Gates, Hunter Lead Pro, Con Campaigns on Jail Initiative : Measure J: The sheriff and Anaheim’s mayor are engaged in a contest of political skill over the proposed half-cent sales tax, to be decided by voters May 14.

As the May 14 election draws near for Measure J, the campaigning for and against the half-cent sales tax initiative is developing into a contest of political skill between the two most visible spokesmen for the opposing camps: Sheriff Brad Gates and Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter.

Gates, chairman of the Committee to Keep Criminals in Jail, the pro-Measure J organization, has been appearing at city council meetings, lobbying police associations and attending forums to speak out in favor of a measure that is on the ballot largely at his urging.

Hunter has launched a busy schedule of public appearances since Taxpayers Against J was formed after a meeting in Anaheim last week.

While he is not listed as one of the officers of the anti-Measure J group, Hunter has provided much of the impetus for the effort to defeat the initiative at the polls. Last Friday, the group held a fund-raiser at his law offices. So involved has he become in the battle to defeat the jail-tax measure that he spent part of his weekend passing out anti-J literature at a Bobby Sox League softball game and at a high school ice cream social.

Hunter and Gates will share center stage Wednesday during a taped debate for cable television in their first face-off since Measure J was put on the ballot in February.

“The stakes are high for both of them,” said George Urch, chief of staff for Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove). “Both sides have worked real hard on this.”

If Measure J is successful, it will be a coup for Gates, Urch said.

“I think if he pulls this off,” Urch said, “he’s a hero because he did this almost solo.”

But if Measure J loses, the credit will go largely to Hunter and a handful of others who have worked against it. Activists in Anaheim Hills and nearby Yorba Linda and Supervisor Don R. Roth, whose district includes Anaheim, also oppose the measure, but none so visibly and forcefully as Hunter.

“If they’re able to stop this, they’ve done a fantastic job in throwing a wrench into this,” Urch said. “But both sides also have a lot to lose in this.”

Gates, who has been elected five times to the post of sheriff-coroner, is backing Measure J as a way of solving a crisis in jail overcrowding that has plagued his department for more than a decade. He wants the revenues from the 30-year levy to be used for construction of a 6,720-bed jail in Gypsum Canyon near Anaheim Hills.

The sheriff is under a federal court order that caps the population at the Central Men’s Jail, even while the county’s other four jails face overcrowding. To ease the load, he has instituted a number of programs, including one in which some inmates are released before they finish their sentences and another in which suspects in minor crimes are cited and released pending their appearances in court.

At the same time, Gates last week faced contempt charges after Municipal Court judges accused him of releasing inmates in violation of state law. Following a lengthy hearing, Presiding Municipal Judge Richard W. Stanford Jr. said he would issue a ruling May 9.

Gates has been asking the Board of Supervisors for more jail space for years but has always been told that the county does not have the money to build a new facility.

“I think the basic issue here is we’ve got an overcrowded jail and we need new facilities,” Gates said.

Hunter, a lawyer and former police officer who was elected to his second term as mayor of Anaheim last November, is vehemently opposed to building a jail in Gypsum Canyon, a rugged and vacant stretch of land just east of Anaheim Hills, where he lives.

Yet, Hunter and other opponents of the tax measure want to turn the discussion away from a “not in my back yard” debate. Instead, they are trying to emphasize Orange County’s resistance to any new taxes.

“The Measure J election is not about Gypsum Canyon, and it is not about Mayor Hunter trying to keep the jail out of Gypsum Canyon,” said Bob Zemel, chairman of Taxpayers Against J. “It’s about the tax, and the fact that people in this county do not want higher taxes.”

Hunter said that Gates’ strategy has been to try to scare voters into thinking that if they don’t vote for a sales tax increase to pay for the new jail, their cities will be overrun by criminals.

But if Measure J goes down in defeat, it could help Hunter politically. Hunter, who had considered running for Congress, said Sunday that he has decided instead to seek another term as Anaheim mayor.

The battle over Measure J also has spread to other fronts--the state Legislature, for instance, where supporters are lobbying for legislation that would make it easier for the county to acquire the Gypsum Canyon property.

The land is owned by the Irvine Co., which is unwilling to sell it to the county.

The Board of Supervisors could purchase the land through eminent domain, but it would take four of the five supervisors to approve condemnation proceedings. Three have said they would support such action, while Supervisor Roth and Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez have said they would not.

Umberg, a freshman assemblyman, is sponsoring a bill that would allow the supervisors to proceed with condemnation of the Gypsum Canyon property by vote of a simple board majority--that is, three members instead of four. The bill is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

Gates has worked closely with Umberg to shape the bill in a way that will not lose the support of those who fear infringement on property rights. But Hunter, along with Roth, a former Anaheim mayor, has been traveling to Sacramento to try to find legislators who will help defeat Umberg’s bill.

Meanwhile, Gates has sought endorsements of Measure J from various cities and police associations. Though he is known as a conservative Republican, Gates even dropped in at a meeting of the Orange County Democratic Committee and won its endorsement for Measure J.

Not to be outdone, Hunter and other Measure J opponents are working to persuade the mayors of other cities, especially those in the North County, to back the fight against the measure. They have also been seeking the support of chambers of commerce, saying that a higher sales tax could drive consumers of big-ticket items to make their purchases in other counties.

Earlier this month, Hunter went before a committee of the Orange County chapter of the League of California Cities to ask them to adopt a resolution opposing Umberg’s bill. The committee, however, is not expected to decide on the matter until after the election.

Hunter and other Measure J opponents argue that plans for a jail at Gypsum Canyon are too expensive, not well thought out and merely a desire by Gates to build a “Taj Mahal” to himself, a phrase the anti-Measure J camp uses in its literature.

Gates’ response: “From my perspective, all the steps that we’ve taken have been steps to solve the problems. He (Hunter) doesn’t do that. I’m trying to approach this from a positive point of view, while his way is to stall things technically and avoid a solution.”