EDITORIAL:After the numbers

The all-but-final numbers are in for Tuesday’s election, and there were certainly some shocking results.

Depending on which side of the Newport-Mesa city limits you live, take your choice of the resounding defeat of slow-growth Measure X or the strong, and victorious, showing of the Costa Mesa slate of Mayor Allan Mansoor and Wendy Leece. Supporters of Mansoor and Leece, undoubtedly, will crow that they expected the victory, but surely even they had to be surprised that after all the focus on Mansoor and the city’s plan to enforce immigration law, the mayor would essentially get the same number of votes he did in 2002. As controversial as the plan seemed to be, it did not translate into a rush of votes on either side.

In Newport Beach, the slow-growth Greenlight group suffered its most dramatic defeat yet. Its more restrictive initiative failed, getting only 37.8% of the vote. Whether this signals an effective end to Greenlight’s political power in town is unclear, although the victory Tuesday of all but a formerly Greenlight-backed incumbent adds to the sense that voters are not dissatisfied with Newport’s City Hall.

Over the coming days and weeks (and longer), there will be plenty of time to figure out — or try to figure out — the results’ deeper meaning. We can be sure a Costa Mesa City Council with Allan Mansoor, Wendy Leece and Eric Bever in the majority will have a clear and strong agenda concerning immigration, development on the Westside and park use. But what else might that council accomplish? Time will tell.

In Newport Beach, new council members Nancy Gardner and Michael Henn have the chance to forge new ground. And Leslie Daigle, Keith Curry and Ed Selich all can remove the word “appointed” from in front of their names. With voter support, they can move ahead with their agendas.

Newport Beach residents also approved the city’s general plan update, and changes there will be far-reaching and significant. We will have to see how the existing Greenlight law will operate in this new playing field and whether more development, as Greenlight backers fear, somehow comes about as a result of this vote.

We indeed have to wait and see.