Ex-Police Captain May Run for Sheriff : Politics: A city councilman with 30 years law enforcement experience has until 5 p.m. today to file if he decides to take on Brad Gates.

A city councilman and former police captain with more than 30 years of law enforcement experience said Thursday that he is considering a bid to unseat Sheriff Brad Gates in the June 5 election.

Don Bankhead, who was elected to the City Council in November, 1988, said he will announce today whether he is going to run after meeting with friends. The deadline for declaring candidacy for the June election is 5 p.m.

If he runs, Bankhead, a Republican, would be the only challenger of Gates, who is seeking a fifth term.

“I never try to do something unless I think there’s a chance of succeeding,” said Bankhead, 57. He declined to discuss possible issues in the race or why he is interested in running.

After 31 years, Bankhead retired from the Fullerton Police Department in 1988 with the rank of captain. His tenure there included several years as head of the department’s investigations division.

Bankhead, who has been discussing with campaign advisers a possible run for sheriff, appeared at a get-together last week at the Irvine Hilton that was attended by other political opponents of Gates.

The gathering was hosted by former private investigator Mike Madigan, who co-wrote “The Twisted Badge” with Rancho Santiago College instructor George Wright, a longtime opponent of Gates and an unsuccessful candidate for sheriff in 1978.

Their book, sold at local bookstores, is critical of the Orange County district attorney’s office and Gates, who has been repeatedly accused in lawsuits of using his department to investigate his critics, including Wright.

Nick Novick, a former Orange County deputy district attorney who attended the gathering, said that Bankhead “is concerned about backing and money. The things that he doesn’t have a problem with are the issues. He thinks there are issues that just won’t quit.”

Apparently the only other person who has considered challenging Gates this year was Wright, but he decided against it this week when he did not meet the minimum requirements to run for office.

Wright, a former U.S. Treasury agent and Santa Monica police officer, said Thursday he is precluded from running again by a state law requiring candidates for sheriff to be certified by the California Peace Officers Standards and Training, an organization that promulgates training policies for deputy sheriffs and police officers.

The law, passed in 1988, was sponsored by state Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) at the behest of the California Sheriff’s Assn., which was headed by Gates. Its members said they wanted to establish some basic qualifications for sheriff.

Having not worked as a police officer for over five years, Wright has lost his POST certification and probably would have to take a 40-hour course to regain it, something that would be difficult as a full-time teacher, he said.

Wright said he wanted to challenge the constitutionality of the law because it excludes otherwise qualified candidates but changed his mind after two lawyers advised him that a lawsuit would be fruitless.

“Trying to overcome that law would be monumental,” Wright said. “It’s possible but not probable, and the difficulty of doing that would drain resources. It’s just not worth it.”

Wright, who teaches criminal justice, had alleged in a federal civil rights lawsuit in the mid-1980s that sheriff’s deputies had put him and other political opponents of Gates under surveillance. Court records show that a recording of one of Wright’s class lectures was later discovered in a deputy’s garage. The lawsuit was settled by the county for $375,000 in 1987.