Outsider May Be Department Choice to Seek Sheriff’s Post

With the abrupt departure from the political campaign by Sheriff Brad Gates’ anointed successor, the county’s largest law-enforcement agency may be forced to turn to an outsider for the first time in more than 50 years.

Sheriff’s Department brass spent Thursday discussing potential internal candidates for the high-profile countywide race, one day after Assistant Sheriff Douglas D. Storm announced that after six weeks of campaigning, he realized the political part of the job “just isn’t for me.”

Storm’s announcement was followed by persistent rumors that Gates would rescind his decision in October not to seek reelection next year, rather than risk turning over the office to Marshal Michael S. Carona, who has secured significant Republican backing for his campaign even as Gates has pronounced him unqualified for the job. Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters is also running for sheriff.

Gates didn’t return repeated phone calls Thursday seeking comment. But several law-enforcement figures, including possible candidate Costa Mesa Police Chief David L. Snowden, said Gates told them personally that he would not seek reelection and called on the county’s “professional law enforcement officers” to coalesce behind a candidate.

“I hope he does” decide to run again, Snowden said of Gates. As for his own potential candidacy, Snowden said he would consider running only if “the right people back me for the right reasons” and provide enough fund-raising support.

“Brad has a lot of hard work and time that he’s put into the Sheriff’s Department. If it happened in my department, it’d be hard to walk away,” he said.

Critics said Storm’s decision was an indication that Gates’ grip over county politics has slipped, citing what they called his inability to groom a back bench of qualified candidates ready to step in.

Before Storm, many saw former Assistant Sheriff Dennis LaDucer as a possible Gates successor. That was before LaDucer was fired this year by Gates following allegations that he sexually harassed and raped women working for the department. LaDucer has denied those accusations.

“The mold of Brad Gates politics is broken in Orange County,” said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who engaged in a heated argument with the sheriff earlier this week while discussing the fate of County Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier. “The sheriff doesn’t recognize that there’s a new breed of leadership in Orange County.”

People who witnessed the bitter exchange between Spitzer and Gates went away shocked--especially after Board of Supervisors Chairman William G. Steiner banged down his gavel and ordered the sheriff to sit down.

“I’ve never seen [Gates] in that kind of situation,” said one veteran county official. “Remember, this is the first time he’s been a lame-duck.”

But Supervisor Jim Silva dismissed the critics.

“I’ve know Brad Gates since 1974 when he first ran for sheriff. He’s had the confidence of the people then and he still has it today,” Silva said. “He enjoys the utmost respect.”

Gates has weathered several political blows in recent years, especially in the months after the county’s December 1994 bankruptcy.

He was the principal spokesman in favor of a half-cent sales tax increase to help the county’s financial recovery. The tax hike, fought by the county’s Republican Party, failed at the polls by a 2-to-1 ratio in June 1995.

In the last year, the county’s GOP leadership has quickly latched on to Carona’s campaign, and now includes several prominent Republicans who had once supported Gates. Political consultant Stu Mollrich, who was helping Storm’s campaign, downplayed the critics Thursday, saying Gates continues in countywide polling to be the county’s most recognizable and respected local officeholder.

Political observers acknowledge that the county is far from the provincial place it politically was in 1974, when Gates got the nod from his two-decade predecessor, James Musick, to run for the seat. Gates won a runoff vote over fellow Sheriff’s Sgt. Loren Rusk.

When preparing for his retirement this year, Gates publicly dismissed Carona’s growing support even as the outgoing sheriff was aware that he needed a strong, well-liked and well-financed candidate to take his place.

Storm, a respected department veteran, appeared ideal for the job and had been lining up internal support for more than a year, Snowden said.

Though the race won’t come before voters until June 2, Carona had been raising money since last June, and picking up local city endorsements as well as support from the county’s legislative delegation. Faced with a six-month fund-raising disadvantage and the turmoil over Storm, any candidate considering the race now would almost certainly need Gates’ backing and his fund-raising prowess to counter-balance Carona’s head start. Sources within Storm’s campaign said that even though he’d only entered the race in October, he was on the way with Gates’ help to matching Carona’s $150,000 war chest by year’s end.

Walters’ campaign consultant Eileen Padberg, who ran all of Gates’ races for sheriff, said Storm didn’t exhibit the gut-level driving ambition necessary to navigate the politics of the job. By contrast, Gates began lining up his career to campaign for sheriff 10 years before he actually ran--and won.

Jerry Pierson, consultant to the Orange County Deputy Sheriff’s Assn., said his phone was ringing off the hook Thursday with calls from people wondering what this means for the Sheriff’s Department.

“I’m telling people to step back, take a deep breath and look at it for a bit,” Pierson said. “They need to talk among themselves and decide what to do next. Even if they pick an outside candidate, there has to be consensus inside.”

Pierson said it’s likely that another Sheriff’s Department candidate could emerge in the coming weeks, possibly someone from the lower echelon ranks, as was Gates himself. But that person, even with Gates’ support, will be “behind the curve.”

“You’re talking about $25,000 for a ballot statement, and that’s even without one piece of mail,” Pierson said. “This is a serious commitment. I would think anyone else [in the department] would look at what happened with Storm and say, ‘Wait a minute, do I want to jump over this cliff?’ ”

* Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Shelby Grad.