Countywide : Stanton Assails Moulton Patterson

County Supervisor Roger R. Stanton contends that the election of Huntington Beach Mayor Linda Moulton Patterson to the Board of Supervisors would damage county government and allow state Democrats to establish a fund-raising beachhead in Orange County.

“If she is elected, the conservative orientation and stability of county government will be severely damaged,” Stanton said in a May 21 letter touting the candidacy of Jim Silva, a Huntington Beach councilman who also among the five candidates running for the seat being vacated by Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder.

“Specifically, (Moulton Patterson) and her husband, former Democratic Congressman Jerry Patterson, would then be in a position to solicit big contributions for Democratic candidates,” Stanton wrote. “This is the bad news.”

Moulton Patterson said she believes Stanton’s letter adds credibility to her campaign as the primary season enters its final week before Tuesday’s election.

“This just confirms what people have been telling me,” the mayor said. “I’m going to win this thing.”

Orange County Democratic Party Chairwoman Dorianne Garcia said Stanton’s letter is a reflection of a “paranoid” official.

“I’m happy to see that he feels like Linda is a force to be reckoned with,” Garcia said.

Rarely has a supervisor taken sides in campaigns outside his or her district, but Stanton is playing an increasingly active role in Silva’s bid to succeed Wieder, whose 2nd District includes the cities of Costa Mesa, Cypress, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach and Stanton.

Neither Stanton nor Silva was available for comment Tuesday, but the supervisor has said that his support for Silva comes from their personal friendship of about 16 years.

Since the start of the campaign, Stanton, elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1980, has been sharing information with Silva on county issues and writing fund-raising letters for the candidate, the most recent being the May 21 letter to at least 300 local business leaders, a Silva campaign official said.

The recent letter describes Moulton Patterson as a “liberal Democrat” and names Silva as the “only” candidate in the five-candidate race capable of beating the Huntington Beach mayor in a likely November runoff.

Stanton’s letter does not mention the other candidates as possible threats in the race, not even the well-financed campaign of Huntington Beach businesswoman Haydee V. Tillotson. Raymond Thomas Littrell and John A. Thomas also are running.

But the supervisor’s letter clearly centers on the emergence of a Democrat as a threat to the Republican-dominated Board of Supervisors.

“For at least a dozen years, the citizens of Orange County have been represented by the most conservative Board of Supervisors in the state of California,” Stanton said. “The absence of liberal Democrats on the board has served as a barrier which prevented Democrats from accessing a fund-raising source. . . . Please don’t take this situation for granted. It could change this June.”

Officials in the county registrar of voters office estimated that it has been at least 15 years since a Democrat was on the Board of Supervisors.

Stanton told prospective donors that Silva’s presence in a likely runoff in November was “vital” and that more money was needed to make that happen.

“Sitting on the sidelines until after the June primary is a very bad business decision,” Stanton said. “The most prudent business plan is obvious: Contribute financially as much as you possibly can now.”