Steven Greenhut’s article, “The Tunnel Vision of the NIMBYs” (Orange County Register, Sunday, November 6, 2005) is so full of misinformation and inaccuracies, it would take the entire “Commentary” section of the Register just to refute it!

Perhaps the most flagrant error is Greenhut’s contention that former Assemblywoman Pat Bates is the only alternative to Cassie DeYoung for the 2006 Orange County Board of Supervisors (5th District) race. That is totally false. If Greenhut had done his homework (as a competent writer would have), he would have known that I too am a candidate for the Orange County Board of Supervisors (ID #1277522). A visit to the nearby Orange County Registrar of Voters would have revealed that information, but I guess that would have been too much trouble for a factually challenged writer like Greenhut.

Further, had Greenhut done his homework, he would have also discovered that DeYoung is a protégé of Bates, that they are neighbors who even live on the same street in Monarch Point, an ultra-rich Laguna Niguel community known for its intolerance of Jews and other minorities. Bates and DeYoung are, in fact, “two peas in a pod”, and there is not a dime’s worth of difference between them!

I have known Bates for over 15 years. To say that she is a “principled conservative” only betrays Greenhut’s ignorance. Barry Goldwater, Howard Jarvis, and Ronald Reagan were principled conservatives. I voted for all three of them.

Bates is neither principled nor conservative. Her husband is an architect, formerly employed by Shea Homes, a leading residential and commercial developer in California. Bates’ brother, Richard Carmody, is a lobbyist for the insurance industry. How do you think Bates voted in the State legislature on bills affecting development and the insurance industry?

Meanwhile, DeYoung is simply trying to con environmental groups into thinking she is sympathetic to the environment. DeYoung is no more sympathetic to the environment than George Bush or Gale Norton! She supported the illegal Binion project in Laguna Niguel a decade ago, and she wholeheartedly supports the Foothill-South Toll Road extension, which if allowed to go forward, would decimate San Onofre State Beach and destroy the San Mateo Campground. DeYoung’s in-laws also live in pro-El Toro Airport Newport Beach.

One thing Greenhut did get right, however, is that DeYoung is, in fact a NIMBY (“Not In My Back Yard”). But so is Bates! Both opposed a commercial airport at El Toro, but ONLY because their Monarch Point mansions were directly in the El Toro flight path. Rest assured, if Bates and DeYoung lived in Newport Beach, they would have been marching hand-in-hand with George Argyros and the Lincoln Club for a commercial airport at El Toro!

I am clearly the ONLY alternative to the Bates/DeYoung good-old-boy/good-old-girl network in Orange County. For information on my candidacy and POSITION PAPERS on some of the major issues affecting Orange County residents, please visit my website at www.eddierose.org You will find that, unlike NIMBYs Bates and DeYoung, I am instead a NIABY (“Not In Anyone’s Back Yard”).

Isn't it time we get special interest money out of politics? Isn't it time we elect honest and competent individuals to represent us? Isn't it time we have someone on the Orange County Board of Supervisors we can trust?

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