COUNTYWIDE : Gates Says He’ll Run for 5th Sheriff Term

Brushing aside such controversies as revelations of spying on political opponents and the embarrassing New Year’s Day theft of 42 handguns at the Sheriff’s Department training facility, a confident Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates said Thursday that he will ask voters to return him to office for a fifth term.

Gates, 50, long a powerful political force in the county, faces no serious opposition and is expected to win easy reelection in the June 5 primary. Among his chief accomplishments during his last four years in office, Gates listed construction of the Laser Village high-tech shooting range and training facility. The half-million-dollar center was built solely from private donations.

In an office decorated with portraits of Ronald Reagan and John Wayne, a cowhide rug and a souvenir book, “Sheriffs of the Wild West,” Gates made it clear that his campaign will focus on his image as a tough law-and-order man intent on ridding the county of drugs.

Gates, who refers to himself as a “cowboy,” boasted of the county’s anti-drug effort: “We’ve taken 53 million doses of cocaine off the streets in this county in the last three years. We’ve taken 70 million injections of heroin off the streets, and we have confiscated $54 million in cash.”

Gates said the disputes he has had with the Board of Supervisors have been exaggerated in news accounts. In April, angry supervisors complained that Gates did not consult with them before he spent $335,061 to spruce up Rancho del Rio for a visit by President Bush. The money came from Gates’ drug-fighting budget, which is made up of money and property seized in drug raids. Rancho del Rio was selected as the site of Bush’s speech for his war on drugs because the land had been confiscated from a convicted drug smuggler.

More recently, the dispute over the ranch has focused on whether to sell it and raise up to $2 million to apply toward the Sheriff’s Department deficit, now estimated at $6 million, or keep it as a training center for deputies. Board members appear inclined to sell, but Gates said he is confident that he can change their minds.

Gates said: “There’s no fight going on with the Board of Supervisors. . . . I’m hopeful when all the facts are presented in front of the board, they will choose to provide the kind of training center we sorely need.”

Gates earns $97,000 a year as sheriff-coroner.