With vote near mud hits your mail

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press November 5, 2000

By BOB WILSON
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - An avalanche of last-minute attack mailers - staples of Antelope Valley politics - has left many local candidates, and even some non-candidates, angry and seeking either retractions or revenge.

The biggest difference in this year's mudslide of attack mailers was that an oft-used giant lizard was replaced by a 10-limbed octopus.

The new "deca-pus" was used to depict the alleged stranglehold by the so-called Valley power brokers in Lancaster.

Expanding beyond attack mailers, local candidates filled the airwaves with radio and television ads amplifying the claims and allegations made in print.

The "deca-pus" mailer, produced by former council candidate Jeff Storm, depicted Palmdale Mayor Pro Tem Mike Dispenza, Palmdale candidates Rick Norris and Richard Loa, former Palmdale council members Kevin Carney and Shelley Sorsabal, and AV Hospital board members Steve Fox and Deborah Rice in the clutches of Lancaster.

Rice, seeking a second term on the hospital board, disputed a claim in the mailer that she "promised a hospital when elected four years ago."

"In that campaign, I promised to do my best to expand health-care services and work toward getting Palmdale a new hospital, and I've done that," Rice said with emphasis.

"I didn't promise a built-andrunning hospital in just four years. That would have been unrealistic," she said. "But we are working toward that and have made it our No. 1 goal.'

Norris said he "thought very little" of the "deca-pus" mailer but added that he anticipated such an attack.

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

One voter who contacted the Antelope Valley Press on Saturday was angered by a mailer from Norris that attacked fellow three-year seat candidate John Mayfield.

Because Norris' mailer used printed material from the Valley Press, the woman, who identified herself only as an employee of the Sheriff's Department, threatened to cancel her subscription if the mailer had the paper's support.

No such support was granted by the newspaper before or after printing.

Norris' mailer featured a law enforcement badge on the cover and listed Mayfield's 1995 conviction for misdemeanor drunken driving as well as eviction notices and payment-default notices reaching back to 1989.

The mailer repeated the claims made in an earlier letter to voters by Norris that listed the same offenses while apologizing if the revelations were offensive.

Norris said the information in the mailer "focused on the issue of personal responsibility."

"Besides, they were beating me up on the radio with all kinds of untruths," he said, referring to a jointly paid airwaves advertisement funded by Mayfield and his campaign partner, Jim Root.

"If they had all this (previous government experience), why didn't they start talking about their accomplishments instead of attacking me?" Norris asked.

Norris' actions spurred reactions from Mayfield, who printed his own letter that confirmed his mistakes but reminded voters of his 22 years of service in the military and 14 years of work on the Palmdale Planning Commission.

As Mayfield noted, none of the complaints against him by Norris stemmed from problems with Mayfield's decisions or votes while seated on the commission.

Norris' attack on Mayfield also spurred a reaction from Palmdale on the Move, a political committee headed by Russ Croasdale, who funded a radio ad featuring alcohol and drug activist Ray Chavira.

Chavira attacked Norris for his opposition to strong local alcoholcontrol ordinances and, in doing so, revealed that Loa was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Loa, a candidate for a one-year council seat, said he was dismayed by Chavira's revelation and visited the Valley Press to raise his concerns, calling the ad "a reckless act" that was "worse than a low blow."

"Anonymity is essential for the continued functioning of that group," said Loa, who confirmed his participation in AA since 1987. "I'm choosing to break my anonymity, but no one should do that for me."

Another mailer, this one paid for by Dispenza, claimed his picks for the council's vacant seats - Loa and Norris - were the only two candidates who "have personally made a commitment" to keeping the construction of a new hospital on the east side of Palmdale.

Dispenza's mailer also claimed Loa and Norris supported term limits for local candidates. Both claims angered candidate Sandy Corrales, who called them "absolute lies."

"I have always called for a hospital on the east side," Corrales said. "(Dispenza's) claim that Norris and Loa are the only two candidates doing that is a farce.

"And they are trying to co-opt my long-standing call for term limits, an issue that is really resonating with the citizens of Palmdale," she continued. "That's my baby.

"This is the mayor pro tem injecting himself into this race making a desperate plea to make sure his guys get on the council," Corrales said. "Well, if he's going to do that, he'd better come prepared with the facts.

"It's obvious Dispenza is doing George Runner's bidding this time around," she said, opining that the Lancaster assemblyman has retreated behind the scenes for this election after the embarrassing resignations of former council members Carney and Sorsabal.

"His letter is misleading the voters at my expense, and I expect an apology or a correction from Mr. Dispenza before election day," Corrales stated.

Dispenza said he was unaware of Corrales' stance on the hospital and said he apologized if she, too, was a proponent of an eastside facility.

