- Lake County News Editorial Board
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Lake County News editorial: When campaigns attack
It's a good place, with good people, who have a right to expect to be treated with decency by their neighbors and other community members.
In election years, that can go out the window, but even in tough races we've seen people able, in the end, to get along and have meaningful discussions, even if they don't agree.
This year, we're seeing a new kind of campaign, focusing less on issues and more on damaging not just the candidates, but their families, friends, supporters – or even bystanders.
It's a campaign of collateral damage, it's immoral and it's got to stop.
Rather than appealing to the better angels of our nature, this campaign has sought to draw out the deepest venom from peoples' hearts, to prey upon their anger and weakness, and use it against any opposition.
Since last September, a shadowy group of supporters of sheriff candidate Francisco Rivero has been carrying out a deceitful whispering campaign that seeks to damage and destroy anyone who doesn't openly embrace their tactics. They've made destroying the law enforcement community members and others who challenge them a blood sport.
This group appeared less than a week after Rivero officially announced he was running for sheriff, and within a month of the arrests of two of the major supporters central to his campaign, as you'll see.
We chose to ignore the garbage being put out about deputies, others in local law enforcement and community members, knowing that it was lies being propagated by malicious people.
Silence is a powerful language in its own right, but one that often is given to misinterpretation. In our grandfathers' days, silence was a sign of strength and restraint – for some of us that's what it continues to mean.
Today, however, it also can be cast as complicity or cowardice.
In the context of this campaign, silence is no protection; if anything it led some people to believe there were no consequences for taking damaging actions. Sunshine is our chosen alternative.
One figure central to this shadow campaign is Tom Carter, arrested last August by the Drug Enforcement Administration for illegally growing marijuana. Carter is assisted by Brian Rushing, son of District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing. Both are listed on Rivero's endorsements page. The third member of the core group is Bruce Forsythe. Several other active participants also are endorsers.
Carter, who owns local properties and businesses, is in major legal trouble; he's facing charges that could put him in federal prison for more than a decade. Additionally, some of his properties are likely to end up in the hands of the US government, which is seeking multimillion dollar forfeiture actions as part of its federal prosecution of Carter and his alleged marijuana activities.
Forsythe was arrested by the California Highway Patrol last Aug. 3 for driving under the influence and, in early September, just days before kicking off his defamation campaign, Forsythe was formally charged in the DUI case. He pleaded no contest last November and was sentenced to two years probation, a "wet reckless" education program, and fines and court costs.
Carter and Forsythe have been videotaped in close proximity to Rivero at his campaign events and Forsythe was recently seen discussing documents at an event with Rivero's attorney, Victor Haltom.
For a period, Forsythe had a work-trade agreement and lived on Denise Rushing's property. Earlier this year, after he and Rushing began to clash over his work, he left her property, which only seemed to have heightened his misdirected rage. She said she also asked her son to leave her property.
Rushing said she had nothing more to say about Forsythe except that she also was “the recipient of his obnoxious, threatening, demanding emails,” and was a target of his defamation campaign.
On March 12, the final day of candidates' filings, Forsythe – not content to simply libel and defame people – made anonymous and threatening phone calls to Mark Borghesani, whose family owns and operates Kelseyville Lumber, according to Borghesani's phone records. Borghesani's name appears on incumbent Sheriff Rod Mitchell's endorsement list; Forsythe threatened him with boycott as a result.
Forsythe forgot to cover his tracks in one important way – Kelseyville Lumber's phones have caller identification, and Forsythe's cell phone number came up. It was the same number for multiple calls in which he tried unsuccessfully to change his voice so he would sound like different people.
At that point, Supervisor Rob Brown, who had been getting a barrage of threatening and haranguing e-mails from Forsythe, did some research and unmasked Forsythe, Carter and Brian Rushing.
Borghesani hasn't been the only business owner threatened; there are several others, many of them in the south county. In one case, Jim and Hettie Hendrickson of Middletown, who process milk for Clover Stornetta Farms Inc., began receiving harassing phone calls threatening them with boycott if a Mitchell sign which hangs on their fence wasn't taken down.
The Hendricksons' fence – which belongs to them, not the company – is known as the “running fence,” where people in all kinds of campaigns have hung signs over the years.
“We've never been threatened in 20 years,” Hettie Hendrickson said. “It's the first time.”
She offered that a Rivero sign could also be hung on the fence, which it was. But the threatening calls kept coming. Another Rivero supporter and endorser, Renee Burkdoll, reportedly called the company's corporate headquarters to complain and was told that this it was still a free country and the Hendricksons had the right to hang the Mitchell sign on their property.
Finally, the Hendricksons had the Rivero sign taken down and returned to him, but they left up their Mitchell sign.
