Campaign enters final days

Alicia Robinson

Republican voters in the 70th Assembly District have been deluged

with mail from candidates in one of the most vicious races this

election cycle, with candidates attacking each other and, in turn,

calling the attacks on themselves lies.

The vast majority of the mailers have been between candidates

Cristi Cristich and Chuck DeVore. Their feud dates back nearly a

year, with DeVore accusing Cristich of flip-flopping on a proposed

airport at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station and the Cristich camp

saying DeVore took Indian gambling money for his campaign. One of the

first shots DeVore fired was about Cristich’s admitted endorsement of

Democrat Bill Clinton in the 1996 presidential race.

A recent Cristich campaign mailer reprints a copy of a 1996 letter

from then-vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp thanking Cristich for

her “friendly support.”

She said Friday she sees no conflict in using the Kemp letter in

light of her Clinton endorsement.

“[I used the letter] because I met Jack Kemp personally after the

election, and we talked about the election and where I had been and

how my brief involvement with the other side had really crystallized

for me how I had become a committed conservative Republican

activist,” she said.

“Much has been alleged about my role with Clinton and I thought

how there is something now on the record showing how soon after that

I got active with the Republican party.”

The primary vote is Tuesday.

DeVore has criticized Cristich for using a portion of a letter

from Rep. Chris Cox in a mailer that Cox later said falsely implied

an endorsement from him. DeVore also scoffed at the Kemp letter.

“I just thought it was pretty disingenuous to have something like

that,” he said. “From my standpoint, I just looked at it and kind of

snorted.”

Despite all the mailers, both Cristich and DeVore said they’ve

kept their campaigns largely out of the mud.

“I am at least 10 to 1 positive and issue-based [in campaign

mailers],” Cristich said.

She pointed out that the Orange County Republican Party ethics

committee dismissed a charge from DeVore that she violated campaign

ethics rules.

“That is the duly elected body that speaks for the Republican

Party here in Orange County, and those allegations were filed by my

opponent and they weren’t even filed by the party itself,” Cristich

said.

For his part, DeVore said, “I think we’ve been largely aboveboard

and honest.

“For over a month now they keep saying I’m lying and

misrepresenting [Cristich’s] record, but not once have they shown any

specific case where anything I’ve said isn’t true.”

Candidates and political observers said they were ready for a

no-holds-barred fight.

“It’s not worse than normally occurs in these open seat races,” UC

Irvine political science professor Mark Petracca said.

His theory is the fewer differences between candidates on public

policy issues, the more likely they are to attack an opponent’s

character, he said.

“This is a Republican primary and I expected people to bring

things up, and so we’ve just continued to stay on message,” Cristich

said.

DeVore also said he was expecting this kind of nasty rhetoric.

“It’s pretty par for the course,” he said. “I’m not surprised.”

Because the 70th District is a “safe” Republican seat -- with the

primary winner virtually guaranteed victory in November -- more is at

stake than a two-year Assembly term, Petracca said.

“This isn’t a race just to win the primary,” he said. “It’s a race

to win the general election and a race to win six years in office.”