OC Blog

Rudat Watch: If At First You Don't Succeed...

The City of Orange held its annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Orange circle this weekend. I haven't been in a couple of years, but it's a festive, well-attended event.

As readers may or may not know, unsuccessful Orange Council candidate Carol Rudat has never stopped running for council since her failed and controversial bid 2006 bid. And she was there at the Christmas tree lighting, handing out candy canes to attendees with her realtor business card (with 949 area code) attached.

Looks Like Dave Rudat's Set To Become Los Alamitos' Interim City Manager

I saw this item on the agenda of yesterday's Los Alamitos City Council meeting:

13. Closed Session

B. Public Employee Appointment

Title:    Interim and Permanent City Manager
Authority:    Government Code Section 54957

I took that to mean the council was discussing a final offer to Dave Rudat to become city manager. Rudat was most recently Interim Deputy CEO for the County of Orange, and was the long-time Orange City Manager before the council fired him in 2005. His wife Carol ran a memorable campaign for Orange Council last year.

Dave Rudat Set To Be The New Los Alamitos City Manager

I heard earlier this afternoon that Los Alamitos had settled on hiring former Orange City Manager Dave Rudat and was negotiating the terms with him.

As readers recall, Dave Rudat is the husband of Carol Rudat and her unsettlingly ferocious ambition to be an Orange Councilwoman. The 25-year Newport Beach residents they registered to vote at a one-bedroom bungalow in Old Towne Orange (their son Brandon is listed as the owner) in which they didn't live, and Carol's carpet-bagging almost led to Judge James Gray ending her candidacy. You can read the whole weird saga in our vast Carol Rudat archive.

Orange Council Mailbox: Carol Rudat Back On The Campaign Trail

I didn't think we'd have to start the Orange Council Mailbox feature again so soon.

The general expectation has been Carol Rudat will run again for Orange City Council in 2008. Readers will recall Rudat shattered city campaign records by spending more than $200,000 on a council race crashed and burned due to the fact she didn't live in Orange. Even before her election day loss, she was overheard at the Diederich's on the Orange Circle plotting her revenge campaign in 2008.

Carol Rudat has been making the rounds of events, in addition to delivering some (from what I'm told) blistering public comments at a recent Orange City Council meeting.

A friend of mine received this mailer from Carol Rudat a week or two ago:

Orange Council Mailbox: Final Bilodeau & Rudat Mailers

What I anticipate will be the final mailers for Ornage City Council candidates Denis Bilodeau and Carol Rudat arrived at Casa de Jubal today. As is customary, they are positive pieces.

Here's the pro-Bilodeau piece from the Republican Party of Orange County (I think this is the third mailer the OC GOP has done for Denis):

And here's the other from the Carol Rudat campaign:

Orange Council Mailbox: Secretary of State Chief Fraud Investigator Flat Wrong On Rudat Case

At the beginning of last week, I received two negative mailers against Denis Bilodeau from Carol Rudat, but received nothing from her campaign after that. I'm a permanent absentee voter, so perhaps her campaign mailed only to Election Day voters after that point.

Yesterday, I received this strange mailer from the Rudat campaign:

Not surprisingly, this mail piece is deceiving. Judge Gray didn't rule that Carol Rudat "lives in Orange." What he said on October 5 was this:

"The two issues are whether or not she's an elector, that is 18 years of age or older and a resident 15 days before the election. That is still premature, although the evidence shows that she is a resident, at least as of this time, for more than 15 days before. So that has been satisfied."

Not quite the same as saying, "Carol Rudat lives in Orange."

What I found more surprising was the letter to the OC Registrar of Voters from one Mark Loren, the chief investigator of the Secretary of State's Election Fraud Investigation Unit. In the letter, Loren states:

"In following the suit in the media, I note that on 10/05/06, Judge James gray ruled that the evidence submitted by Rudat's attorneys proved she lived in Orange before registering in April 2006 was sufficient to prove her residency."

Mr. Loren is just flat-out wrong. In fact, the opposite is true: Gray pointedly refused to make any ruling on whether she lived in Orange prior to mid-August:

"This court is not addressing the issue of the 1st of April but only if she was in effect appropriately registered as a voter as of the time she took out her papers. And the court makes no comment whatsoever with regard to any time prior thereto."

