Even His Challengers Concede That Unseating Gates Is an Uphill Battle

Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates may be as vulnerable at the ballot box this year as ever. His opponents’ problem is that Gates, seeking a fourth four-year term, has never been very vulnerable.

To the casual observer, it may appear that Gates is in for trouble in the June primary, considering that he is opposed not only by a sergeant from his department, Linda Lea Calligan, but also by longtime antagonist Municipal Court Judge Bobby D. Youngblood.

Gates’ only serious reelection challenge was in 1978. A sergeant from his department forced a runoff election.

This time, a civil rights lawsuit by Youngblood is headed for trial.

Nevertheless, the smart money, and lots of it, so far is on Gates.

Running what even they concede are tough campaigns to win, Calligan, 38, and Youngblood, 49, are decidedly dark horses, with skimpy financial backing and far less organized support than Gates.

“I think Brad Gates is relatively unbeatable,” conceded Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Lauren Rusk, a friend of Calligan and the only opponent ever to force Gates into a runoff. “He has too much political savvy, too much political support.”

Rancho Santiago College instructor George Wright, another unsuccessful sheriff candidate in 1978, is aligned with Youngblood in a federal lawsuit against Gates.

However, Wright concedes, “I don’t think Youngblood is going to be able to raise the money he says he needs” to win.

Both of Gates’ opponents say he is a “tarnished” sheriff, bolstering their claims by rehashing controversies from early in Gates’ administration.

Some of those issues faded years ago, such as the ownership Gates gave up in a proposed restaurant-bar in 1978 when news accounts pointed out that peace officers cannot hold an interest in a liquor license.

And some dissolved after investigations prompted by Gates’ critics, the FBI and the Orange County district attorney’s office found no basis for action.

“I think,” offered county Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, “that Brad is perceived . . . pretty much like a knight on a white horse.”

Orange County GOP chairman Thomas Fuentes, a Gates friend and supporter, had a similar assessment.

“I would say, in light of the favorable polling . . . the sheriff is very, very far out in front and the challengers would have to be considered, at this time, minor candidates,” Fuentes said. “He is so far ahead . . . it would be a monumental feat for anyone to mount a successful challenge.”

No small factor in Gates’ seemingly certain reelection is money.

So far, he has plenty. His opponents don’t.

By March 24, when three-month campaign reports were due, Gates had already spent $55,000. That still left him with a $114,000 balance. His contributors include large developers and wealthy business interests, generally Orange County’s movers and shakers.

For the same period, Calligan had a net balance of only $32.65 after spending $975 for her candidate’s filing fee and $7,800 for a 200-word statement that will appear the sample ballot.

Her meager finances look hearty compared to Youngblood’s.

Youngblood has not filed the campaign report due March 24. His campaign manager said the campaign’s treasurer had quit and that the new treasurer was out of town, unable to prepare the document.

The last financial statement on file for Youngblood--for the period ending Dec. 31, 1985--showed that his campaign was $24,800 in the red. Ray Angulo, a man Youngblood said he has come to know only since the campaign, has pledged $200,000, according to the report.

However, Youngblood said Friday that he will probably amend the report because “I can’t find him (Angulo). I think the pledge was made in good faith, but I just wonder . . . if it’ll be forthcoming.”

$100,000 to Force Runoff

An additional $190,000 was pledged to Youngblood’s campaign by Don Joselyn, who has become the campaign’s new treasurer, and five other supporters.

“For years,” Fuentes wisecracked, “I’ve tried to take pledges to the bank, but I’ve yet to find an Orange County banker who will cash them.”

Youngblood has estimated that $100,000 to $200,000 would enable him to force a runoff election, and that with “$200,000 to $500,000, we can beat both Gates or the lady (Calligan) in June.”

But two weeks ago, Youngblood withdrew his 200-word statement of qualifications from the sample ballot in order to be refunded the $7,800 fee. He said he had a “more effective use” of the money.

“That must indicate financial difficulty,” Fuentes said. The $7,800 statement of qualifications is “the best expenditure of money a candidate can ever spend in a countywide race.”

Weathered Other Storms

“For a candidate in this sophisticated political environment to be able to campaign effectively, he must use direct mail,” Fuentes said. Estimating that it takes about $200,000 to pay for a countywide mailing, Fuentes said that “I don’t see a fund-raising capability on behalf of either of the other candidates.”

Gates has weathered tougher political storms in his 12 years as sheriff.

Gates worked his way through the ranks until, at the age of 35, he was the choice of retiring Sheriff James A. Musick to succeed him.

Now 47, Gates is fond of saying that even as a boy growing up in his native San Juan Capistrano, his only ambition was to be sheriff of Orange County.

He was easily elected in 1974.

But within his first four years in office, Gates was engulfed in a morass of personal and political woes.

There was a federal lawsuit over conditions at the county jail, an FBI investigation into Gates’ personal finances, an acrimonious running battle with the newly formed Assn. of Orange County Sheriff Deputies, his initial failure to properly disclose $340,000 in loans on his home, a dispute over the transfer of investigators from the district attorney’s office, political squabbles trying to set up a countywide intelligence unit, strained relations with many of the county’s police chiefs and, not least of all, five candidates in 1978 who wanted to replace him.

Brad Gates had his hands full.

Prosecution Not Warranted

He failed to win the primary, pulling only 41% of the vote. Sgt. Rusk, a founder of the deputy sheriff association, finished second and faced him in the November runoff.

But Gates’ fortunes improved.

Within months, the FBI investigation had found “no evidence that would warrant” prosecution.

