Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens holds sizable early lead
Appointed Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens was holding a hefty 2-to-1 lead in early balloting Tuesday over her two opponents in her bid to win the endorsement of voters to continue leading a department still recovering from scandal.
In Ventura County, Sheriff’s Cmdr. Geoff Dean was leading Chief Deputy Dennis Carpenter, and in an Orange County race for an open supervisorial seat, Fullerton Councilman Shawn Nelson and Anaheim Councilman Harry Sidhu led a field of six candidates.
The sheriff’s race in law-and-order-minded Orange County has been brewing since its former top lawman, Michael S. Carona, was indicted on corruption charges in 2007. Though county supervisors appointed Hutchens to finish out Carona’s term, the fight over who should be running the state’s second-largest sheriff’s department had never fully been settled.
Hutchens, who spent her career with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, has billed herself as a reformer, trying — at once — to restore the morale of the Sheriff’s Department and clean house. But she conceded she needed a voters’ mandate to quiet critics who have attacked her as an outsider who was appointed on a 3-2 vote.
Former Orange County Sheriff ‘s Lt. Bill Hunt ran against Carona four years ago, and in a sense, never stopped campaigning. He was demoted by Carona after losing the 2006 election and resigned rather than return to patrol duty.
He has attacked Hutchens as being a liberal in a conservative county, criticized her decision to tighten the criteria for concealed weapons permits, and positioned himself as the race’s true conservative — even vowing to crack down on illegal immigration.
The third candidate was Anaheim Deputy Police Chief Craig Hunter, seen by many as the underdog.
In the sheriff’s race in Ventura County, the sheriff’s contest was also heated, the first contested race in more than three decades. Sheriffs there have traditionally been unchallenged or faced only token opposition after being appointed mid-term.
Dean ignited a political uproar in 2008 when he announced his candidacy, declaring it was time to give voters a real choice. Sitting Sheriff Bob Brooks promptly fired him, accusing Dean of insubordination for asking about a data file of potential voters. Dean later won his job back.
Dean and Carpenter, both department veterans, ran campaigns that played up their differing styles and records.
Carpenter was backed by Brooks and his command staff. During the year-long campaign, he attempted to paint Dean as disloyal to Brooks and lacking in integrity. Dean, meanwhile, pointed to his backing by rank-and-file deputies as well as police chiefs across Ventura County to show that he had the experience and community support to make a good sheriff.
A Sacramento scandal set the scene for the lone contested supervisorial race in Orange County, with six
candidates vying to replace former Supervisor Chris Norby. Norby is now in the Assembly after winning a special election to replace disgraced Assemblyman Mike Duvall, who resigned in the wake of a sex scandal.
The 4th Supervisorial District seat includes parts of Anaheim, Fullerton, Buena Park, Placentia and La Habra.
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