Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS. : COUNTY : Sheriff’s Backers Ask for Campaign Money
The cost of the tangled, seesaw litigation over wording of a sample ballot in the June 3 primary for sheriff has surfaced in a fund-raising letter sent on behalf of the well-heeled incumbent, Brad Gates.
Although the sheriff reported a campaign surplus of $114,000 on March 17--dwarfing those of his two primary opponents, Municipal Judge Bobby D. Youngblood ($7,999) and Sheriff’s Sgt. Linda Lea Calligan ($32)--six of Gates’ financial backers wrote that Gates needs $50,000 for the campaign.
“A huge chunk” of Gates’ funds, wrote real estate developer Tony Moiso, has been spent on legal efforts to keep Calligan’s “vicious lies” off the sample ballot. Superior Court Judge Judith M. Ryan has ruled that Calligan’s statements are “false and misleading,” but appeals are pending in both state and federal courts.
“The fact is,” wrote Moiso, president of the Santa Margarita Co., “that Brad now has insufficient funds to correct the damage done to his reputation” as a result of the estimated $45,000 legal bill.
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