Outspoken Supervisor Spitzer May Have Ticket to Sacramento

It’s hard to miss Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer on the political landscape. He’s the youthful, hard-wired policy wonk who gestures with his hands, shifts in his seat and exercises an almost compulsive urge to say what he thinks.

For six years, Spitzer has rattled the county Hall of Administration, clashing with department heads and tackling some of the region’s more difficult and controversial issues. Now, he wants to take his boyish enthusiasm and aggressive leadership to Sacramento.

After a decade in local elected offices, Spitzer is running for the 71st Assembly District seat being vacated by Bill Campbell, R-Villa Park.

Spitzer, 41, is unopposed in the Republican primary on March 5 and is expected to face Democrat Bea Foster in the November general election. Foster, a Santa Ana schoolteacher who is also unopposed, has been defeated regularly by Republican opponents for a variety of offices.

Although Spitzer said he does not want to take anything for granted, political consultants believe he is the likely winner, considering the district is 54.8% Republican.

Campbell, who can’t run again because of term limits, handily defeated Foster, 70% to 30%, in his last campaign.

If elected, Spitzer said he would support traditional Republican positions to fight taxes, cut bureaucratic waste, promote business and champion law-enforcement causes.

He dislikes that residents of Orange and Riverside counties often send Sacramento more in taxes than they get back.

But Spitzer differs from his more conservative colleagues on some of the GOP’s hot-button issues.

He is not a fan of school vouchers and believes public education can be improved without them. Though he is personally against abortion, he said he would not introduce or support legislation to limit a woman’s right to choose.

“I want to be in the Legislature to solve problems, not carry an ideological torch,” said Spitzer, who has aspired to hold state office since college when he was a Senate intern.

The district he would like to represent stretches from San Juan Capistrano in south Orange County to Norco in Riverside County. About 425,000 people live within its borders, which were redrawn in September to include both counties.

As of Feb. 6, Spitzer had raised about $497,000 in campaign contributions from attorneys, developers, business owners, executives, law-enforcement groups and political-action committees.

He is endorsed by Orange County Supervisor Tom Wilson, Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona, the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, and the Orange County Professional Firefighters Assn. His statewide endorsements include those of the California Correctional Officers Assn. and the California Federation of Teachers.

Elected state and local officials note that no Republican or Democrat has emerged from Riverside County to challenge Spitzer. Jeffrey Bennett, a wealthy businessman and Corona City Council member, had considered entering the race but bowed out.

“That Spitzer is unopposed speaks well of him,” said Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher, R-Brea. “People at first thought there would be a battle over who would run, but he has managed to gain the confidence of those who might challenge him from Riverside.”

Still, Spitzer is not without detractors. Orange County Treasurer John M.W. Moorlach, for instance, said the supervisor’s political gusto left him cold last year when Spitzer criticized Moorlach’s office for investing in Edison International stock as the energy crisis was building. “He enjoys getting press,” Moorlach said, “and some of the things he does are more motivated by a desire for attention than getting anything done.”

Spitzer said the county treasurer was not supervising the daily trades of his office. Some Edison stock was bought when it was on credit watch because of increasing risk. Spitzer said the Board of Supervisors tightened the treasurer’s procedures.

Others say Spitzer sometimes speaks before he thinks. He recently retracted a strongly worded condemnation of investors who bought San Joaquin Hills toll road bonds. Motorists, he meant to say, may have to take priority over Wall Street when it comes time to consider toll increases again.

His initial remarks alarmed turnpike officials and ratings analysts, who have become concerned about the San Joaquin Hills’ declining financial condition. The supervisor, who sits on the highway’s board of directors, admits he got some heat over his comments.

Spitzer lives in Orange with his wife, Jamie, and 3-year-old son, Justin. He is a former Orange County deputy district attorney and was a reserve Los Angeles police officer for 10 years. He taught English at Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles for two years before becoming an attorney.

His first venture into public office was a four-year stint on the board of the Brea Olinda Unified School District. During his tenure, Spitzer exposed a grade-changing scandal that involved district administrators.

He was elected to the Orange County Board of Supervisors in 1996, defeating former Assemblyman Mickey Conroy, whom he taunted during the campaign by calling him “a sexual harasser.” Conroy, who was reprimanded in 1994 for violating the Assembly’s sexual harassment policy, chafed under Spitzer’s attacks, finally displaying a profane gesture at the young challenger during a public appearance.

Within a year of taking office, it became clear that Spitzer, an aggressive and vocal leader known for his prosecutorial style, would not lapse into the staid demeanor displayed by many previous board members.

He took aim at then-county Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier, accusing her of lying to keep supervisors in the dark about shoddy work performed for a county housing program.

A month later, Spitzer castigated his former boss, Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, for failing to use money from a reserve fund to boost the office’s sagging child-support collections.

His outspokenness prompted then-board-colleague William Steiner to quip that Spitzer’s motto was, “Ready, fire, aim.”

“If people weren’t happy with me,” Spitzer said recently, “it is because I told them to do their jobs. Department heads are highly paid. They have a lot of power. I expect them to be responsible.”

Since his reelection in 2000, Spitzer has concentrated on the drive to derail a commercial airport at the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. He is co-chairman of Measure W, a March ballot measure calling for a huge urban park to be built at the site.

Spitzer also is behind Measure V, which would allow voters to fill vacant seats on the county Board of Supervisors, rather than have the governor, now a Democrat, appoint someone.

As board chairman for the Orange County Transportation Authority, Spitzer has concentrated on transportation problems shared by Riverside and Orange counties. He has called for OCTA to buy the controversial 91 Express Lanes, a private tollway on the congested Riverside Freeway. Critics contend the road is a monopoly that will do little to relieve future congestion on the freeway, , one of the busiest in Southern California. Spitzer has called the tollway “a bad neighbor” and “a failed experiment” in a county that has supported the construction of toll roads and privatization of government services.

Looking back, Spitzer acknowledged that he has made mistakes in office. “I was too young,” he said. “I saw things too much in black and white, and I was too self-righteous. But I think I have gotten a lot of this stuff out of my system.”

Spitzer said his toughest problems might not be in Sacramento if he is elected, but in the Riverside portion of the district, where he said voters might be distrustful of Orange County politicians.

But members of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, such as John Tavaglione, Tom Mullen and Bob Buster, credit Spitzer with moving the dialogue forward on transportation problems that affect both counties, such as the Riverside Freeway, the main link between the two.

Differences exist over possible solutions. Nevertheless, they praised Spitzer’s willingness to cross the county line to talk about the 91 Express Lanes or entertain debate on whether a highway should be built through the Cleveland National Forest.

“He seems to be a bright, energetic young man,” Buster said. “It’s been awhile since an Orange County supervisor has come over here. He’s willing to get out and mix it up.”

There is also the question of how well Spitzer might fit into the Assembly’s Republican caucus, a conservative lot that generally moves as a unified bloc against the Democratic majority.

Spitzer has a reputation for independence and for being a problem-solver. But things can be harder to get done on the state level, where legislators can be partisan and where there are more people to persuade than in local government.

“He is aggressive, energetic and motivated,” said a former political consultant in Orange County, who requested anonymity. “Spitzer is the kind of guy who will want to work both sides of the aisle to get things done. He is more into policy than politics.”

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