Orange County Supervisor Todd Spitzer’s campaign to unseat District Attorney Tony Rackauckas had a nearly $78,000 edge in fundraising through the first half of this year, but Rackauckas won endorsements Monday from three of Spitzer’s colleagues on the county board.
Orange County Board Chairwoman Michelle Steel joined Supervisors Lisa Bartlett and Andrew Do in endorsing Rackauckas. Orange County Supervisor Shawn Nelson is a candidate for Orange County Superior Court judge so he is prohibited from making endorsements.
Do said he did not not have anything negative to say about Spitzer’s candidacy, but preferred Rackauckas’ experience. Do said laws aimed at reducing prison overcrowding have posed new problems for local law enforcement and Rackauckas represents the best chance to steer through the changes.
“We have very much a criminal justice system in flux,” Do told City News Service. “We need stability and someone that can help the county maneuver through this difficult time. I think stability is good.”
Spitzer’s campaign strategist, John Thomas, said the candidate was unavailable for comment.
Rackauckas has been rocked by allegations of prosecutorial misconduct in the handling of the case against Scott Dekraai, the worst mass killer in the county’s history. His office was kicked of Dekraai’s case, and now a judge is considering whether to dismiss the death penalty as an option for the Attorney General’s Office based on evidence of constitutional abuses in the use of jailhouse informants in not only Dekraai’s case, but those of multiple other defendants.
Do, however, pointed to a recent Orange County Grand Jury report that declared it was a “myth” that there was an organized conspiracy to use jailhouse informants to win convictions at the cost of defendants’ constitutional rights.
“The grand jury report that came out recently — it’s certainly something I pay deference to,” Do said.
Rackauckas has also been hit with allegations by investigators in his office who claim the district attorney was dumping corruption cases against political friends while targeting others he was not allied with.
Nelson told City News Service the longstanding feud between Rackauckas and Spitzer has made it awkward for the supervisors.
“It drags us through a campaign struggle rather than us doing our job, which is setting budgets and policy,” Nelson said. “It’s very obvious there’s a desire by Todd to constantly to get into issues that, but for being a candidate, the board of supervisors would not be spending their time on. It gets (board discussion) into a lot of nuanced stuff that would only matter if you’re trying to become the D.A., but the rest of us aren’t trying to become D.A. How is that a good use of our time?”
According to campaign filing disclosures filed, Spitzer pulled in $273,284.29 from the beginning of the year through the end of June. He spent $71,876.27.
Spitzer, who is raising money through his 2016 county supervisor campaign, has nearly $1.3 million cash.
Rackauckas took in $195,300 and spent $61,081. The county’s top prosecutor has $200,530.01 in his campaign war chest.
Earlier this month when Spitzer announced his candidacy, he ridiculed Rackauckas’ campaign finances, claiming his former boss only had $44,844 in his campaign coffers.
“We certainly have more than $44,000,” Rackauckas told City News Service at the time.
–City News Service