Don’t take political deceit lightly

There was a piece in the Los Angeles Times Magazine a few weeks

ago about Stuart Spencer who, along with his partner, Bill Roberts,

practically invented the campaign consultant. In the process,

Spencer-Roberts shaped and molded the political Ronald Reagan and saw

him through all the way to the White House.

Long since retired and living in Palm Springs, Spencer, talking to

the Times reporter, reflected sadly on the direction “the monster

Bill and I created” is now taking.

David Ellis is one of those “monsters.” He is neither the first,

nor will he be the last -- possibly not even the worst -- of these

political hatchet men who have no regard for ethics or honesty in

putting their candidate in office.

To them, the end is always worth the means. And they are getting

away with this behavior because it is not being seen clearly as a

corruption of our entire political system.

When Ellis was told in a recent Pilot profile that he had been

compared to Lee Atwater, he took it as a “badge of honor.”

Atwater was a Republican political consultant who never let

honesty or integrity -- or even a pinch of decency -- get in the way

of election goals. He also spent the last months of his life in deep

remorse, apologizing to the people whose lives he had upended with

his political excesses. Ellis might like to ponder that the next time

he embraces the Atwater comparison.

The Atwater-Ellis mind-set considers it impossible to be tough

enough to compete in the political arena without being deceitful. But

they’re wrong. Take Spencer’s partner, Bill Roberts, for example.

I covered Reagan’s first gubernatorial run for the Christian

Science Monitor and talked with Roberts, who ran the campaign, a

number of times.

When I asked Roberts about an alleged below-the-belt attack on a

Reagan opponent in the Republican primary, he said: “We never did a

cute thing in the whole campaign. We play it very straight. We win

because we do our job better. If one of these cute guys runs against

us, I’ll have his [tail].”

Unfortunately, the opponents of Ellis’ clients in the recent local

election didn’t have Spencer-Roberts working for them. So most of

them lost. And at least one of them was bloodied by tactics that were

dishonest and possibly illegal.

This produced outrage only with letter writers to the Forum page

of the Pilot. Other public comments tended to be more chiding than

angry.

Typical was fellow consultant Eileen Padburg, who told a Pilot

reporter, “It’s a very tough business, and you only get one shot to

win. ... It’s not a business for the faint of heart.”

Or, it seems, the straight shooter.

The degree of Ellis’ dishonesty surfaced only because attorney

Richard Taylor, who was running against Ellis’ client Gary Adams for

the Newport Beach City Council, tracked down Ellis as the source of a

personal phone attack circulated in the final hours of the campaign

that used a deliberate lie to discredit Taylor.

Only when he was caught dead to rights -- after twice denying he

had anything to do with it -- did Ellis admit to creating the

message. His mea culpa was that he hadn’t really intended to use it.

The messaging company put it on without his permission.

Although the truth of this defense is irrelevant, it has actually

been regarded in some reactions I’ve read as a credible explanation

in the netherworld of politics.

Another defense offered, equally preposterous, is that Adams would

have won anyway, so why the fuss? This is rather like excusing

someone for planting a land mine because he never intended for it to

go off.

Ellis’ culpability was in creating this dishonest tape. Nothing

happening after that could have taken place without the message.

The Greenlight Committee has filed a complaint against Ellis with

the Orange Country District Attorney and the Newport Beach Police

Department.

Meanwhile, in a wonderful bit of irony, Ellis is complaining

publicly about Taylor’s tactics in running down the source of the

dishonest phone message.

None of this is any longer on the front page, and the deepest

concern of all is that these complaints and the current citizen

outrage will wash away in the sands of time, and Ellis will be back

at the same old stand come the next election.

Before that happens, consider this: By last Oct. 3, according to

Newport Beach candidate forms, five members of the City Council had

paid David Ellis $109,000 for his political services -- Tod Ridgeway

$54,612, Dennis O’Neil $24,809, Gary Proctor $19,548, Steve Bromberg

$9,000, and Norma Glover $1,000; councilman Gary Adams would join the

group later.

In May 2001, the City Council unanimously voted a $3.7-million

grant to “educate” the voters on what a lousy idea the El Toro Great

Park was. This money was turned over to the Airport Working Group on

the basis of a proposal presented by Ellis, from which he would

personally make $458,000 for his services in losing the Measure W

election.

Only Councilman John Heffernan found Ellis’ proposal wanting and

voted against it. Heffernan was also the only council member without

ties to Ellis.

Two months ago, Heffernan introduced to the City Council a

conflict of interest ordinance based on a model proposed in Los

Angeles by the City Ethics Commission. It would require city

officials to abstain from acting on a public matter if anyone

proposing the matter or lobbying for it had any one of a half-dozen

connections with city officials, including “acting as a compensated

campaign manager, consultant, fund-raiser or other campaign

professional for the official.”

Under this ordinance, Ellis and the public official employing him

would have been in violation of the law. The proposed ordinance will

be taken up in January. So stand by.

Meanwhile, I’m waiting to hear the public officials involved with

Ellis make it clear they want nothing to do with someone capable of

such tactics.

Ellis has fractured the credibility of the Airport Working Group

and put in serious question the judgment -- if not the probity -- of

a half-dozen members of the Newport Beach City Council, who had to be

living in a cave if they weren’t aware of his ethically dishonest

campaign behavior.

Adams told the Pilot he had no knowledge of the fraudulent phone

message and that, if it had affected the outcome of the election, he

would have called for a new one.

His math might be challenged, but -- more importantly -- none of

Ellis’ political clients, including Adams, have either publicly

separated themselves from Ellis or acknowledged the damage to our

political system his tactics cause.

We just set a record for low voter turnout. Ellis and his fellow

“monsters” can take a lot of credit for that. So can the people who

use them. And the people who ignore them.

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column

appears Thursdays.