Opinion: FPPC To Investigate Two Mission Viejo City Council Candidates

The truth is messy and it will keep you up nights. But the truth is that two candidates for the Mission Viejo City Council may have broken election laws. There is nothing more simple for a candidate than to follow these laws. And every candidate has a moral obligation to play by the rules so that we have fair elections.

The candidates who appear to have violated the laws are Ed Sachs and Cathy Schlicht; both of them have no viable excuse. Sachs most recently finished dead last in his bid for a seat on the Republican Central Committee; it is inconceivable that he doesn’t know the laws that apply to campaigns. Likewise, having been on the Mission Viejo City Council for four years, and a self-proclaimed “watchdog” for ten years, Cathy Schlicht has no valid reason not to obey the laws.

According to California Governing Code 82041.5, political mailings must include the name of the organization who paid for the mailing, the address of that organization, and that organization’s campaign id number. Including this information is a matter of fairness and transparency. Complying with that law is insanely easy; however, last week, Candidate Sachs sent a large portion of the city a postcard and it’s impossible to tell who paid for it. The postcard could have been paid for by the Democratic Party or the John Birch Society. It’s impossible to know who is funding Sach’s campaign mailers and the law gives us the right to know.

All candidates must list every expenditure or donation on a report that is filed from time to time. For example an ad for Cathy Schlicht has been appearing on Brad Morton’s blog for months. This ad has never been listed on Schlicht’s 460 campaign reports. The truth is either someone bought this ad, or Brad Morton donated it to the Schlicht campaign. Either way it must be declared on a legal form, unless Brad Morton is charging under $100 for a sidebar ad that runs for several months. Given the level of advertisement in his sidebar, Mr. Morton would be courting disaster if he gave the Schlicht campaign that sort of Filene’s basement deal. Sidebar ads that appear on every page of a blog are extremely expensive to buy; Mr. Morton would be a total fool to risk losing that amount of advertising over a freebie to a political candidate.

In addition Miss Schlicht has been handing out fliers at back-to-school nights without any indication of who paid for the literature. The fliers were clearly professionally printed on good quality, glossy paper. These fliers weren’t cheap and there were thousand and thousands of them.

So we have to ask why these two candidates, Sachs and Schlicht, are both running a secret, stealth campaign. Why are they hiding their financial backers? How bad can the PAC, or the Union, that is paying the bills be in actuality?

The other question we should be asking is actually rhetorical. Are either of them morally fit to lead Mission Viejo?

Complaints have been filed and the California Fair Political Practices Commission will investigate campaign practices of both Ed Sachs and Cathy Schlicht. Please vote carefully on November 6th.