Mailers Hit Harder as 4th District Supervisor Race Nears Finish Line

The race for Orange County supervisor, which was sputtering along like a car with a bad carburetor, has moved into high gear in its final days in what the candidates say is the most important way of all--political mail.

Anaheim Mayor Don R. Roth has mailed a brochure saying, “We’d like you to meet the real Jim Beam . . . if only we could find him.”

Beam, mayor of Orange, has his own brochure out saying, “OK, Don Roth, ‘fess up.”

In addition to the mail--split between self-promoting brochures and attacks on the opponent--both candidates continue to walk the streets of the 4th Supervisorial District and to garner endorsements. Roth received a major one Wednesday from the man he is trying to succeed: Ralph B. Clark.

Clark, 69, is retiring after 16 years as a supervisor. Roth has stressed to Anaheim residents, who make up the bulk of the electorate in the district, that his election will ensure continued representation on the Board of Supervisors for the county’s largest city.

Statement Issued

Clark, a former mayor of Anaheim, issued a statement Wednesday saying that Roth “is better qualified and more experienced” and mentioning that he had notified Beam of his decision and the change in his previously stated position of neutrality in the race.

Beam’s campaign manager, Michael Schroeder, said: “We’re disappointed, but we’re not surprised. . . . And I’m not sure how much the endorsement means this late in the election anyway.” He said the impact would have been greater had Clark acted earlier.

The Roth campaign had a letter printed last Friday announcing Clark’s endorsement, and Roth said the letter would start hitting district mailboxes today. Included with the letter is a picture of Roth, Clark and California Angels owner Gene Autry, who also has endorsed Roth.

Jeff Adler, a Roth campaign consultant, said Clark’s support for Roth to represent the supervisorial district that includes Anaheim, La Palma, Buena Park and Orange “is the single most important endorsement in this race, plain and simple. The supervisor has a long record of service to the district; he’s very popular. . . . It will help us. It’s a big boost.”

Adler also said that political mail, which both candidates are sending almost every day, “is the glue that holds the whole campaign together.” The mail reflects campaign themes and issues addressed by the candidates at voters’ doors, on television shows and before service organizations.

‘Mail Means Everything’

Beam agreed, even as he walked door to door seeking votes in Anaheim one day last week, that the mailers are the key to the race.

“Direct mail means everything,” he said. “As important as this walking is, direct mail determines it.”

Although both candidates have mailed “positive” pieces that list endorsements, give their backgrounds and include reasons from their wives why their husbands should win, the brochures have become increasingly savage in recent days.

The Roth piece seeking “the real Jim Beam” lists alleged contradictions between Beam’s statements and his actions, including:

- Attacking former Rep. Jerry Patterson (D-Santa Ana) in the supervisorial primary, then accepting his endorsement after Patterson finished third.

- Introducing laws to outlaw political signs on public property in Orange, yet paying “to have illegal political signs put up in violation of his own sign law.”

- Proclaiming a “lifetime commitment to a better Orange County,” then taking a $25,000 campaign donation from Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum.

Roth Attacked

Beam’s mailers say Roth “must be worried that the voters will not elect him on his record but on his ability to distort the truth” and say:

- Roth voted to force a local farmer to sell his Anaheim farm to a Hong Kong development company that is now a contributor to Roth’s campaign.

- Patterson has said in a sworn affidavit that two of Roth’s campaign advisers called Patterson after the primary and “offered to help ‘restructure and reduce’ my campaign debt substantially if I would endorse Don Roth” in the general election.

- A former aide to convicted political corrupter W. Patrick Moriarty claimed that Moriarty gave Roth the free use of a Palm Springs-area condominium. (Roth has strongly denied the claim, and no one has produced any evidence to support it.)

Roth, 65, and Beam, 52, are fighting for the ballots of 191,466 registered voters, 96,053 of whom are Republicans and 76,803 of whom are Democrats. Both candidates are Republicans (the office is nonpartisan).

Campaign Expenditures

Through Oct. 18, Beam reported spending $419,000 and Roth $380,765 on the campaign. A huge amount of Beam’s money, $195,500, is in the form of loans, a category for which Roth lists $6,000.

After 12 years on the Anaheim City Council, four of them as mayor, Roth is seeking to move up to the $55,000-a-year seat being vacated by Clark.

In his campaign, Roth has repeatedly stated his opposition to a proposed 1,500-inmate county jail on a site near Anaheim Stadium. He also has been vocal in his opposition to the possible choice of Coal Canyon or Gypsum Canyon for a larger jail. The canyons are on a list of 29 possible sites now before the supervisors.

Beam, when asked, says he believes the main issue in the campaign is the same one he has identified since declaring his candidacy in August, 1985: “The No. 1 issue in this county is transportation.” Beam repeats that message time and again as he walks the precincts. He tells of his membership on the Orange County Transportation Commission, of attempts to have all gasoline sales tax money earmarked for transportation projects, of the possibility of getting part of future tax revenue set aside for transportation.

Beam says he is not a developer but rather a real estate investor. But Roth’s campaign consultants have reproduced a quote from a 1984 interview in which Beam says, “I’m a builder-developer myself.” Roth says in his mailer that he will work for “reduced development.” A brochure for Beam’s company says “he’s been a banker, a real estate developer and former president of the Building Industry Assn.”

“Can Orange County afford a builder-developer supervisor like Jim Beam?” says one piece of Roth mail.

A responding brochure by Beam bears the signature of Assemblyman John Lewis (R-Orange), one of the Legislature’s most conservative members and co-chairman of Beam’s campaign. “OK, Don Roth, ‘fess up,” the brochure begins, denouncing Roth for “an election smear” in the primary that “falsely claimed that Beam was in the vest pocket of developers and that Beam ‘always sided with developers.’ ”

The brochure carries a picture of Roth in a vest pocket and says he has received more than $52,000 in campaign contributions from big developers and until recently was a partner in a real estate business. Roth’s campaign disputed the statement, but only the “partner” part. In fact, after retiring from the Navy in 1962, Roth owned a real estate firm in Anaheim before devoting full time to his job as mayor.

The brochure characterizes Roth’s campaign tactics as “sleazy,” the same word Roth has used for Beam.

On Tuesday, Beam began mailing the brochure mentioning a claim from a former aide to W. Patrick Moriarty, who is serving a federal prison sentence for political corruption, that Moriarty provided free use of a Palm Springs-area condominium for Roth. Roth has strongly denied the claim. The contention is in a letter from Richard Raymond Keith, which Beam campaign workers distributed to reporters. Keith also is in federal prison.

Roth last month warned Beam to back off when a Beam pollster began asking whether people knew anything about Moriarty supplying Roth with prostitutes, a charge never made by Keith or anyone else until the pollster asked the question. So far, aside from the pollster’s questions, the Beam campaign has not raised the prostitute issue.