What? Todd Spitzer is now “defending the public’s right to know?” Is this the same Todd who inexplicably handcuffed an unarmed youth minister at a Wahoo’s restaurant after making a big public showing of walking the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday, then hid his mentally unstable manifesto from the Voice of OC’s California Public Records’ Request for months requiring the taxpayers to pay six figures in legal fees?
It’s time to stop Spitzer.
Please take time to compare the two candidates. District Attorney Tony Rackauckas is the only one with the proven track record, temperament, and ability to continue to keep Orange County safe. Thanks to his forward thinking and ability to innovative, District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has managed to keep Orange County the safest County among the surrounding counties in both violent and property crimes for decades.
Top 10 reasons to vote for District Attorney Tony Rackauckas:
1) Orange County is safe as proven above. That is in spite of the anti-public safety laws that Sacramento keeps on passing. Tony does not deserve nor does he take 100 percent credit. However, it is through his leadership, agenda, priorities, and his ability to work with other law enforcement at all levels, which provides the strong foundation necessary to keep Orange County the safest.
2) Gang membership is down by half the number since Tony has been District Attorney thanks to the multi-disciplined approach of aggressively prosecuting violent gang members, TARGET taking down gang leaders, and filing civil gang injunctions. His most important achievement is joining forces with Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and preventing kids from joining gangs. Tony founded Orange County Gang Reduction Intervention Partnership. As a result, thousands of kids never joined gangs, which changed the trajectory of their lives and their families’ lives. Police Foundation called it “the national model for preventing gang membership.”
3) Tony’s leadership in the DNA area has added hundreds of thousands of profiles to the state database through the writing and passage of Proposition 69, and Tony has added 170,000 profiles to the local DNA database. Elected District Attorneys in the state hail Tony’s DNA Unit’s work which helped solve and capture the Golden State Killer.
4) Tony created the Human Exploitation And Trafficking Unit (HEAT), which is considered the “best practice model” in the nation by many members of Congress and nongovernment organizations. The convictions obtained by the HEAT unit using his Prosecution Education Resources Publicity method cannot be rivaled by any other District Attorney’s Office. To date, HEAT has obtained over 300 prison sentences for traffickers including eight life sentences. Tony aims to change the hearts and minds of the community through an innovative partnership with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (Angels), Angels’ first baseman Albert Pujols and wife Deidre, and Nick Jonas.
5) Virtually every elected official who knows both candidates overwhelmingly supports Tony. Most importantly, Todd’s own colleagues, Supervisors Lisa Bartlett, Chairman Andrew Do, and Supervisor Michelle Steel, are ardently supporting Tony.
6) All Orange County law enforcement groups are supporting Tony, as well as Orange County Attorney’s Association which is made up of County Counsel, Public Defenders, and prosecutors, and most importantly Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs and the Association of Orange Deputy District Attorneys.
7) Virtually every OCDA Unit leads the state in prosecutions – the above mentioned as well as Environmental, Consumer Fraud, Fraud, Special Prosecutions, Sexual Assaults, Homicides, etc.
8) The OCDA runs very lean; budgeted at $149 million per year, it files 60,000 cases with roughly 850 employees. Compare that to San Diego County District Attorney’s Office (SDCDA), which has approximately the same population– San Diego City attorneys handle all misdemeanors from San Diego. SDCDA has a budget of $193 million per year; it files 40,000 cases with roughly 975 employees.
9) Tony has the trial experience both as a prosecutor and a judge and he has successfully accomplished legislative change, where Todd has only taken credit for them.
10) Tony has integrity, experience, and leadership, and continues to innovate the office, including the creation of the latest task force to combat abuses in the addiction treatment area. In 2018, Tony created the Sober Living-home Investigation and Prosecution Task Force.
Top 10 reasons not to vote for Todd
1) Todd has proven that he cannot effectively lead his current office of less than eight – he could hever lead an organization of 850 police officers, prosecutors, and other professionals. He has had five Chiefs of Staff in six years.
Todd is so abusive to the people who work for him they have a club called Survivors of Spitzer (SOS).
2) The taxpayers had to shell out six figures to settle out a lawsuit with a Playboy Playmate he hired to work for him in his campaign and his County office for harassment and hostile working environment.
3) Todd thinks it’s acceptable to spend political contributions on trips to Hawaii with his wife, a home alarm system, meals, and Costco runs near his Big Bear cabin.
4) Todd thinks it’s acceptable to handcuff an unarmed youth minister in a local Wahoo’s Fish Taco after leaving the restaurant and calling 911 twice, only to return wearing a fanny pack with a loaded firearm, and handcuffing the poor man. It should be noted that Todd give inconsistent information to law enforcement which started out as he doesn’t know if the guy is armed or on drugs or dangerous to how he saved the day by handcuffing the man armed with a Bible.
5) Todd is not capable of performing the work required to hold the job. He took stress leaves while he was working as a deputy district attorney in the 90s. The prosecutor who took over his job assignment stated, “I was a new deputy and didn’t find it at all stressful.” No wonder he failed multiple psychological examinations to become a reserve police officer and had to get prosecutors and other to write letters on his behalf.
6) Todd claims he “wrote” crime victims’ constitutional rights Marsy’s Law and boasts about it all the time, but he was actually let go from the Marsy’s Law organization.
7) Todd cares more about grandstanding than caring about rape victims. He gave out court sealed documents containing highly sensitive statements and private details about the victims and the defendants.
8) Todd exaggerates practically everything about himself – Todd said he “solved” homelessness on his primary ballot statement and said he had a 100 percent conviction rate on 100 trials. He had to be sued to correct his statements. He also claims to have “handled” gang, sexual assault and human trafficking cases even though he has never been assigned to any of those units.
Todd is pay for play.
9) Todd got fired from the OCDA. During his tenure, Todd misused his position and his “deputy district attorney” title to get confidential information, used County staff and equipment to campaign, tried to bribe a court clerk with a bottle of wine, and wanted “newby” District Attorney Investigators to clean up his house after a private party. He then went on a ranting spree to the media and tearfully begged for his job back.
10) Todd says his first act as District Attorney will be to bring in the A.C.L.U.
Tony is a Contender, where Todd is a Pretender. Tony is proven, steady, and an unapologetic crime fighter. Todd is armed and unhinged and should never be District Attorney.
Susan Kang Schroeder is Chief of Staff for OC District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. Her complete bio can be read here.
For a different view on this issue, consider:
Grindle: Time for New Leadership in the District Attorney’s Office
Opinions expressed in editorials belong to the authors and not Voice of OC.
Voice of OC is interested in hearing different perspectives and voices. If you want to weigh in on this issue or others please contact Voice of OC Involvement Editor Theresa Sears at TSears@voiceofoc.org