ELECTIONS / 17TH STATE SENATE DISTRICT : Candidates Kick Up Dirt in Desert Race

Politics has taken the low road in the high desert.

One candidate is a former drug smuggler and his opponent is a liar and a deadbeat, according to the charges flying back and forth this week in the 17th state Senate District race.

State Sen. Don Rogers (R-Tehachapi), who owes the Internal Revenue Service nearly $150,000 in back taxes and penalties, revealed to local newspapers this week that his Democratic opponent, Los Angeles County probation officer William Olenick, served a year in federal prison for attempting to bring a small amount of marijuana from Mexico into the United States.

Olenick, who initially denied the incident, said Friday he is outraged that Rogers would dredge up the 1971 drug conviction, especially since records of the case were sealed 20 years ago under a provision of the Federal Youth Correction Act.

“Don Rogers seeing fit to dig into my childhood says a lot of Don Rogers,” said Olenick, who was 19 at the time of his arrest. “I think it’s despicable.”

Olenick, meanwhile, said Rogers lied when he told voters at a Lancaster candidates forum last week that he no longer accepts the $100-a-day expense allowance paid lawmakers when the Legislature is in session.

Olenick said state records show Rogers stopped taking the allowance in March but requested resumption of the payments in July.

In addition, Olenick in news releases has called for Rogers “to come clean with the voters about his tangled finances.”

Rogers, 64, filed for bankruptcy this summer after federal agents seized his private airplane to help pay off taxes, fines, penalties and under-payments in income tax returns between 1979 and 1986.

Rogers has since agreed to pay the money. But in papers filed during bankruptcy proceedings, Rogers revealed he had failed to report that he had transferred nearly all of his assets, including his home and other properties, to several trust funds.

State lawmakers are supposed to report all their assets each year. But Rogers has said he is not obligated to list the trust funds because he does not own them. Family members are the owners, he said.

Rogers told the Antelope Valley Press this week that he raised Olenick’s conviction because of his opponent’s “nit-picking” about his finances.

“People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,” Rogers told the newspaper.

Olenick, a former member of the Antelope Valley Union High School District, said he has not taken any drugs since his 1971 arrest, which prompted him to reform his life, go to college and pursue a career helping troubled youths.

He was arrested in 1989 for allegedly slapping his then-wife, but charges were dropped and the woman later recanted the charge.

So far, Rogers is considered the clear front-runner despite his financial troubles because he has 10 times more money in his campaign fund then Olenick, and most voters in the conservative district are Republican.