“I’m sure voters will be relieved to know the truth,” Gates said.

After an infusion of cash into his campaign and a last-minute mailer, Gates greatly outspent and soundly defeated Rusk in the runoff.

Most other issues faded with time. Some, such as the countywide intelligence unit proposal, were dropped. Others, like the unreported home loans, disappeared once financial disclosure statements were amended. Still others, like the dispute at the jail, simmered and boiled over years later.

But today, even one-time caustic critic Rusk and the new leadership within the deputy sheriff association say the organization’s relations with Gates have improved dramatically. Gates will seek the association’s endorsement in June.

Has Had His Way

“I think it means Brad Gates has come a long way,” said Rusk, who has remained assigned to the James Musick branch jail facility in El Toro since he lost to Gates in 1978. “I’m not saying we’re all walking around whistling while we work, but there isn’t that strong undercurrent of dissatisfaction.”

In recent years, Brad Gates has pretty much had his way, politically and professionally.

He rattles off a long list of what he considers accomplishments: setting up a new forensics science center; establishing more than 400 neighborhood watch programs; doubling voluntary reserve forces; creating cliff rescue units, underwater search and rescue units, hostage negotiation and tactical teams, fraud and child molestation units, an expanded narcotics unit, and a citizen advisory council that has contributed funds for such things as bomb- and narcotics-sniffing dogs.

“I think we’ve done a tremendous job in the last 12 years,” Gates said.

His opponents say otherwise, hitting hardest on the most current of Gates’ controversies: overcrowding at the Orange County main jail in Santa Ana.

‘Years of Neglect’

Youngblood asserted that “there would be no need for the panic-ridden, desperate search for a jail site had it not been for the years of neglect and inattention to duty by the sheriff.”

Calligan charged that Gates brought shame and discredit to law enforcement and cost the county millions of dollars, including $50,000 in fines for contempt of court last year when a federal judge ruled that the county had willfully failed to ease overcrowding.

But Gates argues that the public knows that he is not responsible for funding, approving or building new jails.

“Certainly my job is to ask (for the expansion) and we’ve been asking,” Gates said. “When you compare us to other adjoining counties . . . we’ve added some 800-plus beds in . . . the last four to six years, and we’ve committed some $70 million (to add) 400 more beds” in a new intake facility now under construction.

“I think our record is very clear.”

There are those who say that Gates’ trouble over the jail has worked to his advantage by generating a sympathetic backlash.

Woes for Youngblood

“Maybe out of all of this, there is a group that is sympathetic that he has been made the scapegoat,” Supervisor Riley said.

Gates is not the only one to have attracted controversy.

In 1983, three years after his election to the bench, the California Supreme Court “severely censured” Youngblood for the way he handled two Municipal Court cases. That followed a tumultuous period. There was a personal bankruptcy, his drunk-driving arrest, his arrest on suspicion of assaulting his wife (the case was later dropped)--all problems Youngblood blamed on his alcoholism. He says he has since stopped drinking alcohol.

But also in 1983, Youngblood launched his first serious attack on Gates by seeking investigations into alleged prisoner mistreatment and a series of deaths at the main jail. An FBI investigation later found no evidence warranting criminal prosecution.

Since then, Youngblood has alleged that Gates harassed and spied on him for political purposes. Joined by college instructor Wright and private investigator George Patrick Bland, who unsuccessfully ran against Gates in 1982, Youngblood sued Gates in federal court, seeking $10 million in damages.

Lawsuit Trial in July

Gates has declined to publicly discuss the accusations, but in connection with the suit the sheriff turned over to the court voluminous files concerning his “criminal” investigation of Youngblood.

The Youngblood lawsuit is set for trial in July.

Calligan--the only candidate who does not claim to have been a friend of John Wayne--is a 15-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department, and she was a worker eight years ago in the unsuccessful Rusk campaign for sheriff. Her husband, Michael, is a retired sheriff’s deputy who is now attending law school.

Gates has alleged that Calligan is in the race at the urging of Harbor Municipal Judge Russell A. Bostrom, a longtime Gates critic. When Bostrom was an attorney, he represented the newly formed deputy sheriff association and was involved in several public clashes with Gates.

Last week, Gates said he thought that Bostrom should disqualify himself from hearing cases involving the Sheriff’s Department because of his “overt” involvement in the Calligan campaign and “obvious bias” against Gates.

Bostrom has been unavailable for comment, but Calligan said that the judge is not officially involved in her campaign, other than to offer political advice. On Friday, Calligan said that Bostrom is not responsible for her running against Gates, but that she “will not even discuss anything remotely political with” Bostrom for the rest of the campaign.

‘Different Atmosphere’

Calligan and Youngblood have promised that significant, as-yet undisclosed developments are in store for the campaign. But most observers agree that without a drastic increase in the challengers’ campaign finances, Gates will not be threatened.

Rusk, who learned firsthand how difficult it can be to overcome Gates’ appeal and financial backing, said this year’s race is “a totally different atmosphere” than when he ran.

In 1978, relations between Gates and the deputies’ association were strained, an anti-incumbent atmosphere was fanned by the property tax initiative, Proposition 13, and there were five additional names on the ballot to draw votes from Gates.

“Timing is critical,” Rusk said. “He’s (Gates) had more time to marshal his assets, appease more people, appeal to more people.”

Still, Rusk said, Calligan is a “a very scrappy lady” and Youngblood may benefit by being mistaken for a popular Los Angeles Rams football player, Jack Youngblood.

“Linda’s a friend of mine and Youngblood I know by reputation, but I really don’t see Brad Gates being beat,” Rusk said.