Deputies’ Union Aids Opponents of Long and Flynn

The union representing Ventura County sheriff’s deputies has spent more than $48,000 promoting two supervisorial candidates in the March 2 primary election.

The Ventura County Deputy Sheriffs’ Assn. reported this week that it has spent $27,000 on mailers and telephone messages to promote Mike Morgan, a Camarillo city councilman who is challenging Supervisor Kathy Long in the Camarillo-based 3rd District. The deputies’ group spent $22,000 on billboards and other advertisements for John Zaragoza, who is hoping to unseat veteran Supervisor John Flynn in Oxnard’s 5th District.

Campaign finance reforms adopted by the county last year limit donations to $600 per person or business. But so-called independent expenditures can exceed those limits. Such expenditures are made by committees that support causes or candidates but are not directly connected to them. Officials for the sheriff’s union are unhappy with both incumbents over public safety funding levels and compensation issues.