Campaign Mail for Beam Ruled False, Misleading

The county Fair Campaign Practices Commission has found four pieces of campaign mail sent on behalf of Orange Mayor James H. Beam, a candidate for supervisor, to be false or misleading.

Commission members found that Beam literature sent to voters in the June 3 election for the 4th District seat erroneously said Orange was the first city in the county to adopt a toxic waste disclosure law. In fact, Irvine enacted such a law two years before Orange, the commission ruled.

Also, a Beam brochure was found to be misleading for saying that Anaheim Mayor Donald R. Roth, a Beam opponent, did nothing to adopt a toxic disclosure law for his city until after the Fricker Chemical Co. fire in Anaheim in June, 1985.

Roth Had Complained

The commission determined that Roth had no power to unilaterally adopt a law, which required passage by the entire City Council. Roth had complained about his opponent’s mail to the commission and at a news conference Tuesday.

In addition, the commission Wednesday night found that a second statement in one of Beam’s mailers was misleading for claiming that he was endorsed by the “Orange County Firefighters Assn.,” a group that a Beam representative admitted does not exist.

The representative, attorney Michael J. Schroeder, contended that the name was a typographical error and actually referred to the “Orange County Firemen’s Assn. Inc.”

However, the group has endorsed both Beam and Roth. Fire Fighters Local 1014, which represents firefighters working for Orange County, has endorsed a third candidate in the race, former Rep. Jerry M. Patterson, and filed a complaint with the commission.

In yet another finding, the commission ruled that a Beam campaign mailer had erred in saying that there were only three candidates in the supervisorial race--Beam, Roth and Patterson--ignoring a fourth candidate, architect Manuel Mendez.

Seat Covers 4 Cities

The four contenders are vying for a supervisorial seat that covers Anaheim, Orange, Buena Park and La Palma. If no candidate wins a majority June 3, the two top vote-getters will meet in the November general election.

Last week, the commission found that campaign mail sent by Roth had falsely stated that he was the only candidate from Anaheim. The commission found that Patterson and Mendez also live in the city.

Each of the county’s five supervisors appoints one member of the commission, which has little power beyond issuing press releases announcing the results of its actions. The commission can refer serious violations of the county’s election ordinances to the district attorney’s office for investigation and prosecution. It has not done so thus far.