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D.A. to Probe Carson Campaign ‘Hit Piece’

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Times Staff Writer

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has reversed itself and launched an investigation into an allegedly illegal campaign mailer that many Carson residents say tipped the City Council election in March.

An investigator for the office’s Public Integrity Division has begun questioning people about the source of the mailer, an anonymous “hit piece” that targeted council candidate Vera DeWitt, who lost by 180 votes.

State law prohibits anonymous mailers if they are sent to 200 or more homes. Violations are a misdemeanor.

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A few weeks after the election, the head of the Public Integrity Division, David Demerjian, declined to open an inquiry into the mailer, saying his overburdened staff had not received enough information to warrant an investigation. Residents complained that the division was taking a passive approach to rooting out corruption that has plagued Carson politics for years.

The Times reported on April 14 that the mailer had been sent by a Torrance postal company to more than 7,200 homes, and that the firm’s owner had linked it to a political consultant on probation for election fraud and another council candidate with a history of campaign finance irregularities.

The consultant, Basil Kimbrew, and the candidate, Clifford Cannon, say they had nothing to do with the mailer. Cannon is chairman of the Carson Planning Commission.

Demerjian and a spokeswoman for Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley would not comment Wednesday, other than to confirm that an investigation is underway.

DeWitt said she was “very pleased” about the development. “We’ve got to stop this type of activity,” she said of such anonymous mailers, which have become a staple of Carson campaigns. “Otherwise, good people won’t run for office for fear of being attacked.”

Carson reformers had hoped the March 4 election would mark a break from a long run of corruption in the South Bay city of 90,000.

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Mayor Daryl Sweeney is under federal indictment for allegedly soliciting and taking bribes from trash companies. He was charged in an investigation by the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service that yielded guilty pleas by a former mayor and two former council members.

That investigation continues and is focused on financial dealings at City Hall, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Accusations of dirty tricks and voter fraud marred the council campaign. DeWitt, Cannon and two other unsuccessful candidates have filed a lawsuit that seeks to throw out the election results. They contend that the winners, Elito Santarina and Julie Ruiz Raber, benefited from unqualified voters and broke the law by campaigning within 100 feet of polling places.

Santarina and Raber say they did nothing wrong.

Before she brought the suit, DeWitt said the mailer had cost her the election, a view shared by her supporters and some opponents. The brochure was titled “She’s back ... and so are her lies!” It portrayed her as a tool of “secretive out of town trash companies,” among other things.

In The Times story last month, Kimbrew and Cannon blamed each other for the mailer.

Kimbrew, a self-described “political provocateur,” pleaded no contest last year to falsifying candidacy papers by claiming Compton residency when he lived in Carson.

His estranged wife, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Jenny Bethune, was a losing candidate in the Carson election.

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“I welcome the D.A. to open up an investigation,” Kimbrew said Wednesday. “It will clearly show that Cliff Cannon paid for that piece, and that’s the bottom line.”

South Bay Mailing Service owner Philip Painter said last month that the mailer was among several that Kimbrew had arranged to have delivered. The postal costs for all the mailers were covered by a series of checks, one of which came from Cannon, Painter said.

Cannon denied that his $3,500 check paid for the anti-DeWitt brochure.

In 1997, the state Fair Political Practices Commission fined Cannon for numerous violations of campaign finance disclosure laws. The fines stemmed from his work as campaign treasurer for then-Assembly candidate Juanita McDonald and her son, Keith, who ran for Carson City Council and a water board. The McDonalds also were held liable for the combined $53,000 in fines. Juanita McDonald is now a congresswoman.

Cannon did not return calls Wednesday.

In March, Robert Lesley, president of the Carson Coalition of Concerned Citizens, asked the city clerk’s office to investigate. City Clerk Helen Kawagoe referred his request to the district attorney’s office.

“I’m satisfied that the district attorney is now going forward,” Lesley said. “Maybe it will stop people from using these dirty mailers.”

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