Will party loyalty be a factor in whether Attorney General Rob Bonta gives the go ahead to an incompatible offices lawsuit against Beckie Gomez, who sits on both the Tustin City Council and the Orange County Board of Education? That question is on the minds of many who are monitoring the multiple political lawsuits targeting OCBE Trustee Tim Shaw.
Bonta is a Democrat, as is Gomez. Shaw is a Republican.
The question is whether Bonta will treat Gomez the same as Shaw.
Yesterday, Bonta allowed a lawsuit filed by progressive Democrat activist Michael Sean Wright claiming Shaw was illegally appointed to the OC Board of Education and demanding he be removed and an expensive stand-alone be held to fill the seat.
READ: Left-Wing Activist Sues OC Board of Education, Alleging Illegal Appointment
Last year, Bonta approved a lawsuit against Shaw – who at the time was an elected member of both the OCBE and the La Habra City Council – filed by an close ally of Paulette Chaffee. Chaffee is a Democrat who was defeated by Shaw in the OBCE District 4 race in March 2020, and is now running against him in the June 2022 primary.
Rather than run up a huge legal bill, Shaw chose to resign his seat on the OC Board of Education. He later resigned from the La Habra City Council, and was subsequently appointed by the OCBE to fill the vacancy created by his resignation.
The incompatible offices lawsuit against Gomez was filed last month by Mike Tardif, a long-time Republican activist. The facts of the case are virtually identical to the lawsuit against Shaw by Chaffee’s ally.
READ: Lawsuit Seeks To Force Tustin Councilmember Becky Gomez Off The OC Board of Education
Gomez is being represented by attorney Brett Murdock, a former Brea City Councilman and a registered Democrat.
Murdock argues to the Attorney General that he should reject the quo warranto request for Tardif’s lawsuit to proceed on the grounds that the OCBE is already involved in three other lawsuits related to Board member elections. He also tells Bonta that he was wrong to greenlight the previous incompatible-offices case against Shaw.
Murdock goes on to explicitly inject partisan politics into the case by prominently spotlights the fact Gomez is a Democrat. He argues to Bonta that Tardif “is a Republican candidate for the State Assembly” while noting that Gomez “is the only Democrat on the OCBE and is well-known as being the lone dissenter to the OCBE majority.” While he overtly brings Gomez’s Democrat affiliation to Bonta’s attention, he never really explains why it is relevant.
OC Independent reached out to Attorney General Bonta’s office asking for a response to concerns that party loyalty may influence the decision on whether to allow the incompatible offices lawsuit against Gomez to proceed.
“Our office makes determinations regarding each quo warranto application solely based on the facts and the law,” the AG’s press office replied in an e-mail.
Shaw: Attempt To Vacate His Appointment Is Attempt To “Overturn Democracy”
While OCBE watchers await Bonta’s ruling on the Gomez lawsuit, his decision to allow the Wright lawsuit seeking to vacate Tim Shaw appointment raises questions and draws criticism.
Wright’s lawsuit alleges the appointment violates Section 1752 of the state Government Code stating “no person elected or appointed to the governing body of any city, county, or district having an elected governing body, shall be appointed to fill any vacancy on that governing body during the term for which he or she was elected or appointed.”
Although the plain language of the statute only mentions persons who are holding office at the time of their appointment – Shaw had resigned from the La Habra City Council prior to his appointment – Wright’s attorney Lee Fink argues it also applies for anyone who had formerly been a member of the pertinent governing board.
The lawsuit was originally filed in early February 2022 – months after Shaw’s appointment. A month later, a judge ruled against Wright on procedural grounds, saying he needed to get permission from the Attorney General to bring the lawsuit forward.
READ: Judge Rules Against Activist Lawsuit To Push Tim Shaw Off OC Board of Education
“These endless lawsuits come down to one thing: overturning democracy. In the last election for County Board of Education I was elected by the voters of the 4th district. By a lot,” said Shaw. “After the lawsuit forced me to resign, I was appointed by the democratically elected trustees on the board to reassume the position as the trustee on the Board of Education from the 4th district.”
“They want a judge to overturn the vote of the elected board, which happens to coincide with the expressed will of the voters of the 4th district,” said Shaw. “It’s an assault on democracy.”
“This is nothing more than leftist political activists trying to gain an upper hand in the upcoming election for the County Board of Education. The lawsuit is meritless and Tim Shaw has done nothing wrong,” said Bill Essayli. “The left will stop at nothing to gain control of the education system so that they can continue to indoctrinate our children. We will aggressively fight them and this case in every forum.”
Wright’s attorney, long-time Democrat activist Lee Fink, viewed Bonta’s decision differently.
“We are pleased that the Attorney General granted the application. Our goal all along has been one thing: to make sure that the Orange County Board of Education follows the law,” said Fink. “And we believe that the AG’s opinion will allow us to do that.”
Will It Matter?
Bonta’s ruling merely allows Wright’s lawsuit against Shaw to go forward. Fink must still complete a number of procedural actions before the case winds up in front of a judge, not mention waiting for a decision to be handed down, and then possibly appealed.
In the meantime, the election clock is ticking and the question is whether a final court determination will be made before the June 7 2022 primary election renders the matter moot.
All legal challenges to ballot titles and statements have been settled. March 31 was the deadline for removing the names of candidates who died after qualifying for the ballot (none in Orange County). In other words, there’s nothing to keep the OC Registrar of Voters from moving forward with printing ballots – which is an enormous task.
There are more than 1.8 million registered voters in Orange County. The ROV has to print ballots for all of them and mail them out on May 9. The ROV also has to print up sample ballots and get those in the mail.
Even
