Last-minute mailers

Newport Beach campaigns have hardly been able to spend money fast enough in the last few days, but 11th-hour election mailers in Newport Beach have some candidates crying foul.

From Oct. 24 to Nov. 2, the Greenlight residents’ group reported spending more than $58,000 to promote Measure X, which would require public votes on some development projects.

The No on Measure X campaign, meanwhile, has quietly amassed more than $59,000 in late contributions, but its only reported spending has been to give to the Measure V campaign, so the group should have plenty left for an anti-X blitz during the final days before the election.

Groups supporting or opposing candidates also sent out last-minute pieces, with one hitting mailboxes on Halloween. It criticizes Barbara Venezia, who withdrew from the District 4 race in October. The mailer, which refers to an alleged financial conflict Venezia could have if elected, was paid for by a group called Taxpayers for Safer Neighborhoods with a San Juan Capistrano address. A message left at the phone number the group lists with the secretary of state was not returned Friday, and the group’s filings list just three contributors: Ware Disposal and Madison Materials, both in Newport Beach, and the Committee Against Corruption, which also gave to the Measure V campaign.

Another recent mailer blasts District 7 candidate Dolores Otting on a number of issues, namely for opposing an agreement that allows Newport to veto a second commercial runway at John Wayne Airport. It was sent by District 7 Councilman Keith Curry. Otting said the mailer mischaracterizes her position, that she opposed one provision of the agreement rather than the whole thing.

“The only thing I opposed was the fact that the horse trail was in it. I opposed the politics that were used, the dirty politics,” Otting said. “The whole brochure, to me it had a kind of Machiavelli theme where the end justified the means. It was all half-truths, and they were twisted.”

Curry said he stands by the mailer and added that a transcript of Otting’s remarks about the agreement at a council meeting would back him up. “She opposed the entire agreement,” he said.

On Friday, District 1 candidate Jack Wu was waiting for the next hit on him. The Neighborhood Preservation Coalition State Political Action Committee reported spending $7,056 on Thursday on a mailer to oppose him.

Not everyone thinks the mailers have been particularly harsh this election cycle.

“I haven’t seen that many of them that I would consider to be mean,” said Mayor Don Webb, who is running for reelection unopposed. “Most of the information that’s out there is based on fact.”

However, he does dispute some of the mail sent by Greenlight that opposes Measure V and supports Measure X. Webb is heading the pro-Measure V campaign.

Webb said Greenlight only filed its last campaign finance report Friday, more than a week after it was due, and no one was able to see who its contributors were earlier.

“I would expect that a group that asks that public agencies follow the rules would do so themselves,” he said.

Greenlight leader Phil Arst said his group has been busy figuring out how to spend a major influx of money — one donor gave $150,000 — and didn’t have time to finish the report.

“We’re volunteers, and we don’t have a hired accountant and hired consultants, and that’s why we’re late,” he said.