42nd District Hopeful Woos Voters With Mailer Supporting Measure A

In an effort to capitalize on slow-growth sentiment in Orange County, congressional candidate Andrew Littlefair of Torrance is paying for a mailer that includes a letter of thanks to him from the leaders of the movement that put Measure A on the June 7 ballot.

Littlefair’s campaign manager, Bob Wolfe, says the letter, from Tom Rogers and Russ Burkett, will be tucked into a campaign mailer urging passage of the measure. It will go to about 40,000 Republican households in Orange County whose residents are considered likely to vote in the primary. Wolfe said he did not know what the final cost would be.

One part of the campaign mailer will also feature a picture of Littlefair and a message from him urging a yes vote on Measure A.

Littlefair has built much of his campaign for the Republican nomination in the 42nd Congressional District on his support for Measure A, an initiative that affects only unincorporated areas of Orange County.

He also has tried to blame Harriett M. Wieder, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the front-runner in the 42nd District race, for the county’s traffic woes. Wieder is the subject of a recall attempt led by Rogers and others because of her record on development as a supervisor.

The letter from Rogers and Burkett, written on stationery of the Citizens’ Sensible Growth and Traffic Control Initiative committee, says: “Thank you for your continuing support for Yes on Measure A. While our committee does not officially endorse contestants, it is important that the public be informed as to where each candidate stands on an issue as vital as controlling runaway growth in Orange County.”

In the mailer, Littlefair does not miss the chance to take a direct swipe at Wieder. He names her as one of the “special interest groups” who “have spent millions in trying to defeat Measure A.”

However, Littlefair said in an interview Wednesday that he had no proof that Wieder had spent any money on defeating Measure A. “She probably has,” he said, adding that Wolfe approved the copy for the mailer.

Wolfe said the mailer was intended to draw a connection between those who contributed money to defeat Measure A and Wieder’s votes on the board. “I don’t think I’m saying she’s writing checks,” Wolfe said.

Asked if she ever contributed money to defeat the measure, Wieder replied: “No. That’s ridiculous.”

Rogers said the committee may print another 100,000 copies of Littlefair’s mailer without the portion mentioning the candidate to be sent to residents of other parts of the county.

He said he had discussed joint mailings with other candidates in the 42nd District race, including Stephen Horn, of Long Beach, and Wieder.

Horn’s campaign said Wednesday that Horn, who supports Measure A, was doing a mailer urging voters to support both his candidacy and the measure.

Wieder denied Wednesday that she had ever discussed a joint mailing with Rogers.

Rogers said he remembers that the idea was floated--he did not remember whether it was suggested by him or by Wieder--in one of numerous discussions that followed a Board of Supervisors vote May 11 on a controversial development agreement.

He said the idea was that Wieder would pay for a mailer, that would include arguments both for and against Measure A, along with a letter from Wieder telling voters that she helped put the measure, which could have been delayed until November, on the June 7 ballot.

Rogers said Wieder also wanted voters to know that she has proposed a plan to extend a developer-financed road program recently approved for the Foothill area east of Orange and Tustin to the rest of the county. In that so-called “safety-net” program, developers have agreed to pay $235 million to build roads before they complete any of their construction projects.

“We said maybe it’s possible to do some kind of informational thing on Measure A,” Rogers said. “I think she said, ‘Well, yeah, I’ve done some good things for Measure A, such as putting it on the ballot and this safety net.’ She didn’t pursue it, and I didn’t pursue it. It just died there among the flurry of conversation about a lot of other things.”

Wieder said she talked with Rogers about how to tell voters what she viewed as her positive role on Measure A. She said that at one point, Rogers told her he had “a genius of an idea” on how to help her minimize her problems with slow-growth advocates, who are so incensed over her record on development that they have launched a recall effort.

But she added: “The thing was never articulated. I never did get the bottom line on it.”