SLO County DA identifies conservative activist as source of KKK robocall sent to voters
A local conservative activist could face criminal charges after he admitted to sending a homophobic robocall that claimed association with the Ku Klux Klan and urged voters to support a local candidate just days before Election Day.
One-time SLO City Council candidate Kevin P. Rice was responsible for the call placed to District 3 voters on Tuesday afternoon, according to a District Attorney’s Office news release Thursday morning.
The agency declined to release the identity of the person speaking during the robocall.
The caller claimed to be affiliated with the “the Daughters of the Hero’s Cross KKK” and asked listeners to vote to re-elect liberal Supervisor Adam Hill while making homophobic comments about his opponent, Stacy Korsgaden, who is gay.
The calls were sent out one week before ballots are due in the District 3 race between Hill and Korsgaden for a seat on the county Board of Supervisors.
Reached by phone Friday, Rice said he immediately called District Attorney Dan Dow when the DA’s Office announced Thursday that it was seeking the source of the calls.
But Rice said he believes he did not break any laws and was using “satire” in his mention of the KKK to compare Hill’s past “vile and bigoted” behavior to the hate group.
“I don’t know that I did anything wrong,” Rice said. “If I did something improper, I want to step up.”
DA’s Office investigation
Korsgaden requested the county District Attorney’s Office investigate the calls and filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission.
On Wednesday, the DA’s Office announced via Twitter that investigators would look into the robocall.
Rice contacted the office on Thursday evening and indicated he was “fully responsible” for the robocall, according to the news release.
Investigators interviewed Rice from 9 to 11:12 a.m. on Friday morning, and he provided details and documentation about the calls.
“During the interview, Mr. Rice was adamant that he acted independently and did not have any contact with either Supervisor Adam Hill or candidate Stacy Korsgaden’s campaigns,” the release says.
Rice could face a misdemeanor charge for violating California’s Political Reform Act, the release says. Additional state and federal laws govern the use of telephones and electronic communications systems.
Robocall laws
According to the Political Reform Act, campaign advertising, including mass phone calls, must include an “Ad paid for by” disclosure. However, the law also states that it doesn’t apply “to a telephone call that is paid for by an independent expenditure.”
Rice’s robocall does not appear to be affiliated with any political action committee, and if the call cost less than $2,000 to produce, a political action committee may not have been legally required.
Federal laws such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, however, states that robocalls may not be sent to cell phones, and that all pre-recorded telephone calls, campaign-related or not, must include the name of the individual initiating the call at the beginning of the message.
“The integrity of our election system is of paramount importance to our American system of government by the people,” Dow said in a statement. “I am firmly committed to aggressively enforcing violations of election and campaign law to ensure that members of our community are able to cast their vote without interference of unlawful campaigning activity.”
Candidates react
While the call targeted her opponent, Korsgaden denounced it, saying “that kind of communication doesn’t have any place in politics.” She said she doesn’t know Rice and has no relationship to him; she recalled meeting him once.
Responding on Friday, Hill suggested that others were involved in the robocalls as well.
“This is the third campaign in a row this person has robocalled ugly and dishonest smears against me, all in line with (Dave) Congalton and (Cal Coast News), his allies in hate,” Hill said in a text message to a Tribune reporter.
When asked if he suspects Cal Coast or Congalton are involved in the call, he said, “They are his allies in this nasty vendetta against me that has now gone on for three campaigns and has caused terrible damage to the democratic process in our county.”
The District Attorney’s Office recently released an investigative report detailing unproven allegations against Hill related to offensive emails Congalton received.
Congalton told The Tribune he didn’t take part in the robocall.
“I had nothing to do with that and have denounced the robocall on my show two days in a row,” he said in an email.
Robocalls attempt to tie candidate to KKK
The calls came from phone number 805-242-3591 and began with a woman using a cartoonish Southern accent saying, “Back in the day, the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan awarded my granddaddy the Hero’s Cross.”
Hill and Korsgaden both condemned the robocalls, which they referred to as “sleazy” and “pathetic.”
The caller re-emerged on Thursday with a new message, left at the number of the original call: “Did $95 worth of robocalls get your attention?”
She claimed the robocalls were simply “satire and lampoon, not unlike ‘Saturday Night Live’ skits or ‘South Park’ episodes.” The woman also said the calls weren’t fake, as “my granddaddy really did receive the Hero’s Cross from the KKK.”
