The race for the state Assembly

Alex Coolman

There are low-profile campaigns, and then there is Merritt Lori

McKeon’s campaign: a run for state Assembly so inconspicuous that it

seems to be trying to avoid publicity rather than attract it.

McKeon, who is contesting Republican John Campbell and a slew of

third-party candidates for the seat now occupied by Marilyn Brewer

(R-Newport Beach), says she’s passionately committed to activism and to

politics.

But she’s running for office, like many Orange County Democrats, on a

shoestring budget, and she’s doing it while holding down a job as an

attorney handling international custody cases.

So, like Democrat congressional candidate John Graham, she’s relying

heavily on the relatively accessible and inexpensive publicity afforded

by her Web site.

“There’s such major differences between the two of us,” McKeon said on

a recent morning, tearing herself away for a few minutes from a Brazilian

custody case she was studying.

She ran through a few endorsements that she believes speak for

themselves: The NRA likes Campbell; handgun control groups like her.

Planned Parenthood likes her campaign, but they’re not crazy about

Campbell.

And then she got to the heart of the matter, which for McKeon has to

do with the way a state assemblywoman should represent her constituency.

McKeon argues that Republicans haven’t done enough to bring tax money

back into the 70th District. She said she basically likes Brewer, but has

concerns about what will happen if Campbell, who strikes her as being a

more conservative candidate, is elected.

Particularly on the environment -- the issue that is by far her most

prominent plank -- Campbell’s approach concerns McKeon.

“He believes the solution to pollution is to stop the government

regulation,” she said. “Government regulation? Hello? Government

regulation, if it were enforced, is supposed to stop this problem. What

are we going to do, get the Boy Scouts out there to fight it?”McKeon said

she would push for more government involvement in the environment rather

than less. It’s an approach she thinks will ultimately save taxpayers

money by drawing state and federal funds back to the district.

“When you’ve got 24 million gallons of raw sewage flowing through

Aliso Creek in a two-year period, you’ve got a problem,” she said. “And

you need money to fix it.”