Santa Ana Candidate Says Poll Is Racist; Johnson Denies Charge About His Survey

A woman challenging Vice Mayor P. Lee Johnson in November’s Santa Ana City Council election charged Monday that a voter survey commissioned by Johnson includes a question involving a racist characterization of each candidate’s ethnic background.

Johnson denied the accusation and claimed support from the black community for his reelection bid.

“There’s nothing racial in it--neither by intent or design,” he said.

Banker Alberta Christy, who is making a second attempt at election to the council, learned of the phone survey’s content from supporters who were called.

Christy’s campaign consultant, David Vaporean, said the survey question being challenged asked, in effect: “Would you support a black, female, liberal candidate for City Council against a successful businessman, Anglo incumbent?” Vaporean emphasized that he was paraphrasing the question.

Read Draft Question

Johnson admitted that the 25-question survey included “profiles” of each candidate’s age, sex, race and occupation but stressed that the questions weren’t phrased the way Vaporean recounted them. Although he didn’t have the actual question, Johnson read a draft that said: “Let’s talk about three make-believe candidates for public office. Suppose three people were running for City Council. For whom would you vote between the following: A--A 30-year-old small businessman, Mexican-American, resident less than one year, born in Mexico. B--A 40-year-old woman, in banking, black, longtime resident, community activist. C--A 50-year-old councilman, Caucasian, longtime resident, former policeman.

“He’s trying to insert race into this campaign,” Christy said, adding her belief that the tactic indicates Johnson views her as “a serious threat.”

“I don’t think the people in Santa Ana care what color their candidates are,” Johnson said. “We treated all three candidates equally and impartially. He argued that he “has no prejudice against black people, for God’s sake, and people that know me know that.”

Johnson said the rest of the survey dealt with “general questions,” such as: “What do you see as the biggest problems facing Santa Ana, and what do you think of the current City Council?” He said he would not release a copy of the questions until after the results come in.

The third candidate in the race, Miguel Pulido Jr., said he had heard rumors that the survey described him as a Mexican, adding that he would not be offended if it described him as a Hispanic. The designation of Mexican is incorrect, he said, because he is a U.S. citizen.

Dubious About Results

Pulido said he does not consider the matter a major issue although he added that such a question has “overtones” of racism. “I personally don’t like it, and I don’t think he’s going to get accurate information or results from something like that,” he said.

The survey was designed to obtain information and not to influence voters in any way, Johnson said. “For example, some people will automatically vote for a woman,” he said, adding that he approved each question and did not describe Christy as a liberal.

Johnson alleged that Christy had lied in her candidate’s statement when she described him as the target of a recall attempt and stated that he had “been responsible for cutting $1 million from police protection.” Although a citizens group had earlier this year targeted the entire council for a recall effort, no recall campaign was ever mounted.

As for the statement about cuts in the police budget, Johnson said he hasn’t “the slightest idea what they’re talking about. . . . In fact, (other council members) are always getting on my case because I want to increase it so much.”

Johnson attempted to have those sections deleted from Christy’s statement Monday, but Superior Court Judge Harmon G. Scoville declined to rule because the vice mayor was unable to reach Christy in time to serve her personally with a subpoena.