OC Blog

Bad Move, Sheriff

My first reaction to Sheriff Mike Carona's decision to place opponent Lt. Bill Hunt on paid administrative leave the day after the primary was something like, "Whaaa?" Initial reports didn't specify what alleged activities by Hunt were being investigated by internal affairs, but given that he was placed on leave I figured the most likely culprit to be the same sort of campaign funds activities for which OCSD Capt. Christine Murray was investigated.

As I commented at the time, I thought Hunt ought to be given the presumption of innocence and the investigation allowed to proceed absent ill-informed speculation.

As readers are no doubt aware, the investigation has nothing to do with fund raising violations and everything to do with criticizing Carona during the campaign.

And that is just wrong.

The Sheriff's counsel Martin Mayer cites a court decision about public criticism of an elected official like a sheriff by his command staff. And I think that is perfectly legitimate in ordinary circumstances. It would difficult for any Sheriff to do the job voters entrusted to them if a member or members of their command staff were publicly lacerating their boss. In such instances, I think the Sheriff can and ought to take disciplinary action -- up to and including termination -- to squelch such public opposition from subordinates.

On the other hand, I think much more latitude is required when a member of the command staff is challenging his or her bass in an election. The necessity of free and frank debate is trumps the ordinary considerations of public command unity that should prevail ordinary circumstances. Bill Hunt had every right as an American to run for Sheriff, even if it was against his own boss. It's a remarkable thing about our political system that such a thing can and does occur.

It's unavoidable that such a situation will produce campaign rhetoric from the challenger seeking to paint the incumbent in a negative light -- and it's unavoidable that rhetoric can have a damaging impact on the OC Sheriff's Department. But that's part of the price we pay for free elections.

I think the Sheriff is on firmer ground with his action against the other two deputies. It's the candidate who deserves the broadest accommodation, and Hunt was the candidate  -- not the two deputies. Still, I think forgiveness would be, politically, a more prudent course of action -- and forgiveness does not require forgetting.

Now that he's won re-election, Sheriff Carona might consider the examples of how two powerful ancient Romans dealt with their enemies. Julius Caesar generally forgave his enemies and tried to make them his friends. Sulla's policy is summed up in his self-written epitaph: "No friend ever did him a kindness, no enemy a wrong, without being repaid in full."

Which example should Carona follow? That's makes for an interesting discussion in which it's worth remembering Caesar was stabbed to death by such Brutus and other re-claimed "friends" on the floor of the Senate, while Sulla died peacefully in his country villa.

KFI: Carona Demotes Two

Multi-tasking this a.m., listening to KFI's Bill Handel, reading Peggy Lowe's Register story that Jubal will link to later and checking Mickadeit for something interesting -- Handel briefly reported that TWO DEMOTIONS have occurred at the Sheriff's Department, both sworn personnel who'd worked for Bill Hunt on his campaign.  One was a Lieutenant busted to Sergeant and another Sergeant is now an Investigator.  No names were reported.

Along with the Jaramillo trial ramping up in September, providing a lovely prelude to the election and bringing even more focus to the the ongoing question of the quality and ethics of the Sheriff's leadership, Hunt's suspension will be a continuing reminder that Mike Carona may not be the best thing that's ever happened to us.  Good for Norby and Correa to raise the issue (and the other three?) -- the BOS needs a permanent Agenda item for this and maybe the Badge needs to drag himself down there every Tuesday a.m. and let 'em all know what he's up to -- then again, maybe Sheriff Schnook ought to step aside and put himself on paid leave for a while all this comes down.

Update: Here's the story from Jean Pasco at the Times website - Carona Demotes 2 Backers of Rival - which would've been KFI's source.  I don't get the print edition of this rag, so we don't know if it made the driveway.

Sheriff's Race In the Final Stretches

One campaign I cannot wait for an end to is the OC Sheriff's race.