As of Friday afternoon, a new recording with an automated voice could be heard by calling the number of the robocall.
“Hi, I’m the robot. But this is not a robocall; you’re calling me. My name is Pasqual,” the recording reads. “My human, who you heard from in the phone call the other day, is not affiliated with the KKK, but her grandfather was. She knows bigotry when she sees it. ”
It continues: “Like my mechanical friend, the Shredder, I sometimes use satire and sarcasm to help humans talk about uncomfortable topics.”
The message then again describes unfounded allegations against Hill.
Rice’s SLO County history
Rice is a well-known local conservative activist most publicly associated with the off-highway vehicle lobby at the Oceano Dunes Recreational Vehicle area.
In 2016, his former political action committee, Integrity San Luis Obispo, paid for two robocalls targeting Hill and featuring a recording of a Grover Beach businesswoman who had volunteered with the county Food Bank.
In the robocall, Julie Tizzano of SLOCO Data & Printing in Grover Beach said Hill “threatened to stop county funding (of the Food Bank) if the Food Bank continued to do business with me,” after he learned Tizzano was supporting his opponent in his 2016 race, Dan Carpenter.
Hill, who served on the board of the Food Bank prior to being elected to the county Board of Supervisors, denied Tizzano’s allegations and said he hadn’t spoken with her since they were both on the Food Bank board.
Integrity San Luis Obispo was terminated as a political action committee shortly after Hill won a third term, according to state records.
Rice, who at one point worked as a firefighter in Los Angeles County, also ran for the San Luis Obispo City Council in 2012 before exiting the race early.
He frequently files complaints over small campaign finance violations allegedly committed by Democratic Party elected officials and candidates. He filed such a complaint against former San Luis Obispo Mayor Jan Marx in 2016 and against former District Attorney candidate Judge Mike Cummins in 2018.
He’s also been a vocal supporter of District Attorney Dow.
In September 2019, the District Attorney’s Office filed felony charges against a Visalia man for allegedly impersonating Rice with a fake account on Facebook after Rice filed a written complaint to the agency.
‘Pooh-pooh the message’
When he spoke to The Tribune Friday, Rice said he wanted to send a message to county voters that would highlight Hill’s past “bullying” of elected officials, media, and candidates for office.
“Adam Hill is every bit as evil as the KKK, and that’s why that simile was used,” he said. “It is truly evil what he does.”
Rice provided as examples the Congalton emails, as well as a provocative and antagonizing email Hill sent in 2017 to then-San Luis Obispo mayoral candidate T. Keith Gurnee in which Hill called Gurnee a “little minx,” according to media reports at the time. Gurnee responded by calling the email homophobic.
Rice said he doesn’t understand how “progressive” voters can vote for Hill given this past behavior.
“What bothers me is the hypocrisy,” he said.
Rice said that the point of the original robocall was “to point out the horrendous, vile, homophobic, bigoted words and behavior that comes from a sitting county supervisor, and that it is on par to supporting the type of bigotry that the KKK exudes.”
He said that when he learned the DA’s Office was searching for the source of the call, he was “horrified and shocked.” He said he immediately called Dow and insisted on driving to San Luis Obispo County to meet with investigators.
He confirmed that he met for over two hours with investigators at the DA’s Office Friday morning, and was asked evidentiary-type questions.
He said that because he didn’t spend $1,000 or take in more than $2,000, that he was not required to file a statement of organization for a political action committee, and that because he was spending his own money, he didn’t believe he needed to disclose who the call was coming from.
“I’m very meticulous when it comes to my records,” Rice said. “I go over and beyond to make sure I’m doing the right thing.”
Asked why he chose not to disclose the source of the call within its message, he said it was because media like The Tribune would make the story about him and then “pooh-pooh the message.”
Asked who the speaker in the message was, Rice declined to identify her but said she is an acquaintance who “was solicited because of her vocal qualities.”
After saying he’s been a political activist for more than 20 years and witnessed Hill’s political career for more than half that time, Rice said he’s concerned about “the integrity of our leaders” and wants to expose Hill’s pattern of behavior.
Asked about his own history of political gamesmanship, Rice said: “When Adam has a quarter million dollars for a campaign and I have very little money, I’m going to use cleverness and invention to my advantage.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 11:59 AM.
