Election 2016: A roundup of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach races

With Election Day drawing ever closer, the battle for three available seats on the Costa Mesa City Council has attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions and independent expenditures, financial records show.

As the candidates for three available seats on the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board count up the contributions to their campaigns, incumbent Vicki Snell and candidate Leslie Bubb have recorded the most so far this year, with more than $25,000 each.

While most Newport Beach City Council hopefuls have raised five-figure sums in their bids for office, some have gone higher, and local political action committees have spent more than $100,000 opposing and supporting candidates.

Costa Mesa officials have denounced an image posted on Facebook over the weekend that they say wrongly implied that the city’s fire and police chiefs are supporting certain City Council candidates, including Mayor Steve Mensinger.

Candidate says placard written partially in Farsi is a ‘racist’ attempt to make him look un-American.

Newport Beach City Council candidate Jeff Herdman’s treasurer is asking the city attorney and the Orange County district attorney’s office to investigate a group’s campaign contributions to rival candidate Lee Lowrey.

The Costa Mesa Sanitary District’s board president is asking the California Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate whether the Mesa Water District improperly used public money to advocate in favor of a local ballot measure.

Three Coast Community College District board members will face challenges for their seats in the Nov. 8 election, some from products of the district.

It’s three-on-three in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board election as each incumbent in trustee areas 1, 3, and 6 faces one challenger.

The majority of the hopefuls for Newport Beach City Council say development and the city’s $276-million unfunded pension liability have risen to the top of the most pressing local challenges leading to the Nov. 8 election.

Eight candidates are running for three available seats on the Newport Beach City Council in the Nov. 8 election.

The California Fair Political Practices Commission next week is expected to fine Newport Beach City Council candidate Jeff Herdman $200 for failing to submit a mandatory form before soliciting and accepting campaign donations.

In many elections, who gets chosen to the Costa Mesa Sanitary District garners little attention compared with the more heated races in town.

At the beginning of the latest Costa Mesa City Council candidates forum, moderator Harold Weitzberg reminded the candidates to stick to the questions asked and not interrupt one another.

The race for the Mesa Water District board is garnering more attention than usual this year as the agency is considering merging with the Costa Mesa Sanitary District.

At first glance, the two teams of candidates in Costa Mesa’s City Council race might seem to have a lot in common.

Three candidates challenging three trustees for spots on the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board described how they would approach district issues during a forum Monday where the incumbents were not present.

Newport Beach voters will consider one city ballot measure when they head to the polls Nov.8.

The Costa Mesa electorate is faced with eight ballot measures in November — the most ever for the city in one particular election, a city spokesman said.

Parental involvement and administrators’ salaries are among the topics discussed at the two-hour meeting.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s contested Swun Math curriculum dominated Thursday night’s school board candidates form, with the board’s incumbents saying the program still has kinks to work out as their challengers contended that Swun is not state-approved and remains deeply unpopular.