Coronado, will remain in Sacramento. The Assembly member turned State Senator defeated John Renison by more than 55,000 votes. One of Atkins’ most recent successes in the Assembly was the passage of her Pacific-to-Plate legislation, which established fresh seafood markets (a concept similar to farmers’ markets) in Downtown San Diego.

Also returning to Sacramento is Hannah-Beth Jackson, the Santa Barbara State Senator whose efforts to eliminate ex parte communications from the California Coastal Commission received significant media attention.

Jackson was re-elected to her 19^th District seat, defeating Colin Patrick Walch by a wide margin. The incumbent state senator received 71,118 votes, compared to 44,412 for Walch.

The closest race was in San Pedro and Wilmington, where Steve Bradford defeated Warren Furutani for the open State Senate seat in the 35^th District. Bradford cornered 54.3 percent of the vote, compared to 45.7 percent for Furutani.