OC Blog

Carol Rudat Has Two Days To Prove She Lives In Orange

I just came back from the court hearing on Mr. Walter Pfaff's filing (represented by attorney Phil Greer) to have Carol Rudat kicked off the ballot. Judge James Gray presided over the hearing, and after hearing from the various parties, refused to grant the writ of mandate, etc. -- but neither did he deny it.

What Gray did was give Carol Rudat's attorney until 3:30 p.m. tomorrow to submit proof Carol Rudat is domiciled at her Center Street bungalow in Orange. If I understand it correctly, Carol Rudat essentially has until tomorrow afternoon to prove that she has been domiciled in Orange since April.

Gray will then make his decision at a 9:00 a.m. hearing on Thursday, October 5.

Carol Rudat wasn't there, although her husband Dave was. Mrs. Rudat was represented by an attorney named Shore (I believe that is how he spelled it) who said he was not her regular attorney (who was unavailable). Since the lawsuit also named the City of Orange and the County of Orange, City Attorney Dave DeBerry was there, as was a representative of the County Counsel's office who's name I didn't catch.

Mr. Shore spoke first. Rudat's domicile, rather than her residency, is what's at issue. The difference, as I understand it, is that domicile is where you plan to stay, whereas residency is where you happen to live at the moment. Shore contended the complainants were conflating "domicile" and "residency" and accused them of trying to read Rudat's mind regarding where she wanted to make her domicile.

Apparently, a utility bill was submitted in an attempt to prove the Rudat's are domiciled in Orange, but the bill is addressed to a P.O. Box in Orange -- which proves nothing.

Shore also said that complaints had been filed with the Secretary of State and the District Attorney, and that those -- not civil court -- were the proper venues because if the allegations were true they would be a criminal matter.

Shore further contended this complaint mixed a campaign with a legal matter -- which he believed dangerous -- and said the court shouldn't intervene.

Orange City Attorney Dave DeBerry asked that orange be dismissed from the suit since they don't determine residency or print ballots. Phil Greer agreed to that, saying the city was named in the interest of caution.

The County of Orange objected to the City of Orange's request, but Judge Gray dismissed the city from the suit anyway.

Next it was the county counsel's turn. She wanted the writ denied. Her argument was basically that the election train has left the station and it's too late to do anything about it. She told Judge Gray the election was only 36 days away, the sample ballots had been printed last night and would soon be going out, etc.

Judge Gray for his part expressed his reluctance for the court to get involved in an election at this stage of the game. Which is why he said he was setting the hearing for Thursday morning. Mr. Shore demurred that since he wasn't the Rudat's regular attorney, but Judge Gray told him sorry, you're it and you need to have a response filed by 3:30 p.m. tomorrow.

Orange Council Mailbox: Rudat In The Mail First

Even as she is being taken to court to have her name stricken from the ballot, carpetbagging Orange council candidate is in the mail with a piece that is a combination of chutzpah, spin and preventive medicine.

You can see the mailer here.

The headline is classic spin:

"Her Roots Are In Orange..."

...even if her residency isn't!

Then there's the picture of her 1971 Villa Park High School student ID on the mailer's cover. Somehow, I don't think the Superior Court will accept that as proof of residency.

And how about the gauzy recounting of the values her father imparted to her?:

...honesty in all dealings, do the right thing when people are not watching...

Such as registering to vote in a house you don't live in so you can run for city council in a city you don't live in.

Finally the preventive medicine:

People ask me "why run for City Council and put yourself up for personal attacks?".

A good question. The mailer omits the answer Carol Rudat gave at the Orange Chamber of Commerce candidate's forum: that she's dreamed of running for Orange City Council ever since she was 12 years old. Instead, it's standard candidate pablum.

To any Orange voter familiar with Carol Rudat carpetbagging, this mail piece will evoke disbelief at her nerve. By getting in the mail first -- and presumably tapping the Rudats' considerable wealth to be in it often -- the Rudat campaign is banking on they can garner enough votes before too many Orange residents become aware of she is a carpetbagger.

I don't underestimate Rudat's candidacy. She has a very good consultant in Scott Taylor, who has built an impressive track record in Orange -- he ran Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn Cavecche and Councilman Jon Dumitru's winning campaigns. In fact, this mailer is thematically and stylistically much like the mail Taylor did for Dumitru two years ago -- heavily evoking the candidate as a deeply enmeshed in the fabric of the community.

Except in Jon Dumitru's case it was true (Jon is endorsing Mayor Mark Murphy and Denis Bilodeau for council).

