Cuclis campaign details ‘letters program’

It’s campaign season – and letters to newspapers endorsing candidates are as common as tacky yard signs and overly kissed babies.

But sometimes there’s more to those letters than meets the eye.

That fact was made evident this week when a spokesperson for the Gina Cuclis campaign for 1st District Supervisor told the Index-Tribune their candidate had written a letter to the editor that was blindly signed and sent to local media by Valley of the Moon Water District board president Jon Foreman.

Cuclis’s letter spoke on behalf of the five-member Water District board, strongly endorsing her own candidacy while questioning the integrity of opponent Susan Gorin. The letter was sent to multiple newspapers, including the Index-Tribune, and ran in the Press Democrat on May 2.

Political consultant Marc O’Hara, who’s been working for the Cuclis campaign in the longtime Springs resident’s quest to unseat incumbent Supervisor Gorin, described what he called the campaign’s “letter to the editor program,” in which supporters volunteer to write letters to local media endorsing Cuclis, with the campaign offering to provide talking points, research or to draft the letters entirely.

“I’m not going to try and justify it,” said O’Hara. “But this is what happens all the time.”

The letters program came under scrutiny earlier this month when Foreman admitted to signing off on the letter without reading it, only to later realize it contained false allegations against Gorin, allegedly made on behalf of the entire water district board, none of whom say they were aware of the letter’s existence.

The letter began with a sentence expressing the board’s endorsement of Cuclis: “We five of the Valley of the Moon Water District Board don’t always agree, but regarding the upcoming 1st District Supervisor election our opinion is unanimous.”

The letter went on to say, “We have tried working with the current 1st District Supervisor (Gorin). We find her consistent unwillingness to provide straight answers to questions to be frustrating, disrespectful and dishonest.”

Added the letter: “We trust Gina won’t give us the run around.”

On May 9, however, Foreman published a second letter in the PD, retracting the original letter on the grounds that portions of it were “blatantly untrue.”

“I didn’t draft the letter myself, and am ashamed and appalled that I failed to diligently read it before sending it,” wrote Foreman. “I didn’t consult with my fellow board members before I sent the letter. None of them endorsed the letter or were aware of its existence until it was published.”

As to the first letter’s comments about Gorin, Foreman described them as “cruel and mean-spirited.”

Foreman closed the retraction by offering his “heartfelt and sincere apology” to Gorin, fellow board members and water district residents.

According to O’Hara, the retraction was instigated when someone from the water district read the original letter in the Press Democrat and worried that the “unanimous” endorsement of Cuclis could be viewed as a violation of the Brown Act, a state code which requires decisions by local governing bodies be made in publically held forums.

“Somebody at the Valley of the Moon Water District started jumping up and down about a Brown Act violation,” said O’Hara. “(Foreman) was pressured by somebody at the water district to retract.”

Foreman responded to multiple calls from the Index-Tribune with “no comment.” Further calls to the remaining board members about the letter and a possible Brown Act violation were either not returned or, as in the case of board member Bruce Adams, also met with “no comment.”

Water District board member Ronald Prushko spoke to the I-T and said he “obviously objects” to the letter, adding that, “it has made a laughing stock out of all of us.”

When campaign spokesman O’Hara was asked if such letter-to-the-editor writing programs could be considered dishonest, he dismissed the notion, saying that “this kind of thing goes on all the time.”

O’Hara’s generalization is in some ways true.

Bill Dodd (D-Napa) is the 4th District’s sitting Assemblymember and is currently running for 3rd District State Senate.

Dodd campaign officials told the Index-Tribune they seek out supporters willing to write letters endorsing Dodd – reviewing the content and submitting the letter on behalf of the writer.

One such submission from the Dodd campaign to the I-T was a recent letter of support from Sonoma City Councilmember David Cook.

While Cook said he doesn’t seek out many letter writers during his own campaigns, he doesn’t see a problem with it – as long as “everything that is written is what the person wants in there, and I approve it.”

“If something other than what you think is sent, there would be a major problem,” said Cook.

Gorin says her campaign will occasionally ask people to write letters to the editor, but doesn’t review the letters, provide talking points, research or pre-write the content.

“We just talk to a few people and say, ‘Would you consider writing a letter to the editor?’” said Gorin. “And other people start writing spontaneously. And more people start to write… but it has to be personal; it has to come from you.”

Still, O’Hara dismissed the water district brouhaha as “an example of a letter-to-the-editor ‘program’ going south on us.”

“Here’s the thing,” said O’Hara. “Gina wrote the letter. If he sent it on without reading it, that’s not on Gina – that’s on Mr. Foreman. He sent it in. He owns it. I’m not even remotely interested in hearing anything to the contrary from Mr. Foreman. It’s like, dude, you signed it.”

O’Hara says he’s not aware that any other fully drafted letters have been given out by the Cuclis campaign.

“I think this is the only one,” said O’Hara. “But I wouldn’t swear on my grandson’s liver.”

Email Jason at jason.walsh@sonomanews.com.