Gates Savors Victory but Challengers Not Giving Up

During his reelection campaign, Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates’ opponents called him a crook, described him as inept and accused him of being vindictive.

For the most part, Gates refused to discuss the accusations, dismissing them as spurious. But at one point his wife, Diane, frustrated by the continual onslaught, asked, “When do we get our turn?”

“I think our turn was yesterday,” Gates said Wednesday.

The lanky, 47-year-old lawman, who describes himself as “just a cowboy,” easily won a fourth four-year term Tuesday by turning back the challenges of one of his own deputies, Sgt. Linda Lea Calligan, 38, and a longtime foe, Municipal Judge Bobby D. Youngblood, 49.

Gates drew 64.2% of the vote to Calligan’s 18.4% and Youngblood’s 17.3%.

Now that voters have sent their message, Gates had a couple of messages of his own.

As for Calligan, whom he described as “a proven liar,” Gates said, “I believe she should look for a job somewhere else.”

“When somebody consciously tells a lie, they certainly don’t belong in the law enforcement profession,” he said, referring to accusations that Calligan made about him during the campaign. “I can’t . . . be worrying about whether her reports are accurate.”

Gates said he is uncertain whether he can fire Calligan. But if she refuses to resign, it is a matter that he will look into, the sheriff promised.

As for Youngblood, whom he described as “an embarrassment as judge,” Gates said, “I’m very happy we have a system (that) when people who shouldn’t hold public office end up being in one, we can remove them. Hopefully, he will never hold any office again.”

Youngblood took an unpaid leave of absence to run for sheriff, rather than seek reelection. His seat on the bench will be filled in November’s runoff election.

Calligan and Youngblood both said Wednesday that although they lost a battle, they did not lose the war.

“I consider this a minor defeat in a minor campaign in the overall war, not only with Brad Gates but also with other politicians who are there simply because they are backed by special interest groups,” Youngblood said. He said he may run for the post again.

During the race, Youngblood repeatedly asked the state attorney general’s office and the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate what he alleged were numerous improprieties by Gates. Some of the allegations have been reviewed and no improprieties were found, but other matters remain under review, FPPC officials said.

Youngblood, who has been a judge since 1981, said he has not decided whether he will return to the bench to serve out the remaining months of his term.

But Calligan said she has “absolutely no intention of giving up my job.”

“I don’t work for him (Gates),” she said. “I work for the people of Orange County.”

Moreover, Calligan said, unless “somebody’s doing a good job” as sheriff four years from now, she intends to run again.

Youngblood attributed his loss largely to his own under-financed campaign and Gates’ well-financed one.

Calligan said her chances for victory on the June ballot died when Gates went to court in April to challenge the accusations about him that she wished to have published in the ballot pamphlet mailed to all registered county voters.

“I figure I got so little (voter support) because my entire campaign was fought in the courtroom,” Calligan said. “I didn’t have any time or resources to campaign.”

In April, a Superior Court judge ruled that several of Calligan’s accusations were “false and misleading” and ordered them stricken from the sample ballot mailed to more than 1 million voters. Among the statements removed were Calligan’s charges that Gates held an illegal ownership in an Irvine bar in 1978 and covered up the 1977 arrest of two sheriff’s deputies on drunk-driving charges.

“I don’t believe for a minute that any of the things I said about him are lies,” Calligan said Wednesday. “Everything I said is true.”

Calligan said the court ruling was based on an unconstitutional state law and was an unconstitutional prior restraint of her freedom of speech.

She vowed to continue fighting in court until Tuesday’s election is invalidated and her name is placed back on the ballot in November.