OC Blog

Cassie DeYoung's Final Bill: $3,753,000

So I'm perusing Cassie DeYoung's latest campaign report and see that she between October 23 and November 2, DeYoung poured an additional $475,000 into her losing 5th Supervisor District campaign.

She tossed another eight grand in on November 17.

That brings DeYoung's personal contribution to her campaign to $3,7653,000.

Un-freakin'-believable.

Where did it all go? I don't feel like adding up expenditures from three years worth of reports, so let's take a peek at the reporting period in question: October 22 to November 17.

Let's see...

5th SD Mailbox: It Was Cassie DeDemocrat In The Home Stretch

I know the election is over, but this is worth a final entry in the 5th SD Mailbox: a Cassie DeYoung mailer to South County Democrats with a message from OC Democratic Party Chairman Frank Barbaro,  which hit mailboxes the day before the election:

If there are any OC GOP Central Committee members with lingering doubts over the wisdom of the party's decision to endorse Pat Bates, perhaps seeing this mailer will resolve them. And if Cassie DeYoung ever does runs in a GOP primary, we should keep in mind she considers herself the Democratic choice in South County.

This mailers calls into question the sincerity of Cassie DeYoung's anti-union stance. In the final weeks of her campaign, DeYoung made herself so anti-union I half-expected her to show up at the North County trash haulers strike swinging an ax-handle at the strikers. "I don't want any union support," DeYoung told the OC Register, and accused Pat Bates of being a lackey of the government employee unions.

If all that were true, why would the chairman of the OC Democratic Party sign a campaign mailer to South County Democrats promoting DeYoung as the candidate for Democratic voters? Does anyone really believe Frank Barbaro would endorse a union-basher?

Obtuse Quote Of The Day

I think the prize for most ridiculous quote from yesterday's post-election news stories goes to this one from Sherri Sherry Bebitch Jeffe from yesterday's OC Register print story on the Bates-DeYoung race:

Other political watchers wondered if the two women were spending such record amounts to generate name recognition for later races. In addition to her own $3.3 million, DeYoung raised $234,550.

"This is an investment in the future," said Sherry(sic) Bebitch Jeffe, a USC political science professor.

Yes, I'm sure that's what Cassie DeYoung was thinking when she opened her supervisor campaign account in December 2003 with a personal contribution of $300,000, and dumped nearly three million dollars more into her campaign during the next 35 months: "Win or lose, this is an investment in my future."

I'm thinking that her thinking was more along the lines of: "I want to be supervisor, and I'm going to spend whatever it takes!" and the dynamic of ever escalating expenditures took off from there.

Granted, Bebitch Jeffe isn't from Orange County and I seriously doubt she closely followed 5th Supervisor District or understood the players or the dynamics of the raced. But come one -- spending millions in a supervisor race in order to build name ID for a future race? Why not just spend those millions on that future race (whatever it might be)?

5th SD Mailbox: Bates Comparison Piece Landing Today

This mailer from the Pat Bates for Supervisor campaign lands in 5th Supervisor District mailboxes today -- presumably those belonging to Republican Election Day voters.

DeYoung Claims To Not Want Union Support...

...but she was singing a different tune altogether in the spring time.

Peggy Lowe's article this past Sunday's on the Bates v. DeYoung race quoted Cassie thus:

"We want to be able to run our own campaign; I don't want any union support," she said.

"I don't want any union support." That's a pretty definitive statement. She didn't say, "I'd like a sprinkling of union support" or "I'd like the support of this union but not that union" -- Cassie DeYoung doesn't want any union support. At all. Nada.

Funny. This press release I received from Cassie DeYoung's campaign on April 24 expressed an entirely different sentiment toward union support:

Cathryn DeYoung expressed her appreciation for the Firefighters’ endorsement, saying, “I am proud to have the support of men and women who are willing to put their lives at risk to protect us. Throughout my career in local public office, I have always put public safety first and I will continue to do so as your 5th District Supervisor.”

Hey, I Thought Cassie Opposed The Tunnel?

As I mentioned in the post below, Cassie DeYoung has been lying about Pat Bates' stance on a possible Orange-Riverside tunnel through the Santa Ana Mountains -- most recently to high school students.

