Down in OC 5th Supervisor District, gazillionaire Cassie DeYoung has spent nearly $2.5 million in her quest to become an Orange County Supervisor.
DeYoung is waging the nastiest political campaign OC has seen in a generation, and her target has been opponent Pat Bates, the former Assemblywoman (full disclosure: I’ve done some consulting work for Pat’s race).
DeYoung’s mail paints Pat of being a liberal illegal immigrant lover who gets teens hooked on smoking while destroying the ocean and our coastlines at the behest of the oil and gambling interests. I’m sure there are other smears I’ve missed, but you get to the point.
But suing Marian Bergeson? Isn’t that taking things just a tad too far? Tjis is from OC Register columnist Frank Mickadeit yesterday:
Marian Bergeson came up to me backstage at the Performing Arts Center during our last Follies rehearsal and handed me a letter Cassie DeYoung‘s lawyer sent her certified mail ordering Bergeson to "cease and desist from making any further defamatory statements" about DeYoung and threatening her with a lawsuit.
Bergeson had recorded a defense of Pat Bates that was sent by automated dial-up to voters’ homes. DeYoung is within her rights if she believes she’s been libeled about the status of her lawsuit with Bates. And because of the bang-bang timing of court action in the suit, it is certainly possible if not probable that Bergeson’s message about Bates’ victory was going out after the decision was reversed in DeYoung’s favor.
But the political reality is, you go after St. Marian in this town, you do nothing to help yourself with the thousands of reliable Republican (and non-Republican) voters who think she’s a paragon of integrity.
DeYoung’s campaign has degenerated into snarling, nasty bullying and lies. She richly deserves political oblivion, and cannot be consigned there quickly enough.