Sham Phone Calls Seeking to Taint Supervisor Hopeful

The Orange County Democratic Party said it is not responsible for phone calls made Monday to Republican voters in north Orange County touting an erroneous Democratic Party endorsement of supervisor candidate Chris Norby.

The party cannot endorse Republicans in any race, said Susan Freeze, assistant to party Chairman Frank Barbaro. Norby, a Fullerton councilman, and incumbent Cynthia P. Coad are Republicans.

“That’s a hold-your-nose vote for Democrats,” Freeze said.

Norby’s campaign said it was notified by voters in Anaheim, Placentia and Fullerton about the automated call; one of the recipients gave the campaign a tape of the message left on his answering machine.

It begins with a woman’s voice saying, “Hi, this is Loretta Gomez calling from Democratic Party headquarters to ask you to vote for Chris Norby for county supervisor.”

Norby campaign spokesman John Lewis said his camp didn’t know who organized the calls but added that they were clearly meant to hurt Norby’s chances in the tight race for the 4th District. Some recipients might think the caller is Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove), he said.

“If anybody were to believe it’s a real phone call, it would cost Norby Republican votes, and that’s clearly what it’s designed to do,” Lewis said.

Coad’s campaign said it was unaware of the calls and had no involvement with them, but said Norby’s campaign might be responsible.

Norby raised similar complaints about phone banks when he ran unsuccessfully against Richard Ackerman, now a state senator, for an Assembly seat in 1995.

Lewis said he was “amazed” that the Coad campaign would hint that this was Norby’s doing. “It’s like saying FDR bombed Pearl Harbor so he could blame it on the Japanese,” Lewis said.

A similar phone bank was investigated after the April 2001 mayoral race in Los Angeles. Calls from a “Gloria Morina” were traced to opponents of Antonio Villaraigosa, who lost the election to James K. Hahn. The caller, mimicking Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, alleged to female Democratic voters that Villaraigosa opposed legislation increasing penalties for rapists and child molesters.

The Republican voter who provided the Norby campaign with the tape, Marv Wolff of Anaheim, said he realized that the call was a sham but said other voters might not.

Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly, a Democrat who endorsed Norby, said voters should be wary of unsubstantiated last-minute appeals.

“I think it’s wrong because it’s misleading and it underscores that any injection of partisan politics into these local races is dangerous,” Daly said.