No D.A. Race for Spitzer

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (R-Orange) said Tuesday he would not run against Orange County Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas in June 2006, ending what had seemed destined to be the most expensive and nasty headbanging of the county’s upcoming political season.

Spitzer said the race would have cost about $3 million on both sides and split law enforcement groups, crime victims and community leaders, who would have to choose between the two Republicans. He said he decided to bow out after Rackauckas announced last week that the term he sought would be his last.

“I realized this race would have been very hard on both of us and difficult on our families,” Spitzer said in an interview from Sacramento. Spitzer served as an Orange County deputy district attorney from 1990 to 1996. Rackauckas, formerly a Superior Court judge, was elected the county’s top prosecutor in 1998.

Rackauckas called Spitzer’s decision “good news” and said he looked forward to working with him on legislation.

Armed with $1 million in campaign cash raised for his Assembly races, and a pledge of more, Spitzer launched the specter of an aggressive campaign when he told the Orange County Rush Limbaugh Club in October of a growing perception that Rackauckas had “poisoned” trust in local law enforcement.

“The average person in Orange County doesn’t think the D.A.’s office is fair anymore,” Spitzer told the group. “We know that the D.A. has intervened on behalf of his friends, fouled up cases, and there’s been an ongoing issue of retaliation against [district attorney] deputies who haven’t politically supported Tony Rackauckas.”

The county grand jury in 2002 concluded that Rackauckas had interceded in criminal cases on behalf of campaign contributors, mismanaged his office and misused public resources. Later that year, Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer concluded an investigation of the district attorney’s office by saying he’d found nothing criminal, but chided Rackauckas for “bad management decisions.”

Since 2002, Spitzer has represented the 71st Assembly District, which includes eastern Orange County and western Riverside County.

He said Tuesday he would seek a third and final Assembly term next year.