D.A. Candidates Exchange Accusations on Campaign Tactics

While rallying support in the Latino community, district attorney candidate Ron Bamieh denounced his opponent Thursday for running a mean-spirited campaign and vowed to stay positive in the final days of the race.

“Just to be clear, our campaign is not changing,” Bamieh told supporters gathered at a downtown Oxnard cafe. “We are going to stay positive. We are going to run hard these last five days.”

Opponent Greg Totten’s campaign fired back, repeating assertions that Bamieh has misstated his qualifications and misled voters.

The two prosecutors are locked in a bitter fight to replace retiring Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury.

Although they agree on many law-and-order issues, they are opposites in personality and have clashed repeatedly during an increasingly hostile campaign.

And Latino neighborhoods have been a frequent battleground.

In mid-February, Totten held a news conference in Oxnard’s Heritage Square to announce support from minority leaders, including Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez and Hank Lacayo, president of El Concilio Del Condado de Ventura, the county’s largest Latino advocacy group.

On Thursday, Bamieh held his own news conference just a few blocks away to announce support from other community members, including businessman Tomas Garcia and Oxnard Planning Commissioner Morey Navarro.

During the event, Bamieh supporters described him as the “clean-cut candidate” while accusing Totten of running a dirty campaign.

Last week, Totten and his law enforcement supporters condemned Bamieh for running a Spanish-language television ad that featured a 72-year-old Santa Paula man who, unbeknownst to Bamieh, had been convicted in 1989 of selling cocaine.

Totten told reporters that he found it “reprehensible” that a candidate for district attorney would associate with a convicted drug dealer.

Bamieh defended the man, Raul Cervantes, for turning his life around, and suggested Thursday that his opponent’s “sad” attack has angered people in the Latino community.

Bamieh backer Francine Delgado, a Santa Paula homemaker, told reporters that she was outraged by Totten’s remarks.

Attorney Manuel Martinez said voters should take note of the incident.

“Bamieh is a clean-cut candidate,” he said. “The other side is using dirty tactics against him and it’s going to backfire.”

But Debra Creadick, Totten’s campaign strategist, said the issue is Bamieh’s use of judgment--not Cervantes.

And she suggested that Bamieh’s claims of running a positive campaign are false.

Creadick said Bamieh misled voters early in the race about his level of experience and is now trying to paint Totten as the bad guy by having his supporters dish out criticism.

“He is running an underground whisper campaign,” Creadick said. “He’s not man enough to stand up and say what he really thinks, so he has others do it for him.”