Winter's grassroots campaign defeats Mann for mayor

Neil Winter (left of center) celebrated as he watched the election returns with his supporters Tuesday night. Photo courtesy of Neil Winter Facebook page

The new Menifee mayor will be Neil Winter, whose grassroots campaign and pledge to be a "full-time mayor" resulted in a victory over incumbent Scott Mann.

Winter, 62, has never held an elected office. Unsuccessful in a bid to win the District 3 City Council seat a year ago, he has spent the last few months picking up where he left off -- going among the people and promising change.

Winter received 11,223 votes -- 51.53 percent of the total votes cast for mayor, an office that is part of the five-member city council but is voted on separately. Mann, who won two-year terms as mayor in 2012 and 2014, received 10,556 votes, or 48.47 percent.

Because of a delay in the release of results from the Riverside County Registrar's Office, Winter wasn't sure whether he had won as he went to bed late Tuesday night. Final results weren't posted until about 5 a.m. today.

"I finally got to sleep, and then my phone starts dinging at about 5," Winter said. "Before I went to bed, I was looking at the trends. There were three upward trends in a row, so I was feeling pretty comfortable at that point.

"Over the last two or three weeks, I've gotten so much positive energy from people coming up to me, I felt I had a lot of the grassroots votes. I think there were a lot of people who voted this time that probably hadn't voted in the past. By me being out there ... it's amazing how many people came up to me in the last week and said, 'I already voted for you. You got this, man.' I has a lot to do with being on the street. Social media played a huge role in it, too."

Many of Winter's supporters have commented on social media that they were impressed by his willingness to make himself available to residents at virtually all times. While others downplayed the significance of Winter standing on street corners with signs every day and responding quickly to residents on social media, it appears to have had a definite impact on the race.

Of course, so did the troubles of Mann, who was recently censured by his city council colleagues after admitting to using nearly $45,000 in prior campaign funds for personal use -- action for which he faces a $60,000 fine from the Fair Political Practices Commission.

Mann has been the subject of criticism from council members, local legislators and residents since the FPPC announcement of his violations was made on Oct. 14. Council members Matt Liesemeyer and Lesa Sobek voted in favor of a censure of Mann on Oct. 19, and council member Greg August joined them in a second vote that passed at the Nov. 2 meeting.

The announcement of those violations, which dates back four years, came shortly after a controversy involving a $12,400 check City Manager Rob Johnson wrote to Mann, reportedly to pay for a leadership seminar at Harvard that was never approved by the council. Eventually, Senators Jeff Stone and Mike Morell and Assemblywoman Melissa Melendez called for Mann to resign as mayor and/or as chairman of the Riverside County Republican Party.

"I'm not going to be naive," Winter said. "I'm going to attribute a lot of it to the controversy with the mayor. I think it's good that I ran. I think if he would've run unopposed, we probably never would've found all this out. That stuff would've kept going on."

In a phone conversation with Menifee 24/7 today, Mann offered his congratulations to Winter, then briefly addressed the issues surrounding him.

"I wish Neil Winter well," Mann said. "I congratulate him. I wish Menifee well. I'm very excited Measure DD passed and Measure FF passed. I wish my colleagues on the Menifee council and the new mayor best wishes in the future."

Mann then added this:

"Neil Winter didn't win this election. I lost it -- with the help of a couple of my colleagues, the press and the Fair Political Practices Commission."

Mann had no further comment.

Winter will be sworn in as mayor at the Dec. 7 city council meeting. He said he hopes to set up meetings next week to begin the transition.

"I want people to know I'm approachable and I'm going to be there for them," he said. "I think people respected that. It's very gratifying."