I find it disconcerting that the Secretary of State's Chief Investigator declines to investigate based on "following the suit in the media" -- especially since I haven't run across any media story reporting what Loren claims in his letter -- a claim that is demonstrably wrong.

It's also disconcerting that the Secretary of State's chief election fraud investigator failed go beyond media reports in order to ascertain the facts of the case for himself by (here's the transcript of what Judge Gray actually ruled if Mr. Loren is curious).

This goes beyond the Carol Rudat case. If this is indicative of the level of diligence and scrutiny applied by the Secretary of State's office to complaints of election fraud, it is far less than reassuring.

Time To Abolish Contribution Limits

Whether she wins or loses, Carol Rudat's candidacy serves at least one useful purpose: illustrating the perversity and perniciousness of campaign contribution limits.

The standard "reformer" argument is that contribution limits somehow limit to influence of special interests on elected officials. I think only the most hard-core devotee of this 1970s experiment still clings to that illusion.

As long as our government is pervasive and powerful, "special interests" will seek to influence its decisions. No constitutional campaign finance reform can be devised that will prevent that from happening.

The only real effect of contribution limits is to magnify the already big advantage enjoyed by incumbents and self-funding candidates.

Carol Rudat Watch: Rules, Shmules

If you live or work in the beautiful City of Orange, you'll may noticed these new campaign sings that began appearing last week:

These were the work of the Carol Rudat campaign, although you wouldn't know it by the signs, since they omit anything identifying who paid for them -- a violation of campaign law. Not that following campaign law is a major priority for Carol "The ends justifies the means" Rudat.

Carol Rudat's disregard for campaign finance law is ironic given that in the Non-Partisan Candidate Evaluation Council slate I received today, Carol Rudat promises she "will vote for tougher campaign finance laws."

That's not the only promise Rudat has thrown into the shredder.

On August 15, Carol Rudat signed the "Code of Fair Campaign Practices" pledge. Rudat promised, among other things, that she "shall not use or permit the use of character defamation, whispering campaigns, libel, slander, or scurrilous attacks on any candidate or his or her personal or family life."

In fact, you can see Rudat's husband Dave -- the interim Orange County Deputy CEO now on leave to help his wife's carpetbagger campaign --putting up one of the above-mentioned illegal, pledge-breaking signs.

There's a higher resolution version here.

Since Dave is putting up an illegal campaign sign, one has to wonder if he asked the property owner's permission to put up the sign.

Orange Council Mailbox: Carol Rudat Is Orange's Cassie DeYoung

Last Wednesday, Carol Rudat loaned her council campaign $35,000. The next day, she loaned it another $35,000. That brings her to $156,000 thus far in her carpetbagging campaign for Orange City Council -- and I believe making Rudat's the most expensive council campaign in Orange history. She's Orange's version of Cassie DeYoung -- in both her willingess to break the bank, as well as the truth, in the service of personal ambition.

Today, I received this mailer from the Carol Rudat campaign:

Carol's husband Dave was Orange City manager for 10 years, and the Orange Fire Chief before that. I've no doubt he tapped that relationship to cop these two endorsement for the mailer. I'm so heartened that Andy Romero and Merrill Duncan would cheapen their status and prestige as retired police chiefs by endorsing a person who's entire campaign has been about getting away with breaking the law.

Carol Rudat Watch: Walking Mad

One of my sources told me Carol Rudat was precinct walking late this afternoon in the neighborhoods around the Diocese of Orange headquarters at Marywood. She's obviously one angry person. On hand, she was bad mouthing former Sen. John R. Lewis over the two decade old Reagan signature episode (John is Rudat opponent Denis Bilodeau's consultant). Rudat was also putting down mayoral candidate Mike Alvarez, one of who's volunteer meetings she attended in the spring.

In her home-stretch quest for votes, Rudat even told one voter this afternoon that she might just appoint that voter to a city commission if elected.

Whatever it takes to win appears to be the Carol Rudat motto.