Sheriff Gates Will Bow Out, Sources Say

Sheriff Brad Gates, one of Orange County’s most powerful and best-known political figures, has scheduled a news conference for this morning to announce he will not seek reelection to the office he has held since 1974, sources said.

According to several sources, Gates will say he is bowing out as sheriff when his term expires next year and is throwing his support to Assistant Sheriff Doug Storm, a top lieutenant who heads the department’s budget and special operations unit, to succeed him.

The decision came as Gates faced one of the most formidable election challenges of his career, abandoned by many of the Republican heavyweights who had supported his campaigns in the past.

Many of the county’s most prominent Republicans, who broke with Gates over his support for a tax increase to resolve the county’s 1994 bankruptcy crisis, have thrown their support behind Marshal Michael S. Carona, who announced in March that he would run against Gates.

Among those who immediately sided with Carona--and against Gates--were Orange County’s two state senators--Senate Republican Leader Rob Hurtt of Garden Grove and John R. Lewis of Orange--former Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle of Garden Grove, and several of the GOP’s best-known local fund-raisers. They include developer Buck Johns and Dale Dykema, chairman of the Lincoln Club, which has bankrolled many a Republican candidate.

Gates, 58, also has been contending with sexual harassment cases filed by three female Sheriff’s Department employees against his top aide, former Assistant Sheriff Dennis LaDucer.

Although Gates reacted with skepticism and defended LaDucer after the first lawsuit’s allegations became public in June, he fired LaDucer six weeks later--and promptly found himself the target of a federal civil rights and privacy lawsuit filed by his former top deputy.

Some critics said the allegations reflect badly on Gates’ stewardship of the department. The cases are expected to go to trial sometime next year, just as the sheriff’s race shifts into high gear.

Still, the sheriff was considered Brad Gates the front-runner in the race. Recent opinion polls have shown he is the best-known and most admired official in the county. He has gained national recognition for his tough stance against drug use.

Gates could not be reached for comment Wednesday. His political consultant, Stu Mollrich, declined to comment on Gates’ plans. Lt. Ron Wilkerson, the Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said he was not aware of this morning’s news conference and could not comment on the coming election.

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Two county supervisors said Wednesday that Gates had scheduled appointments with them this morning but had not left word why he wanted to speak with them.

“At this point, the sheriff has made an appointment to meet with me but has not informed me of his decision,” Board of Supervisors Chairman William G. Steiner said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he notified me of his decision not to run. I’ve had the sense that it wasn’t in his heart to run for reelection.”

Steiner praised Gates for building a top-rate law enforcement agency and also helping run the county in the chaotic months following its 1994 bankruptcy. “Brad Gates is an outstanding leader,” Steiner added. “He’s made his mark, but he has much more to offer.”

Word that Gates may announce he won’t run again shocked some supporters.

“If it’s true, it would be a surprise,” said San Juan Capistrano Councilman Wyatt T. Hart, a retired sheriff’s captain. “I can understand after all of these years that he might like to spend more time with his family and have a more private life.”

Others said they were still awaiting official word from the sheriff about his future.

Gates is perhaps Orange County’s most colorful politician, a handsome, 6-foot-4 San Juan Capistrano native who got his first taste of policing as a member of the Sheriff’s Junior Mounted Posse, a volunteer organization that patrolled on horseback. He sometimes refers to himself as a “cowboy,” and his office adornments include the souvenir book “Sheriffs of the Wild West.”

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While polls have consistently found him to be the best known and one of the most respected county officials, his public image has not been without blemish.

In the late 1980s, he was sued by political opponents who accused him of spying on them. The case was settled out of court, and Gates repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Gates also clashed repeatedly with the Board of Supervisors over his demands for more money to expand the county’s overcrowded jails.

In 1991, Gates promoted a ballot measure that would have raised money for a new jail in the hills above Anaheim with a half-cent sales tax. But voters soundly rejected the measure.

After the county filed for bankruptcy in 1994, Gates became the leading proponent of Measure R, which provided for a half-cent sales tax designed to help lift the county out of its financial crisis without slashing key services, such as law enforcement. Voters killed that proposal as well.

Nonetheless, Gates appeared not to have been tarnished by the bankruptcy in the way some other county officials were. A June 1995 Times Orange County Poll found that 51% of respondents thought the sheriff was doing a “good” or “excellent” job. The five county supervisors received ratings of 9% to 19%.

Gates earned national attention for his outspoken anti-drug stance, including his opposition to a successful state ballot measure to legalize the medical use of marijuana.

The sheriff has won praise in communities his deputies patrol for his department’s innovative anti-gang programs and quick response times.

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Many political insiders saw the contest with Carona as Gates’ biggest election challenge.

Republican political consultant Dana Reed, a Gates supporter, has said that Gates “has had three or four easy races” in his previous reelection campaigns. The face-off with Carona “would not be an easy race for him,” Reed said. “This is one very serious challenge. . . .

“If Brad doesn’t run, I’d bet the house on Carona.”

But Carona’s task was not considered easy. Gates is one of the state’s most powerful law enforcement officials. He is a past president of the California Sheriffs Assn. and was wooed by supporters of Gov. Pete Wilson to run in 1994 for the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor.

Gates declined, saying he was flattered but unswayed by the appeals. He won reelection with 58% of the vote.

Anyone running against Carona would face an immediate fund-raising disadvantage. Carona has been raising money since June, when the period for collecting donations began under new campaign rules passed by voters last year.

Political consultants estimate that the countywide campaign will cost candidates at least $500,000 each, because they are not known by many voters. The marshal’s position is appointive; Carona got the job in 1989.

Over the years, Gates has borne the brunt of citizen ire over plans to expand or change the types of prisoners incarcerated in the county’s three main jails in Santa Ana, Orange and Lake Forest. A recent plan to expand the James A. Musick Branch Jail in Lake Forest sparked criticism from South County residents.

Also contributing to this report was Times political writer Peter M. Warren.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Profile: Bradley Lorison Gates

Age: 58

Hometown/residence: San Juan Capistrano

Early family: Third of four children

Current family: Married since 1961 to Dee Dee; 30-year-old son and 28-year-old daughter

Education: Capistrano Union High School, Orange Coast College, Cal State Long Beach (bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminology); extensive doctoral work in public administration at Claremont Graduate School

Career: As a teenager, delivered newspapers, scrubbed drugstore floors, bused tables at an all-night diner and drove a truck; joined Sheriff’s Department in 1961

Elected sheriff: 1974; reelected five times

Source: Times reports; Researched by SHELBY GRAD / Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times