Tactics used in local election fights explained

Yorba Linda’s City Council elections always are hard-fought—and at times unsavory. Here’s a look at three frequently used tactics on the shady side of acceptable behavior:

--Developers and other outside-the-city special interests disguise their contributions to favored candidates by funneling money through political action committees with titles that misleadingly suggest a higher purpose than what the contributors actually intend.

For example, the developer-funded Committee for Improved Public Policy, run by a longtime Costa Mesa consultant to Shapell Industries, has contributed thousands of dollars to the campaign accounts of several winning candidates in the past decade.

This year, four contenders have pledged to not accept donations from developers and businesses and individuals with city contracts: Mark Abramowitz, Ed Rakochy, Nancy Rikel and Mark Schwing. Michael Marien notes he’s not accepting any contributions.

--Committees that don’t really exist leave literature at homes, on car windshields and at public places around town, usually containing unsubstantiated charges the perpetrators don’t want traced back to them.

For example, in a past campaign, “A Committee for Fair and Improved Representation,” sometimes substituting “informed” for “improved,” claimed a state-required committee number was “pending.” Of course, no record of the group or members could be found.

--New twists on the old unsigned flyer-at-the-doorstep routine are anonymous bloggers who create Web sites to savage targeted candidates but don’t have the courage to state who’s responsible for the information and refuse to post corrections to misinformation.

For example, a so-called “truth” blogger took aim at Hank Wedaa in the special 2007 election with a mass of material confusing the city’s 1971 and 1993 General Plans and outlining an outrageously false conspiracy between two candidates who had never met.

Wedaa also was the unlucky target of someone who registered versions of his name and posted an unflattering portrait of the then-83-year-old candidate on one of the Web sites.

A FINAL NOTE

The county Republican Party has endorsed Doug Dickerson, Ed Rakochy and Mark Schwing in the City Council race. An Endorsements Committee recommendation to support Jim Winder instead of Rakochy was reversed by the full Central Committee.

The county Young Republicans have endorsed Rakochy, Schwing and Nancy Rikel. Unlike the endorsements on voters’ guides with Republican-sounding names that are mailed to local households, candidates do not pay for the county GOP endorsements.

The city’s 41,988 registered voters include 24,546 Republicans and 9,462 Democrats.