On Friday, I received this AOCDS IE for Bill Hunt. It's at least the third mailer the deputies' union sent for Hunt, and my sources say they've spent about $200,000 for Hunt (I haven't yet secured precise figures from the OC Registrar). All three pieces were 100% pro-Hunt with no mention of Sheriff Carona. This is probably due to the closeness of the endorsement vote.

FlashReport publisher Jon Fleischman wrote this commentary today about why Sheriff Carona deserves re-election. Jon makes a strong case -- cutting through the smog, mud and allegations with a reminder of why so many of us have supported Mike throughout the years, beginning with his 1998 upstart challenge to then-incumbent Sheriff Brad Gates -- and after Gates dropped out, against the AOCDS establishment. It's worth remembering that Mike did a statesmen like job of letting bygones be bygones and reaching out to work with those who had worked hard to defeat him.

The big, ugly horse flies in the ointment -- Don Haidl and George Jaramillo -- are now gone. The damage they inflicted on Carona is an example of the Sheriff being loyal to a fault. If those two had truly been Carona's friends, they would have stepped down long before rather than clinging to their posts of honor, to their friend's detriment.

Honestly, I think Carona has learned some excruciatingly hard lessons and has learned from his mistakes. Orange County is a safe place to live and crime is down in areas patrolled by the Sheriff's Department. Carona knows the job and I frankly don't believe it is necessary to change horses in mid-stream.

The Little Saigon Video

I finally was able to watch the "controversial Carona video" after downloading it from OC Variety Hour.

Did some pranskter replace the "controversial" video on OC Variety Hour with the one I just watched?

Frankly, I felt let down after all the build up Cameron Jackson gave it:

The first question that makes Carona uncomfortable is in reference to the badges he handed out to his political supporters. After a visibly disturbed Carona lies his ass off about that mess, the reporter moves on to a second scandal question.

This time Carona does not take well to the question regarding mob associate and Vegas strip-club owner Rick Rizzolo. In the question the reporter makes reference to the now famous photograph of Carona and Rizzolo that surfaced in the OC Weekly just a few weeks ago. As the question is asked, Carona suddenly leaps off camera…as the camera shakes (apparently from Carona grabbing the reporter) we can hear Carona apply his verbal intimidation. His tactic worked like a charm. After the quick “come to Jesus session” Carona steps back into view with a smug look on his face. The reporter, who is obviously rattled, changes the subject immediately.

Hey Cameron: would you mind posting that video? Because what you breathlessly describe is not what I saw on the clip I downloaded from your site. Judging from your description, I was expecting to see Mike Carona doing a Bruce-Banner-becomes-The-Incredible-Hulk imitation.

The clip I saw plays out more the way Martin Wisckol describes it:

In a nutshell, the interviewer asks Carona about a photo of the sheriff with a strip-club owner who is alleged to have mob ties. This where Carona steps out of the video frame, challenges the interviewer's line of inquiry, and does not answer the question. The subject is then changed and Carona proceeds.

I wouldn't even go so far as to say Carona challenged the guy. He stepped off camera and asked if the questions were now going to be about his campaign. That's it.

You don't have to be a Carona supporter to see this is a lot of nothing.

This comment posted earlier encapsulates the distorted lens through which Carona haters view this video:

It was enough of an event for the station to call a news conference, for it to be called on the Real Orange and KTLA (and other I may not have seen.) Before you say the cameraman says he did not feel threatened, how many times have we heard about a wife who calls the cops then says she was threatened by her husband? Listen to the video. You can hear the cameraman’s voice crackling. Carona could have simply said “no comment”, but he wanted to put some muscle into it.

Let me get this straight: The Little Saigon TV station manager (who wasn't there) holds a news conference to claims Carona inimidated the cameraman -- and we're supposed to believe her.

The cameraman (who was there) says he didn't feel intimidated -- and we're supposed to dismiss him as having Battered Wife Syndrome?

How about this interpretation: Little Saigon TV's station manager sees a golden opportunity to grab some publicity for her little TV station and jumps at it?