Lawsuit Filed To Keep Carol Rudat Off The Ballot

A short whole ago, a lawsuit was filed by Orange resident Walter Pfaff to have carpetbagging Orange council candidate Carol Rudat removed from the ballot.

Acting for Pfaff was Phil Greer -- who has rapidly become the attorney-of-choice in OC campaign litigation -- who filed a writ of mandate and a complaint for injunctive and declarative relief. Basically, he's asking the court to keep Carol Rudat's name off the ballot or not count any votes she receives. The writ names Rudat, the City of of Orange and the County of Orange (the latter two because they are in charge of the election).

There will be a hearing tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m. at OC Superior Court in Santa Ana, Department C9.

I'll keep you updated as I receive more information.

UPDATE (12:41 p.m.): Martin Wisckol posted this on Total Buzz:

Also, I understand that complaints that she registered to vote in Orange before she moved there have been forwarded to both the Secretary of State and the district attorney.

UPDATE (5:51 p.m.): I called the District Attorney's office earlier to follow up on Martin's post, and asked if anyone had filed a complaint against Carol Rudat. The person I spoke with promised to look into it and find out. I received a call back later this afternoon, and was told they hadn't been able to locate a complaint if indeed one had been filed, but would keep looking into it for me.

Carol Rudat Unplugged

Not too long after Martin Wisckol posted Carol Rudat's e-mail to him on Total Buzz, she got on the horn with him -- apparently upset Martin had posted the e-mail.

Thus, a new post yesterday afternoon from Martin explaining the "on-the-record/off-the-record" ground rules and how he applies them. Martin is an exceedingly fair and honorable journalist, and if a candidate or campaign operative cannot work well with Martin, I doubt they'll be able work with any reporter.

In any case, Martin leaves us hanging as to whether he'll post the content of Carol Rudat's phone -- which he made crystal clear to her was on the record -- except to say:

Part of this explanation is for the benefit of Carol Rudat, since I couldn't make space enough in our phone conversation a few minutes ago to say this. Quickly sizing up the nature of her call, I interrupted her to make sure she understood that the conversation was "on the record." She told me it was not. I told her it was, for the time being. She said it was not and continued (without my agreeing it was "off the record"). At the moment, I don't see any benefit beyond pure entertainment value in repeating anything else she said -- except that I did manage to ask twice if she would talk about the residency issue and that she declined, saying only that she lived in Orange.

Of course, sometimes entertainment value is adequate cause for reporting what I hear....

Declining to talk about the residency issue, eh?  Not that I blame her. Anything she says can and will be used against her on that matter.

Carol Rudat Tries To Change The Subject

Martin Wisckol over at Total Buzz had left messages and an e-mail with Newport Beach resident and Orange City Council candidate Carol Rudat, in hopes of speaking with her about her residency issues. Here's the e-mail reply he received from Rudat:

Martin, this is a private e-mail address and not for use other than my business.

I understand you already wrote your article, is that correct? Today is the 29th. I was out working all day yesterday and the day before until late and have not been able to check e-mails until now. I picked up your phone message yesterday, all after your 27th KOCE TV event.

It is unfortunate my opposition, the gentlemen, have nothing good to say about themselves and can only promote negativism against their strongest contender, me. Is the reporting staff doing back ground checks on the public information available for those who work in public office areas whether volunteer or paid? Don't you think this should be something investigated?

A specific campaign manager who was indicted for mail fraud but did not go to prison due to a small technicality (but his partner did, the event occurred in the mid 1980's election). The mailer falsely represented President Regan as sending the letter and had the White House as the return address, this is how they were caught, returned mail. These type of events/issues clearly shows the ethics of the campaign manager. I heard a saying once, 'people hire those who have the same ethics as themselves'. This was a statement made when discussing attorneys who are retained by clients. This campaign manager also managed the campaign for two current county supervisors.

My and a few others Campaign signs are constantly taken down but not any for one of these gentlemen, (only one has signs out and the other gentlemen does not as of yet). They even called the city and presented themselves as property owners complaining about signs being on their property and wanted them removed. The city went onto private property and removed the signs. Most if not all the business property owners have property managers and most owners do not live in this state let alone the county of orange. Do you think the business owners would have made the call if they have professional property managers?

Continued games of the 'boys club'.

You can call me but you cannot e-mail me. Again, this is a private e-mail address.
Carol Rudat

Mrs. Rudat hit all the golden oldies, huh? Even the "it's because I'm a woman!" riff.

You can read Martin's entire post here.