I suppose her rationalization would be that supporting studying the geo-technical feasibility of a tunnel is the same as supporting the tunnel.

By that standard, then Cassie DeYoung also supports "The Terrible Tunnel."

On December2, 2003, she voted for this resolution by the Laguna Niguel City Council which states:

WHEREAS, the Laguna Niguel City Council expressed interest in the proposed project [the Tri-Tunnel Express], and felt that it should be considered along with other alternatives.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Laguna Niguel City Council does hereby request Orange and Riverside County Transportation agencies to give full consideration to the proposed TriTunnel Express project when reviewing transportation alternatives to alleviate traffic congestion between Orange and Riverside counties.

Two weeks later, on December 18, 2003, Cassie DeYoung deposited the first $300,000 of her family fortune into her supervisor campaign account, and sometime during 2004 -- presumably after taking a poll -- decided to execute a flip-flop and began lambasting Pat Bates for remianing consistent in her support for a tunnel study. 

Now Cassie Is DeLying To High School Students

Last Friday, Cassie DeYoung spoke to a Mission Viejo High School humanities class. She spent most of her talk telling the students that "her opponent" supported building a tunnel from Riverside to Orange County through the Santa Ana Mountains.

DeYoung told the students she opposed the tunnel, claiming it would make traffic worse, hurt the environment, etc. 

DeYoung told these high school students Pat Bates supported the tunnel because she wanted to "jump on the bandwagon" and because Congressmen Gary Miller and Ken Cavlert were Republicans.

How pathetic is it that Cassie DeYoung will knowingly lie to a group of high school students? DeYoung is fully aware that Pat Bates has endorsed studying whether a tunnel is geo-technically feasible -- which is a far cry from supporting its construction. DeYoung is smart enough to know the difference -- yet her ambition to win election to the Board of Supervisors is so overweening she will stand in front of a group of high school students who are hoping to gain some insight into the political process, and then tell them a bald-faced lie.

5th SD Mailbox: Cassie DeLiar On Pat Bates & The Tunnel

This comparison mailer from Cassie DeYoung landed in 5th Supervisor District mailboxes today, in which DeYoung promotes her support of Measure M.

DeYoung also claims, in banner headline, that Pat Bates supports a tunnel through the Santa Ana mountains linking Riverside and Orange counties.

This is at least the second time in a week DeYoung has made this claim in a mail piece.

It's also an outright lie. What's more, Cassie DeYoung knows it is a lie, and yet she approved it anyway. Pat Bates supports doing the geo-techinical feasibility study because as a responsible public official she wants to know if the tunnel is even doable before making a decision one way or the other. Cassie, being an opportunist, operates under no such burden.

Pat ought to take DeYoung to the OC GOP Ethics Committee and ask for a censure.

When campaigns begin basing their campaigns on lies about their opponents, it's a sign of desperation and awareness that defeat is increasingly unavoidable. She's plunked in another $350,000 of her own money and spent an additional $373,741 dollars between October 1 and October 21 -- for a total of $2,875,714.90 thus far. And for what?

It's in circumstances like this that a candidate's true character emerges, and what's emerging isn't very attractive. Perhaps DeYoung knows that light and the end of the terrible tunnel of her campaign is the oncoming train of defeat.

5th SD Mailbox: Cassie DeEnvironmentalist Hits Bates For Not Being An Environmentalist

The Cassie DeYoung for Supervisor campaign attacked from its left flank again with this mailer that hit yesterday. It accuses opponent Pat Bates of having had the worst environmental record in the state legislature! Presumably that accusation is based on the legislative score cards of the Gaia-worshipping Enviornmental Left.

I take that to mean Pat compiled a strong record in support of property rights and economic growth and against job-killing legislation. Conservatives always receive an "F" from the leftist environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters.

One day, Cassie DeYoung is touting her plan to improve transportation and fight traffic congestion, the next day she is touting her support from the very groups that fight transportation infrastructure projects. Shamlessness can be liberating.

5th SD Mailbox: And Another Mailer For Pat Bates From The AOCDS

The Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs have sent out another mailer in support of Pat Bates for 5th District Supervisor. You can read it here. It's basically a "look at all the people endorsing Pat" mailer listing her endorsements from elected officials, along with a generic beach graphic and generic photos of happy people who are happy about all the people endorsing Pat.