Orange’s Muzzled Mayor Candidate

* Re “Running for Office and Facing the Muzzle,” Letters, Sept. 6:

I think the 1st Amendment right of free speech has been overturned by the Orange County Superior Court.

Letter-writer Ergun Bakall’s experience in running for the Irvine Ranch Water District set the stage for the same scene in the city of Orange.

Councilman Mike Alvarez is running for mayor of Orange. I am one of the many residents who urged Alvarez to run because of what we see as the decline of ethical and moral leadership in Orange City Hall. Alvarez opened his candidate statement with, “I am running for mayor because the collapse of ethical leadership is hurting Orange. Our city is damaged by repeated financial scandals, losing millions of your tax dollars.”

The mayor took Alvarez to court, citing Bakall’s case as her reason. I was in Superior Court when the judge ruled on technicalities that due to the Bakall case, only personal qualifications could be printed in the candidate statement. He did not rule on the truth of what was written.

What hurts is that the court gave the incumbent permission to put her spin on the good things that she has done in the past, while ignoring the serious problems in the present, and muzzled Alvarez’s ability to tell the truth in his statement.

PAMELA PRATT

Orange