Editor,
As Election Day approaches and with absentee voters already casting their ballots, I strongly urge all Laguna Beach residents to vote in the non-partisan City Council race for the candidate rather than for party affiliation. That said, I understand party affiliation matters to some voters; and I therefore want to issue this important alert.
By way of background, four of the candidates in the race are Democrats – Jane Egly, Verna Rollinger, Robert Ross, and Bob Whalen. Only one major candidate, Steve Dicterow, is a Republican.
It turns out that Democrat Whalen, who is one of the leading fundraisers in the council race, has apparently bought his way onto a number of Republican “slate mailers” in attempt to fool Republicans into thinking he is one of them.
Such slate mailers are sleazy by definition. In the typical case, an ethically challenged political consultant will put together a bogus slate. In Whalen’s case, the top of the ticket will no doubt feature Mitt Romney as the presidential candidate and Dana Rohrabacher as the congressional candidate, neither of whom will have to pay to be on the slate. Then, the political consultant finds Democratic candidates like Whalen to buy into spots down the slate for big bucks so they can fool some Republicans.
Democrats in Laguna voting along party lines would do well to avoid Whalen for his turncoat behavior. Republicans voting along party lines should be outraged that Whalen is trying to pass as “one of them” when there is an actual Republican in the race.
Peter Navarro, Laguna Beach
