OCEANSIDE: Lucas pushes familiar themes in eighth bid for council

By PAUL SISSON - Staff Writer | Friday, October 3, 2008 10:52 PM PDT ∞

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is one in a series of profiles on Oceanside City Council candidates who are vying for two seats in the Nov. 4 election. For more on the election, visit www.nctimes.com/elections2008/local.

OCEANSIDE ---- City government wastes money. The city should combine its Fire and Police departments. It is wrong for public money to subsidize downtown development. City Council candidate Michael Lucas has hammered these themes for 16 years not, and he's not stopping anytime soon.

"Nothing's changed since I started running so I keep on saying the same things," Lucas said. "I'm offering an alternative to all the high-priced candidates who take a lot of money from special interests."

This political season is Lucas' eighth attempt to win a seat on the City Council.

This year, he is one of seven candidates vying for two seats on the panel. (An eighth candidate, Rick Kratcoski, announced Friday that he was dropping out of the race, though his name will still appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.)

At the heart of Lucas' marathon string of campaigns is his belief that, if he could get on the council, he could wring every last penny of wasted cash from City Hall.

The way he sees it, Lucas said, the city hires too many employees who do too little work and get paid bloated salaries.

"By running, it's allowing me to bring up the subjects and give the people and opportunity to vote for someone who's a cheapskate and a tightwad," Lucas said.

So far, relatively few voters have found Lucas' platform persuasive. According to county registrar of voters records, Lucas' strongest showing was in 1998, when he earned 3,790 votes and 5.9 percent of the vote, finishing fourth from the bottom in a crowded field of candidates.

But this year ---- with banks failing and the government generally looking inept ---- Lucas hopes for a better result. The way he sees it, people are more ready than ever for a cheapskate at City Hall. He said he notices the greatest concern among senior citizens.

"The seniors are really scared to death," he said. "A lot of them have told me they're going to vote for me."

Traffic has always been an issue for Lucas, but the subject has reached a new level of vexation for him now that the Sprinter light-rail line has begun running between Oceanside and Escondido daily.

He said he regularly finds himself sitting behind dropped Sprinter gates in Oceanside long after the train has passed, watching hundreds of cars back up for no apparent reason.

"They spend millions of dollars subsidizing hotel projects downtown, and they can't even time the lights right," Lucas said. "In this city, it just keeps going on and on and on."

Lucas has been married for 35 years and has one son. His family has lived in Oceanside since 1983.

The candidate, who earned a bachelor's degree in vocational education from Wayne State University in 1968, is a proponent of continuing education, and has since taken classes in flying, computers and law enforcement.

Lucas has held a number of jobs, including many in education. He taught drafting and metal and wood shop in Detroit schools, was a college instructor in Colorado and Michigan, a shop foreman for a General Motors dealership and an office supervisor with the California Bureau of Automotive Repair.

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.

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