Monterey County Democrats Call on Republicans to Break their Dirty Campaign Habit

Chair cites Maldonado, Mettee-McCutchon campaigns as part of a well-established pattern of deception

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MONTEREY, CA, May 27, 2008 - Monterey County Democratic Party Chair Vinz Koller today issued a call for Monterey County Republicans to stop trying to mislead voters in the state Senate and county supervisor campaigns. "Voters don't mind vigorous debate of the issues, but they expect candidates and elected officials to respect the truth - and people's intelligence," said Koller. "Unfortunately, local Republicans keep letting voters down."

Koller cited examples from recent and previous campaigns that show a historical pattern of deception by local Republicans and their political director, Brandon Gesicki. "They're following the same recipes over and over again," said Koller.

The Examples:

1. Recently, the Ila Mettee-McCutchon campaign, led by Gesicki, put out a mail piece with an archival photograph of Ms. Mettee-McCutchon shaking hands with former President Bill Clinton, under a caption claiming that Democratic leaders endorse her for supervisor. None of the people or organizations listed on the mailer are involved with or leaders of the Democratic Party. The photo with Bill Clinton dates from 1995, when Mettee-McCutchon was in the US Army. "It's almost embarrassing," said Koller. "I think voters can guess that presidents don't usually endorse county supervisor candidates."

2. A very similar mailer was sent out in 2006 on behalf of Republican Lou Calcagno when Gesicki ran his campaign against Democrat Jyl Lutes for supervisor. The Calcagno mailer showed a photo of both Bill and Hillary Clinton, along with John Kerry and John Edwards, and falsely implied that they endorsed Calcagno. (Monterey County Weekly, June 8, 2006)

3. In its coverage of a 2006 Democratic Party news conference, KAZU-FM learned that demonstrators holding signs saying "Democrats For Calcagno" were actually College Republicans, a fact the demonstrators themselves stated on the air. When confronted with this, also on air, Gesicki flatly denied it, and accused the reporter of "making it up." (KAZU-FM, June 2, 2006, 5:55 pm)

4. In the current supervisor race, Republican Ila Mettee-McCutchon's campaign paid to have her name listed, alongside Democratic Congressman Sam Farr, on a so-called "Democratic Voter Guide", put out by a private enterprise unaffiliated with the Democratic Party. (Monterey County Herald, letter to the editor, May 27, 2008)

5. In 2004, Gesicki was campaign manager for 2004 Republican supervisor candidate Steve Collins, who also pretended to be a Democrat (and an environmentalist) while running against Democrat Dave Potter. As noted in a Monterey County Weekly letter to the editor, "Collins is a registered Republican. Yet, in an attempt to mislead voters into believing he's a Democrat, Collins paid to list himself along with all the Democratic party candidates - for President, Senator, etc." (Monterey County Weekly, Feb 26, 2004)

6. Republican state Senator Abel Maldonado has filed to run as a write-in candidate in this June's Democratic primary, a controversial practice known as cross-filing. Maldonado and campaign manager Gesicki have claimed in the press that the move was made so that Maldonado's Democratic mother could vote for him. The Monterey County Herald has said it "failed the straight-face test." (Monterey County Herald, May 24, 2008) "You start to see a certain level of contempt for the intelligence of voters," said Koller.

7. In 2006 a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled that Maldonado, whose campaign for state Controller Gesicki was managing, had attempted to mislead voters by listing his occupation as "business controller/auditor" on the June 6 primary ballot. Maldonado is not an auditor, has only a tenuous claim to being a controller for a family business, and was evidently attempting to avoid identifying himself as a legislator, a less popular occupation with voters. (California Chronicle, March 30, 2006)

8. In 2004, then Senate candidate Maldonado's campaign, managed by Gesicki, put out a flyer attacking Democratic opponent Peg Pinard. The flyer contained unflattering Pinard quotes, attributed to an interview with KSBW-TV. As KSBW later reported, "There were never any real quotes, and we never had that interview." (KSBW-TV, June 2, 2006, 6:00 pm news.)

9. In the same 2004 campaign, Monterey County Republican co-chair Paul Bruno posed as a Green Party official and paid Green candidate Brook Madsen's filing fees. This was in order to dupe Madsen into running against Democrat Peg Pinard, so as to improve the chances for Republican Maldonado. "They did lie. They were using me as a pawn," Madsen told KSBW-TV. (KSBW-TV, Oct 26, 2004)

10. In 2001 Gesicki, whose primary residence was in Salinas, reportedly rented a condo in Red Bluff solely to be eligible for a seat on Tehama County's Republican Central Committee, and then re-registered in Alpine County when Republican rivals moved to block him. Said Gesicki, "Maybe you could make a case that what I'm doing isn't quite right, or whatever." Republican state rules committee chair Rick Staats said that Gesicki "obviously doesn't operate with a set of rules." (Sacramento Bee, Feb 16, 2002)

"The pattern of deception is too clear to ignore," said Koller, "and the deception needs to stop. Not only are such tactics wrong, they are ultimately self-defeating. In the information age, voters know too much - and they know they don't have to put up with this kind of junk any more."

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