However, "I don't think anybody has got a patent on term limits," Dispenza said, noting that both his candidates jumped aboard that issue at the beginning of this year's campaign.

Council candidate Alan Lee also criticized Dispenza's letter, saying, "It was not just dishonest; it was deceptive to say that only Rick Norris and Richard Loa support a hospital on the east side."

"My message has been consistent and clear" on that matter, Lee said, reciting his own preference for an eastside medical facility.

"Mike has put his personal political interests above the interests of Palmdale," he said. "Jim Root and John Mayfield, and Richard Loa and Rick Norris are all trying to build themselves up by tearing each other down. What they don't realize is that they can't sling mud without getting their own hands dirty."

Root and Mayfield were criticized earlier in the campaign by Loa and Norris for a mailer produced by former Palmdale School District trustee Helen Acosta.

Acosta's mailer made note of Root and Mayfield's endorsements by Palmdale law enforcement officers and civilian personnel.

Loa and Norris berated the mailer, claiming they were the only candidates formally endorsed by peace officers.

On Saturday, Root responded to Loa's weekend distribution of mailers, accusing him of missing 25% of the City Council's meetings during his two previous terms in office.

Packing records from the office of the Palmdale City Clerk, Root showed that of 248 roll calls, he missed 36 - an absentee rate of 15%, not 25%.

The bulk of those meetings were missed during the last months of his second term in office so he could attend to his dying brother, Root said.

Some of the missed meetings were nothing more than non-business affairs where roll calls were taken so the council could interact as a body with other elected officials such as state Sen. William J. "Pete" Knight or Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, he said.

Loa's mailer also claimed Root allowed Desert Palms Medical Center to close as well as to allow more low-income apartments to be built.

In response, Root pointed out that the city had no control over whether Paracelsus Healthcare Corp. closed its Palmdale facility after transferring many of its services to its facility in Lancaster, where Norris was a member of the hospital's advisory board.

That board was a group of volunteers who were asked for their advice on improving community service, Norris responded.

"They did not consult with us on policy" concerning corporate operations, he said.

Root also said he participated in bringing the number of low-income apartments to the lowest level allowed in under state law without incurring a lawsuit by state housing officials.

"If you'll notice, Richard Loa was the only one of nine candidates who failed to sign a sheet pledging to run a fair campaign," Root said, presenting the sheets signed by the other eight.

Loa said he looked at the sheet when he received it with his filing information "and thought there was no real reason to sign it, so I didn't."

Throughout his campaign, though, he has violated none of the code's provisions where candidates promise to run a clean race, he said.

Root disagreed, pointing out Loa's mailer-transmitted accusation that Root kicked Sandy Corrales off the Planning Commission in 1996 to appoint Mayfield.

"I voted to replace Sandy with Kent Johnson. At the time, John Mayfield had been sitting on the commission continuously since 1986 - four years before I was elected to the council," Root said.

"Those sorts of claims are not particularly honest," he said. "What you have here is a defense attorney who wants to twist the facts in order to swing the jury."

As noted in Root and Mayfield's radio ads, Loa and Norris - along with hospital candidates Fox, Rice and Abdallah Farrukh - each paid convicted child molester Timothy M. Carey for space on his Republican-oriented California Voter Guide slate mailer.

Corrales, a Democrat, pointed out that even though Loa and Norris are avowed Republicans, they purchased space on a Democratic slate mailer that touted the election of presidential candidate Al Gore, U.S. Senate candidate Dianne Feinstein, 25th Congressional District candidate Sid Gold, California Senate candidate Richard Lott, and state Assembly candidate Paula Calderon, as well as the defeat of Measure T, an issue that drew the consistent support of both Loa and Norris throughout the campaign.

At earlier forums, both Norris and Loa denied knowledge of Carey's felonious past. Both also said they were advised that using slate mailers would be an advantageous campaign tactic.

Advertising on Democratic slate mailers "is treachery," said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, who has campaigned on behalf of Mayfield and Root.

As a Republican who sits on the party's 36th Assembly District central committee, Ledford said he was "outraged" by the use of the opposing party's mailers.

"I'm outraged on behalf of the thousands of volunteers who are busting their butts to get (GOP presidential candidate) George W. Bush elected," the mayor said.

Norris said it was hypocritical of Ledford to complain about mailers in light of all the ones he has helped generate through third parties on Root and Mayfield's behalf.

Loa focused on a different contradiction, noting that Ledford failed to endorse the re-election of Runner, the area's Republican representative in the Assembly.

"It may be a non-partisan seat, but it's not a non-partisan race," he said. "I'm appealing to voters of every stripe."