POLITICS ASIDE:

The Tuesday morning event at the Orange County Performing Arts Center that teased the big Sept. 15 opening of the new Renee & Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall should have been flooded with city council members and anyone who wants to join their ranks.

But I didn’t see one. That doesn’t mean they weren’t there (although I did keep my eyes out), but it does mean they weren’t exactly working the room.

Now, the fine and fashionable (perhaps to steal a phrase from B.W. Cook, who I anticipate will be covering the center event) who were gathered at Segerstrom Hall on Tuesday (and then lining up for hard-hat tours of the new hall, much to a few hair stylists horror we can assume) didn’t seem to be in the mood for politics. Talk was obviously on the food being served, the Cartier jewels being paraded about, the hall being built and the opening being planned.

But any would-be council member ought to be able to talk about that stuff, right?

A few rounds of that room would have made for a pretty solid set of inroads with Newport-Mesa residents who: A, have money to give to candidates and; B, know a bunch of people who I imagine are likely voters.

I wouldn’t have suggested hitting anyone up for $100, but maybe a first contact there would lay the groundwork for a follow-up call?

Just a thought. Of course, maybe none of the council members (and candidates) managed to wrangle an invite to this particular party.

That, anyway, was a thought I was having while nibbling on … what was it exactly? I think at that point it was organic berries in a martini glass.

And then I thought: Hey, if I can get an invite, certainly the politicians can.

Endorsements and other dealsTwo separate endorsement releases went out this week, and they struck me as examples of ones that carry weight and ones that I’m more skeptical about on a local stage such as city council races.

I think it’s fair to raise this for two reasons: 1, the candidate who announced what strikes me as not such a huge endorsement kicked off his candidacy by highlighting the same name I’m about to say is a homerun here in Newport-Mesa; and 2, he put the name at the top of his release, ahead of some more local elected officials.

That candidate is Newport Beach City Councilman Keith Curry, who, with colleagues Leslie Daigle and Ed Selich, makes up the trio of appointed members seeking their first support at the ballots in the fall. On Monday he sent out news of former California Gov. George Deukmejian’s support (along with candidate for lieutenant governor Tom McClintock, among the Republican Party’s more conservative members). Deukmejian’s name topped the release, which also included Rep. John Campbell, Newport’s Assemblyman Chuck DeVore and a trio of Orange County supervisors, including Jim Silva and Tom Wilson.

For my money, the former governor is not the most appealing name on that list. Sure, he once was the state’s top political leader, but that star has set — and it isn’t about the rise again. I also — here’s a rare moment of personal opinion getting into this column — am much more apt to weigh the endorsements of people in the area, who have a sense of what the issues are and whether the candidate is the best one to address them.

And so, I’m much more likely to be swayed by former state Sen. Marian Bergeson’s endorsement, since Bergeson is a fixture here in this community. Newport council candidate Jack Wu on Tuesday added her name to his backers list, which also includes DeVore and Silva. (Curry’s first name out of the gate when he began listing his endorsements was Bergeson. So it’s clear he recognizes the import her name carries.)

We’ll see what other local names get added to all the candidates’ list in the weeks ahead.

One last thingFinally, despite what some people seem to think, I couldn’t care less where Newport Beach builds a new city hall — or even if they build a new one at all.