“The last time I checked, this was America,” Hettie Hendrickson said.
Denise Rushing has disavowed her son's activities. She said that she believes her son, who now is a student out-of-county, doesn't have the time to be deeply involved in the defamation campaign.
Lake County News also has been targeted by this group, especially in the wake of comments Rivero made in a March campaign appearance, when he insinuated that we had received internal affairs documents about James Beland, a former sheriff's sergeant, from the sheriff himself.
We told Rivero that we obtained the documents last year in connection with the Bismarck Dinius case, during which Beland's records were entered into discovery by defense attorney Victor Haltom, who since has begun representing Rivero.
Nonetheless, Rivero refused to correct his insinuations about the article. His campaign manager said Rivero wouldn't do it because he didn't like being told what to do. When someone who wants to be a public servant can't own mistakes or has an attitude that suggests he doesn't believe he does anything wrong, there is a serious, deep-rooted problem.
Rivero's insinuations about our coverage have been a clear attempt to chill any coverage of his campaign in a way that was not overtly flattering.
Since that time, harassment and personal attacks have escalated. We were threatened by Forsythe and told to take down all campaign advertising off of our Web site and eliminate revenue critical to our operations.
Many of Rivero's supporters are angry about him being the object of an internal affairs investigation for sexual assault. When an allegation is made, such investigations have to be done and they should be done as quickly as possible.
However, the allegations over the handling of Rivero's internal affairs investigation don't excuse the behavior of this shadow faction. At the very least, a part of Rivero's campaign has been taken over by an angry and destructive group of people who, in many ways, mirror his own rhetoric. At the worst, he's behind the scenes, urging them on, but acting surprised and disappointed when anyone challenges him on his role.
After weeks of getting nowhere with the Rivero campaign in late March and early April, we focused on setting up two televised sheriff candidates debates, which took place April 28 and May 5 and are on our site.
Hours before the May 5 sheriff's debate the situation reached critical mass. That's when Lake County News Editor and Publisher Elizabeth Larson received a credible threat of physical violence conveyed to us by a person who had knowledge of this shadow group. She was told that physical harm awaited her if she showed up to host the debate.
The matter was reported to the sheriff's office and safety precautions were stepped up. However, the attacks haven't stopped – from the time of the physical threat on, repeated unsuccessful attempts have been made to hack the Lake County News Web site.
Remaining silent has only caused an escalation and we regret that. The people responsible for this shadow campaign believe there are no consequences for their actions, which clearly are being taken for the benefit of one individual. Ultimately, we decided it was better to tell the truth than sit silently while good people are harmed.
A case in point: During the May 5 debate, Rivero pointed out off-duty deputies in the room and said, “I do have the courage to stand up. I'm standing here in front of you, in front of many of the deputy sheriffs that are out here in this audience, amongst many deputy sheriffs who I know have committed some pretty atrocious acts during the time of their, uh, of them being a deputy sheriff.”
Deputies and their wives walked out in disgust. It was a mean-spirited moment – the kind that has become typical in this campaign – as well as being a broad, opportunistic and sweepingly malicious statement that insinuated those men in particular were the wrongdoers.
Rivero signed a clean campaign pledge espousing transparency, a discussion of the issues without fear of recrimination, and which prohibits defamation, whispering campaigns, slander, attacks on a person's personal life and family, and coerced help for an election.
It also states: “I SHALL IMMEDIATELY AND PUBLICLY REPUDIATE support deriving from any individual or group which resorts, on behalf of my candidacy or in opposition to that of my opponent, to the methods and tactics which I condemn. I shall accept responsibility to take firm action against any subordinate who violates any provision of this code or the laws governing elections.”
Rivero has denied any connection to this shadow group that is clearly working for his benefit. He's also been unwilling to publicly repudiate them and their tactics, or apologize when he breaks the pledge himself. Whether or not he's directly linked, he must “immediately and publicly repudiate” such tactics, as the pledge states. He also owes those deputies a public apology.
Candidate Rivero has a moral, legal and ethical obligation to publicly disavow Tom Carter, Bruce Forsythe, Brian Rushing and all others among that shadow group acting on his behalf – whether directly or indirectly – who are participating in this campaign of defamation and intimidation. Signing that pledge was his first official campaign promise and one he appears set on breaking.
This past Friday, during a series of e-mail exchanges with Lake County News, Rivero was asked if he was going to denounce this group.
His answer?
Silence.
The Lake County News Editorial Board consists of John Jensen, Lake County News co-founder and site administrator; Dr. Carl Jensen, professor emeritus, communications studies and founder of Project Censored at Sonoma State University; and Elizabeth Larson, Lake County News co-founder, editor and publisher.
