From Within Carona’s Ranks Comes Reelection Challenger

In 1997, a young and relatively unknown lawman brashly challenged the reelection of Orange County’s popular incumbent sheriff, declaring that it was time for a change.

As it turned out, longtime Sheriff Brad Gates bowed out of the 1998 race and retired, and Michael S. Carona, the upstart county marshal whose primary job was ensuring public safety inside courthouses, was elected sheriff over the Santa Ana police chief.

It’s Carona in the political crosshairs now, seeking a third term as sheriff and finding himself challenged by a young and relatively unknown underling.

Lt. William J. Hunt, who supervises the 56 Sheriff’s Department employees assigned to San Clemente, is the first opponent to announce he’ll run for sheriff in June 2006, setting the stage for Carona’s first reelection challenge.

Hunt, 42 and a Republican like his 49-year-old boss, said he wanted to restore respectable leadership to a department scandalized in the last two years by Carona’s affiliation with former Assistant Sheriffs George Jaramillo and Don Haidl. The sheriff rewarded his two campaign confidants with jobs, and they later left the department under adverse circumstances.

Last year Carona fired Jaramillo, who subsequently was arrested on charges of public corruption and has sued the county to get his job back. Haidl resigned after his son was arrested, and later convicted, in a high-profile sexual assault case.

The fallout tarnished Carona’s image as a savvy manager and popped trial balloons suggesting he’d run next year for lieutenant governor with the blessing of his friend Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The two worked together in 2002 on Proposition 49, which established after-school programs that so far have fallen victim to state budget cuts. Schwarzenegger has been coy about whether he will run for reelection himself, and political advisors said he probably wouldn’t endorse someone for lieutenant governor in the primary. But Carona took himself out of the mix even before it got to that point, they said.

“I think it’s plain for anyone to see that the problems created by Jaramillo and Haidl make him unviable for statewide or national office,” Hunt, a 20-year veteran who serves as San Clemente’s director of police services, said in an interview.

“This guy brought in political appointees, he had the Board of Supervisors lower the standards to do it, and as a result we’ve been dealing with scandal and controversy the last couple of years,” Hunt said. “And those of us who wear this uniform every day, we’ve taken it on the chin.... He brought these people in. They infected the department. Then he tries to distance himself from them. It’s politics, not public safety.”

A similar management crisis buffeted the department when Carona announced in 1997 that he’d take on Gates. One of Gates’ assistant sheriffs was fired amid accusations from five women that he had groped, propositioned and sexually harassed them.

But Carona had more artillery against Gates than an internal scandal. He’d lined up endorsements from several Republican lawmakers upset with Gates’ past support of sales tax increases and hired then-state Sen. John Lewis (R-Orange) as his campaign manager. Lewis retired from the Senate in 2000 and remains Carona’s campaign chief.

Without similar support, Hunt’s chances are slim, said political consultant Scott Hart of Irvine, who is steeped in Republican politics but not engaged in the nonpartisan sheriff’s race. Although Hunt has established an exploratory committee, he hasn’t begun serious fundraising. Carona raised $67,971 last year, bringing his campaign cash to $316,711, with no debts.

Hunt “has no name ID with the public and no base to raise money from,” Hart said. “Unless he’s got some personal money, he’ll have a very difficult time.”

Carona also caught a break when he ran for sheriff the first time: Although Gates would have been a formidable adversary, the assistant sheriff whom Gates endorsed to run in his place dropped out of the race after seven weeks. Carona eventually squared off against Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters, who was endorsed by the deputy sheriffs union but wasn’t well-known countywide.

A potential weakness for Carona this time lies in his reneging on a pledge from 1998 to serve only two terms as sheriff. That could easily be overcome by voters’ sense that Carona overall has done a good job and that Orange County remains a safe place to live, Hart said.

“Despite the Jaramillo situation and what happened with Haidl, I think people in Orange County believe Sheriff Carona overall has done a good job,” he said. “Voters will reelect you if they think you’re doing a good job. Everyone has a right to change their mind. It’s certainly not on the level of a no-new-taxes pledge.”

Undaunted, Hunt jumped into the race even as Carona weighed what to do. Late last month, a police watchdog website declared that Carona had decided not to run and would endorse Hunt as his replacement. Carona quickly denied the report, and last week he quietly announced for a third term.

Carona declined to comment directly about Hunt’s candidacy.

“Our department is on the cutting edge of technology and training, and we’re looked to nationally as a model law enforcement agency,” he said when asked about the campaign. “There is still much to accomplish during another term. I will proudly run for reelection on my record and on my positive vision for the future of this department.”

Hunt said Carona’s management embarrassments took him out of any contention for statewide office, leaving the sheriff no choice but to seek local reelection. He said Carona had used the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the fatal abduction of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion as “excuses” to stay in office.

Carona said the two events changed the dynamics of the office and his job. He is a security advisor to the Department of Homeland Security and is on a committee considering a national expansion of California’s Amber Alert system. The department’s swift arrest of Samantha’s alleged murderer drew praise from CNN’s Larry King and President Bush, among others. The suspect, Alejandro Avila, is on trial in Orange County Superior Court, putting the case back in the spotlight as the 2006 campaigns get started.

In 1998, Hunt backed Walters over Carona. He said he was aware of the odds against beating a sheriff backed by nearly all of the county’s influential and affluent Republican establishment, as well as by several equally prominent Democrats. What sets him apart from Carona, Hunt said, is his street-level experience as a cop.

“I am a professional police officer. I’ve chased criminals from one end of this county to the other. I have the basic experience and true understanding of what this job entails, from the ground up,” Hunt said. “In addition, I have the leadership experience to take this department in the right direction.... Orange County needs a sheriff, not a politician.”

Hunt hopes to win the endorsement of the deputies union, which endorsed Carona when he ran unopposed for reelection in 2002. The Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs represents 1,800 sworn deputies, investigators and sergeants of the Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s investigators.

Hunt, a 1985 graduate of the Orange County Sheriff’s Academy, has the resume of a career street cop. He has worked as a jailhouse deputy and watch commander, a patrolman, a gang and narcotics investigator, a member and supervisor of the SWAT team, and a tactical instructor at the academy. He made sergeant in 1996 and was promoted by Carona to lieutenant in 2002.

He was named chief of sheriff’s operations in San Clemente two years ago, overseeing 17 square miles of the city.

A Massachusetts native, Hunt and his wife of nearly 16 years, Debbie, live in Laguna Hills with their two sons and two daughters, ages 6 to 13. They are members of St. Kilian’s Roman Catholic Church in Mission Viejo, where Hunt served on the pastoral council for three years. His wife was a sheriff’s deputy until the birth of their first son.