Mistake in Gotch Mailer Injects Bile in S.D. Race

In a major embarrassment that sharpened his opponents’ attacks on his credibility, Democrat Mike Gotch’s campaign committee mailed out a brochure to voters that misidentifies his major Democratic rival in next Tuesday’s special 78th Assembly District race as a Republican.

The Gotch mailer, which began arriving at more than 40,000 homes Friday, includes a copy of the April 10 ballot in which Democratic lawyer Howard Wayne is erroneously identified as a Republican.

Although Gotch aides claim that the mistake was an inadvertent printer’s error, Wayne and his campaign strategists Friday angrily accused Gotch of deliberately misrepresenting Wayne’s party affiliation on the mailer.

“I’m absolutely outraged,” Wayne said late Friday. “I don’t believe for one minute this was an innocent mistake. Isn’t it interesting that, out of everything in this mailer, the only thing they got wrong involved my party designation? This episode says more about Mike Gotch’s integrity and truthfulness than anything else could.”

If nothing else, Friday’s controversy over the mailer heightened the race’s visibility and injected acrimony, electricity and interest into a campaign that has drawn little attention--from either voters or the media--since it began last December, when Democrat Lucy Killea’s election to the state Senate vacated the Mid-City Assembly seat she had held since 1982.

Even so, both the Gotch and Wayne campaigns insisted Friday that they would have preferred a quieter final weekend to the contest. Indeed, perhaps the only one pleased by the situation is Republican Jeff Marston, the only active GOP candidate in the race and the logical beneficiary of any serious eleventh-hour bickering between his two chief Democratic opponents.

“Never attribute to conspiracy that which can be explained by incompetence,” said Marston consultant John Kern, tongue firmly in cheek. “I will admit, it seems a little strange. But, if Mike wants to claim that his campaign is that incompetent, well, heck, Mike’s an honest guy. Isn’t he?”

Given that many voters have paid only cursory attention to the race, Wayne said he is concerned that the mailer could seriously undercut his Democratic support. However, Gotch aides--offering a “good news, bad news” theory that sounded a bit disingenuous--suggested that the error could enable Wayne to pick up some unexpected GOP votes.

Aware of the implications of the episode, the Gotch campaign devoted much of Friday to a damage-control effort designed to foster its preferred interpretation. Leading that effort, Gotch campaign manager Evonne Schulze dismissed Wayne’s accusations as an attempt to “blow this way out of proportion to try to create something out of nothing.”

“This is no big deal--it was just a typo,” Schulze said. Gotch himself could not be reached for comment.

According to Gotch’s aides, the mistake was made by a typesetter at Western Graphics, the firm that printed the mailer, and was not caught by anyone until a Gotch campaign volunteer noticed it about noon Friday--when the glossy cardboard brochure was already arriving in mailboxes throughout the district. Jim Elliott, Western Graphic’s president, concurred with that explanation.

“That’s right--Jim did it,” Elliott said, accepting the blame. “What can I say? It was a typo we missed. Frankly, this is really, really rare. But mistakes happen.”

Both the nature and timing of this mistake, however, prompted Wayne to vehemently question the Gotch campaign’s explanation.

“You’d have to be pretty naive to buy what they’re saying,” Wayne said. “The lie is out there, and they did it just before the final weekend, when they knew I’d have trouble trying to undo the damage.”

In response, Gotch’s campaign aides argued that it would have been foolhardy--”political suicide,” in Schulze’s words--to deliberately misrepresent Wayne’s party background. It could safely be predicted, they noted, that Wayne or any opponent would be quick to pounce on such an obvious error--and just as quick to alert the press. As a result, any such Machiavellian strategy would probably be counterproductive at best, they said.

“Who’s going to set themselves up like that?” Schulze asked rhetorically. “It doesn’t make sense. Besides, it’s a little thing. I don’t see that it helps us or hurts him. I think it’s a wash.”

The erroneous description of Wayne is listed on the back side of the mailer, which features photos of Gotch and Killea on the cover, along with comments from Killea praising him for his adherence to fair campaign guidelines.

On the mailer’s other side, Gotch’s various endorsements are listed beneath a representation of next week’s ballot, in which his name appears in dark black ink and the other candidates’ in light gray. Each candidate’s party affiliation appears to the right of his name, and it is there that Wayne is inaccurately identified as a Republican.

“Coincidentally, these were sent out only to Democratic households,” said Wayne consultant Tom Shepard, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “What an incredible coincidence.” Initially, several Gotch aides said the mailers had, indeed, been sent only to Democrats, but later insisted that they had been misinformed and that the brochures went to Republicans as well.

The dispute seemed likely to guarantee a dramatic conclusion to a campaign that has been extraordinarily low-key since its inception, largely because of poor timing and the lack of divisive issues.

With the 78th District primary being the third special state legislative race in San Diego County in the past six months, some candidates and consultants predict that “voter fatigue” will lower turnout to only about 20% of the district’s 173,161 voters. And, although the two special races late last year drew national attention as referendums on the volatile abortion issue, the philosophic similarity of the major Democrats and Republicans in the primary has done nothing to heighten public interest.

From the beginning, Gotch, a former San Diego City Council member, has been widely viewed as the candidate to beat in a field rounded out by relatively obscure first-time contenders.

Nine names--five Democrats, three Republicans and a Peace and Freedom Party member--are on the ballot, but three candidates have withdrawn, leaving Marston--a former aide to San Diego City Councilwoman Gloria McColl and Sen. S. I. Hayakawa (R-Calif.)--as the presumptive GOP nominee in the district, in which Democrats hold a narrow 45%-41% registration edge. The other active Democratic candidates include lawyer Judith Abeles and county probation officer A. L. (Bud) Brooks, while the longest long shot in the race is Peace and Freedom member Jane Rocio Evans.

Under the unorthodox procedures governing special elections, all candidates of all parties will appear on a single ballot in the primary. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote--a figure that only Gotch is thought to have even a slim chance of surpassing--the top vote-getters will compete in a June runoff.

On the same June ballot, the same candidates--along with at least some of the losers from April--will also compete in the normal state legislative primary for their parties’ nomination for the two-year term that will be contested in November.

That prospect of a rare “double election” in June creates the possibility of a split decision, with one candidate winning the special runoff for the remaining six months in Killea’s term but losing the normal primary.

Although the candidates regard that possibility as remote, the fact that the two contests will be waged before markedly different constituencies--all voters would cast ballots in the special runoff, while partisan electorates will decide the primaries--increases the slim chance that the two races could have different victors.