Sheriff's Campaign Mailbox: Mailers From Carona and AOCDS

I received two Sheriff's race mailers on Friday: one from the Mike Carona campaign and a pro-Bill Hunt mailer from the AOCDS

Here's the Carona mailer, which focuses on illegal immigration and his challengers' reactions to it. It's a very effective piece. I don't go so far as to classify Carona's challengers in with "liberals," but they shouldn't be surprised given the degree of their invective against Carona.

The AOCDS piece strikes me as a standard, solid positive mailer, and makes no mention of Mike Carona. It's the second pro-Hunt mailer sent out by the AOCDS. The Hunt campaign itself has yet to mail countywide -- which is not surprising since his year-to-date total of $71,806 isn't enough for even one county-wide mailer. But Hunt hadn't paid himself back for his $15,000 loan, so he obviously thinks he's still got a shot at making a run-off with Carona.

Sheriff's Race Update: Bob Alcarez Drops Out, Endorses Hunt

Peggy Lowe at Total Buzz reports that omega-tier Sheriff's candidate Bob Alcarez is dropping out of the race and endorsing Bill Hunt for Sheriff.

Which raises the question: how do one drop out of a race that one was never really in?

Regardless of which Sheriff's candidate one is supporting, no one can honestly maintain this will have anything more than zero impact on the outcome of the June primary. This Alcarez's withdrawal would be equally meaningless if he had endorsed Mike Carona or Ralph Martin (although a Carona endorsement would have made a bigger media splash due to the man-bites-dog character of such an unlikely event). It changes the dynamics of the race slightly more than if my pool guy endorsed Hunt.

The letter is a pretty boilerplate withdrawal statement, although this paragraph is a hoot:

As this campaign progressed, I realized Lt. Bill Hunt and I were more compatible in our thinking concerning the issues and priorities that were needed to get the Orange County Sheriff’s Department on track again. Ralph Martin, on the other hand, echoed the rhetoric of Mike Carona.

I'm sure that's exactly what Robert "Bob" Alcarez was thinking "as this campaign progressed." I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact Alcarez didn't want to spend $100K of his own money and garner the same number of votes he'd get by spending nothing.

And it's obvious from the above paragraph, as Peggy Lowe reported, that the Hunt campaign had been working with Alcarez for two weeks on this letter. "Ralph Martin...echoed the rhetoric of Mike Carona": give me a break.

Sheriff's Race Mailbox: Carona Campaign Sends Out Second Mailer

Sheriff Mike Carona's re-election campaign sent out a second mail piece, which arrived at my home today.  This one targets Republican voters, and the front is emblazoned with:

"Endorsed by Our Republican Governor and our Orange County Republican Party"

The back carries the headline "Our Republican Choice" with a nice quote from OC Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh.

it's enough to make Tim Whitacre want to barged onto private property and sue someone.

Ralph Martin Commercial

Here's the final version of the Ralph Martin for Sheriff commercial that starts airing tonight. Another tip 'o the hat to Matt Coker at A Clockwork Orange for hipping me to this yesterday.

OC Sheriff's Mailbox: Bill Hunt Sends Out His First Mailer

The first campaign mail for Bill Hunt's sheriff's candidacy began hitting yesterday. I received mine today. Here's the scans of it (the mailer is a tad oversized and didn't fit well on the scanner), courtesy of a faithful reader: here, here, here and here.

It's actually an IE by the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, rather than a mailer from the Bill Hhunt campaign. I've been wondering if the AOCDS would follow up on its endorsement of Hunt with anything beyond an obligatory maximum donation to his campaign. I guess this answers my question.

The AOCDS has been busy in the last several days: an IE for Hunt, an IE for Pat Bates, and three IEs for Dave Shawver (which were pretty crummy).

New Moxley Story On Carona-Rizzolo

OC Weekly published this new story by R. Scott Moxley on OC Sheriff Mike Carona and Vegas strip club owner Rick Rizzolo, the centerpiece of which is a happy photo of the two a few years ago at a swank Newport restaurant.

Sheesh.