Political Mailer In OC Supervisor Race Features Segregationist

A mailer sent out on behalf of a Deborah Pauly, a candidate for the Orange County Board of Supervisors features the face of the former governor of Alabama George Wallace.

If you need a refresher on your Civil Rights era history, Wallace was famous for taking a stand in front of the University of Alabama in 1963 to prevent black students from attending. He called for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

Wallace ran for president on the American Independent Party in 1967, and his former California campaign manager Robert Walters now lives in Orange. Walters sent out the mailer to 7,900 voters in the county, who are still registered with the party. The mailer featured Wallace's face and the letterhead that said "Wallace for President," and Walters said the whole thing was his idea, according to the Orange County Register.

Nothing else about Wallace is mentioned in the body of the letter to American Independent voters but it does praise Pauly, currently a Villa Park Councilwoman, for taking a stand of her own against Muslim speakers outside a Yorba Linda Fundraiser. She said, "I know quite a few Marines who will be very happy to help these terrorists to an early meeting in paradise."

Her comments start around the 1 minute and 27-second mark:

The letter on behalf of Pauly stated: "We need Deborah Pauly and her brand of hard core limited government, fiscally-conservative positions on the County Board of Supervisors."

Supporters of Pauly's opponent in the race Todd Spitzer used the mailer as an opportunity to attack Pauly and bring up her defense of an e-mail sent out last year that depicted President Obama as a baby chimpanzee. At the time Pauly said, "We've had presidents portrayed as monkeys and all sorts of other things throughout our entire history. It's called political satire."

"It's not surprising to me that somebody who defended a racist email depicting the president as a monkey would also associate with a known segregationist," Scott Baugh, the chairman of the O.C. Republican party and a supporter of Spitzer, told the OC Register.

Pauly told the Los Angeles Times that she can't be expected to do a background check on all the people who support her, "I have a lot of supporters who come out to help me in a variety of ways."

Walters could be in hot water with the state's Fair Political Practices Commission, because the mailer didn't identify who did the mailing and Walters didn't file as a committee with the secretary of state's office.