My opponent, Orange County Supervisor Don Wagner, simply cannot call a lie a lie. When it comes to the real estate developers that have propped up his political career, anything goes as long as he gets his sugar.
These real estate developers are attacking me with more totally false charges of supporting child rapists in order to confuse voters. They don’t want you to focus on the real issues in this election, or that Wagner has consistently failed to stand up for this community against these developers, who are his longtime political donors, friends and allies.
That’s dangerous for our community and our tax dollars.
Wagner has voted at every opportunity to give away our money and our land to these real estate interests. In 2018, he went so far as to author a ballot initiative in Irvine that stripped residents of local control by exempting developments approved by the city council from voter approval.
My record has been one of consistently standing up for the community over special interest groups and predators, be they developers or pedophiles. When the governor wanted to sell our Orange County Fairgrounds, I handled the case pro bono, and stopped private interests from taking over our fairgrounds. I’m a consumer advocate that fights for victims in the court of law. I am a former federal prosecutor that put child predators behind bars.
The mailers by real estate developers with an interest in over-developing our community falsely state I personally “wrote a letter of support” for a judge who reduced a criminal sentence. There is no letter. Wagner acknowledges there is no letter. All he can do is cite a resolution from the Orange County Bar Association, expressing that judicial independence is critical, and that threats against judges doesn’t serve the judicial system. Again, there is no letter from me supporting this judge.
Further, Wagner’s commentary in the Voice of OC acknowledges that the Bar Association’s resolution, voted on by the board of directors that I was part of, did not “support” the judge. Wagner writes in these pages “she and the Bar Association she led refused to take a position on a convicted pedophile’s illegal and shockingly easy sentence.”
This is a far cry from the false claims in the developers’ mailer that I support rapists and personally intervened with a letter (which doesn’t exist) to support the judge.
Under the same rationale, an attack mailer against Wagner could falsely claim that Don Wagner wrote a letter granting utility executives special exemptions not to fix shoddy transformers that started a deadly wildfire, simply because Wagner was a member of the state Assembly, which did not legislate adequate fire mitigation requirements.
Voters should be asking why Wagner cannot call a lie a lie when it comes from his friends in the real estate industry, and what that means for them.
Wagner acknowledged that I never wrote a letter supporting lenient sentences. He acknowledged it was a resolution of the bar association, of which we were both members, on judicial independence. He acknowledges that the OCBA took no position on the criminal sentence. He should condemn the false claims in the mailer, but for the fact that the real estate companies behind it are his patrons.
If Wagner keeps his seat, they will continue to have their way with the land in our community and our taxpayer dollars. That’s why I am running to replace Wagner. I hope to earn your vote March 3.
For a different view on this issue, consider:
Wagner: Candidate Aitken Refused to Stand Up for the Community When It Mattered
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