MISSION VIEJO : Pro-Recall Group’s Mailer Is Criticized

As the campaign to recall City Councilman Robert A. Curtis enters its final week, supporters and opponents traded barbs Tuesday and the Central Committee of the Orange County Republican Party sharply chastised one group of Curtis foes.

In addition, city officials said the Mission Viejo Co., the major financial backer of the recall, contributed an additional $60,000 to the campaign last week, bringing its total contributions to about $196,000. The company also invited its employees to attend a luncheon Thursday to hear from company president James Gilleran and several supporters of the recall.

Tuesday’s developments reflect the steady escalation of tensions in the campaign, which has gripped the community for months. Curtis has portrayed the recall as an attempt by the Mission Viejo Co. to silence his slow-growth views, while recall proponents have said they are acting independently of the company and are urging the recall because Curtis is a divisive and unruly force on the council.

Recall supporters, many of whom identify themselves as Republicans, came under fire Tuesday from county Republican Party officers. In a press release distributed to the media last week--and later mailed to residents--a group calling itself the Mission Viejo Republican Club called for Curtis’ ouster. County GOP officials said Tuesday that the group did not have permission to identify itself as a Republican organization.

“This is basically a case of a group misrepresenting itself,” said Jim Meehan, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party’s ethics committee.

Thomas A. Fuentes, chairman of the county Republican Party, agreed. “The organization was put on notice some time ago that it cannot use the word Republican in the title unless they have been chartered by the county Central Committee. No such charter has been requested or granted.”

According to Meehan, the party does not have the power to censure the group, but party leaders said they would try to spread the word that the group is acting without Republican Party sanction.

Curtis, a Republican who has served as an assistant secretary of the state party, welcomed the party’s stance and branded the club’s press release “just the latest sleazy tactic in a string of unethical actions by the recall committee.”

Club president Ben Meharg defended the press release and said the group did not portray itself as an official party organization. He said the club has about 25 members and has been meeting for about four months.

Meharg, a member of the city’s Planning Commission, also said the club distributed the press release only to members of the media, but several Mission Viejo residents reported receiving them in the mail. The mailer included a note saying that it was paid for by the Alliance for Mission Viejo, the main pro-recall group, and the U.S. Postal Service confirmed Tuesday that more than 15,000 of the mailers were sent by the alliance last Friday.