SLO County GOP’s election strategy: Smear anyone ‘linked’ to the late Adam Hill

Think the 2020 campaigns for the County Board of Supervisors were slimy?

Wait until you see what’s in store for 2022.

The San Luis Obispo County Republican Party is already out of the gate with a campaign heavy on character assassination and light on issues.

In a push to retain and possibly add to their majority on the Board of Supervisors, GOP leaders and candidates are throwing around accusations of political corruption.

More specifically, they are relying heavily on guilt-by-association by dragging the late Supervisor Adam Hill into the fray, and insinuating that anyone connected to him must be dirty.

Some background: Hill, who died by suicide in 2020, was implicated in a bribery scandal involving cannabis entrepreneur Helios Dayspring.

Several months after Hill’s death, Dayspring pleaded guilty to bribing Hill with around $30,000 in exchange for the supervisor’s support of his project — confirming longstanding rumors about Hill and fueling more rumors about possible involvement by other public figures.

Let’s be clear. This was a sorry and shameful chapter for San Luis Obispo County, and there is no excuse for Hill’s behavior.

But to trash anyone who had even a tenuous connection to Hill is its own brand of ugly. It’s character assassination, and voters shouldn’t fall for it.

‘Links’ to corruption

SLO County GOP leadership had been upfront about its intent to run a dirty campaign, especially against incumbent Supervisor Bruce Gibson.

“If you’re going to run against an incumbent, it has to be a dirty fight,” Republican Central Committee member Erik Gorham said during a guest spot on Dave Congalton’s radio show. “If you play a clean fight, you’re going to lose.”

He went on to speak about “linking” candidates to Hill.

“The way you can link people in this county is pretty interesting,” Gorham said. “We’re going to show the connections with all the people running for supervisor — their connections to Adam Hill, Helios Dayspring, Kelly Gearhart, etc., etc.”

(Gearhart, formerly of Atascadero, pleaded guilty to fraud in connection with a Ponzi scheme that bilked victims out of millions of dollars. He was recently released from prison.)

The attacks have primarily been aimed at Gibson, who is seeking his fifth term on the board. Gibson was Hill’s friend and colleague, and the two liberals often voted together against the conservative majority.

Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg, who is running in District 3, also has been targeted.

She was appointed to replace Hill and had previously served as Hill’s appointee to the county Planning Commission.

And that’s the “link” the opposing campaign is exploiting.

“During that corrupt cycle, she was working for (Hill),” Gorham said. “She was trying to push those projects through while he was taking bribes.”

To be clear, serving on the county Planning Commission does not mean you are “working” for someone.

It means you are voluntarily serving on an advisory body — something that would normally be applauded as an important public service.

Ortiz-Legg wasn’t surprised by the mudslinging: “It’s their m.o.,” she said. “They don’t have anything to run on except conspiracy theories, hate speech and false accusations.”

Going after their own

Even fellow GOP members aren’t immune; there have been attempts to discredit District 2 candidate Geoff Auslen by establishing a two-degrees-of-separation “link” to Adam Hill.

Auslen, a registered Republican, was not endorsed by the local GOP. The party supports Bruce Jones and is going after Auslen even though he could wind up advancing to the November general election.

Auslen has been attacked for, among other things, accepting a $2,500 donation from Tom Jones, the director of strategic initiatives for PG&E. Jones was a close friend of Hill. And there’s that link.

It would be one thing if the donation was questioned because Jones works for PG&E, and the Board of Supervisors sometimes makes decisions that affect the utility.

But to criticize Auslen for accepting a donation because it came from a friend of Hill’s?

That’s straight-up McCarthyism.

At least Auslen has been pushing back.

“It’s really a shame that we have to go this low,” he said on Congalton. “I think it’s now the fight of their life for their candidate. ...”

Why so negative?

Conservatives are in something of a bind; they can’t exactly run a campaign focused on bread-and-butter issues.

After all, far-right Republicans have dominated the Board of Supervisors for the past eight years. They’ve had plenty of time to right the ship — to, for example, increase the supply of affordable housing; reduce homelessness; alleviate water supply issues; repeal burdensome regulations; build more parks; fix more roads; and improve transparency.

Finding fault with the way the county has been run would be tantamount to admitting that conservative rule has failed.

So instead of focusing on everyday issues, the candidates and their handlers cry corruption.

They point to an ongoing federal investigation into corruption in SLO County, and circulate rumors about possible future arrests.

They don’t care about collateral damage; they hint that county employees, not just politicians, are under suspicion. Never mind what that does to morale.

It is true that there is an ongoing investigation.

Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, acknowledged that in an email last week: “I cannot make any specific comment on the matter,” he wrote, “but I will reiterate that there is an ongoing investigation.”

And there could be additional arrests — possibly this year, or next year, or three or four years from now, or never.

In other words, who knows how long this investigation may drag on, and whether federal officials will even tell us when it’s over.

In the meantime, is the SLO County GOP going to dredge up Adam Hill every time there’s an election?

We hope that’s not the case, but the local Republican Party has a history of mudslinging, to a degree we haven’t seen from the Democratic Party, at least in local races.

Voters deserve better.

There are real problems in the county that are affecting our quality of life, and candidates should be offering real solutions rather than ginning up fears by harping about corruption.

We urge voters to see these allegations for what they are — a cheap tactic aimed at drawing attention away from the real problems that continue to plague San Luis Obispo County — and to evaluate the candidates accordingly.

This story was originally published March 13, 2022 at 5:30 AM.