When Prop. 83 passes sex offenders will have tougher controls on them. Former Assemblyman Steve Clute likes to name highways after them. He must be voting no.
Back in 1991 he got a law passed to honor a dead lawmaker who was caught doing George Michael kinds of things in parks and soliciting undercover police officers.
Ankle Bracelet NO! Highway naming YES!
The campaign of Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia has an ad about this. It isn’t just "hot" it is scorching. Here it is below.
October 30th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Sorry Mike, I normally respect your opinion, but my prediction is this one will blow up so badly that it may cost Garcia the election and frankly I am not so sure it shouldn’t. However, I would bet that a consultant did this without her knowing any of the details so if I am correct on both counts, she will pay a price for something she had nothing to do with and from having met her, something I would be skeptical she would endorse as a tactic.
A lot gets said in politics, but I think this ad is a new low, but we shall see how the public reacts.
Walt Ingalls, the elected official in question was generally regarded as one of the most important legislators in Sacramento in the late 70’s and was praised for his work by many people in both parties and enjoyed bipartisan support in his campaigns.
He was a mentor to a lot of people who held nonpartisan offices in the Riverside area who were registered in both political parties, including Ron Loveridge the former Mayor of Riverside.
However, the time he put into political work in the early 80’s, led to his wife leaving him and Ingalls developed a severe drinking problem along with some other things and basically fell apart. In the incident where he was arrested, if I remember correctly (it’s been a lot of years) he was sitting naked in a tree at 3:00 am, inviting passersby to climb up and join him.
Of course his political career was then over. However, many legislators in both parties tried to help him out by getting him jobs as a lobbyist and in many ways he made a comeback, doing an effective job for many of his clients, including several government agencies. A lot of people felt he made it all the way back and was an effective member of society and in fact he hosted fundraisers for many politicians of both parties without anyone blinking an eye.
One of the things that helped Ingalls in his attempt to recover was the patience of elected officials, especially his old colleagues on both sides of the aisle that encouraged him and spent their time working with him in his effort to get back on track.
They didn’t have to do that and I thought it showed an incredible amount of class by everyone who made the effort. With all of the nastiness you see in politics, when I remember how many legislators went out of their way to help Ingalls when he was in trouble, I gained a lot of respect for them and a lot more trust that the system was made up of basically good people.
After Ingalls died, Clute tried to do something classy and honor him. I think he remembered the person before the fall and thought that was worth honoring. I also think you will find that if you check the record, many Republicans voted to honor Ingalls and believe me, they were all aware of his background. They felt the same way Clute did.
As far as how this will play out politically, I don’t know and of course, neither does anyone else. It’s clearly a values thing and we will have to wait to see how voters come down on it. A lot of them remember Ingalls and will be judging the whole person, not just the newspaper stories. For myself, I admire the fact that Clute was the kind of person who would look to do something like that for a person that had just died, perhaps as a gesture to Ingalls family and friends.
I also think most of us know of someone that has fallen apart because of problems like alcohol or drugs and although no one excuses the problem, I think there is also a little bit of a “there but for the grace of God, go I” whenever the subject is discussed.
When Clute authored the highway renaming bill, he and the legislators from both parties who voted for his bill were finding a way to note the good things that were in Walt Ingalls life, which in many ways were quite important to the history of Riverside County and saying that was worth honoring.
Whoever did this commercial for Garcia is taking a completely different view of the situation and saying that if you fall that far off where you should be at any point in your life, it outweighs what you might have done before and will always be held against you, even after your death. They are saying that not only are you not worth honoring, but that any person trying to show you respect is doing a disservice to the rest of society.
We shall see how the people of the 80th Assembly District react to that view, but I will repeat my earlier prediction. I think there is going to be an explosion and I think Garcia is going to feel the impact.
October 30th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Gentlemen:
I had never heard of this case, but found these details
reported in an old Press-Enterprise story. It appears
Mr. Ingalls was already out of the Assembly before the
incident::
****
“The area [Fairmont Park] has drawn everyone from a man known
as “The Queen of Fairmount Park” to a prominent Riverside
lawyer and former state legislator. Walter Ingalls was cited
by police in 1986 after he allegedly propositioned two male
plainclothes officers, and was seen masturbating at the park.
He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of lewd conduct, was
fined $ 180 and placed on three years’ probation.”
– Riverside Press-Enterprise, Aug. 8, 1993
October 30th, 2006 at 12:00 am
I could be wrong about whether his first arrest was before or after he left the Assembly, but I think I am correct and suspect that the story you are citing must be a reference to a later incident with Ingalls who was involved in a ton of problems over a few years time and this story sounds like it could have been one of those times.
The reason the first story sticks in my mind so much is that it was kind of humerous almost like something from a movie. Ingalls was discovered by a female cop sitting naked in the top branches of a tree with a bottle of whiskey and invited her to join him and see if they could do it without falling out of the tree.
After that incident, there were several more that I heard about and didn’t pay any attention to because it all seemed sad.
However, over time, I found out that many legislators who cared a lot more about their fellow man than they are often given credit for, had kept up with what was happening to Ingalls and helped him out along the way.
Several years later, I saw Ingalls testifying as a lobbyist before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and doing a fine job and I was told shortly thereafter that he had straightened himself out and was doing a lot of lobbying work not only locally, but in Sacramento and had played a critical role in getting a major grant for UC Riverside without charging the college for his work.
A few years after that, I was helping with a campaign for Bob Bartlett the conservative African American Mayor of Monrovia who was running for County Supervisor against two other conservatives and sat in on a meeting with Ingalls whom Bartlett said was a major fundraiser for candidates in the San Gabriel Valley. Ingalls told us he would help us a little bit, but that he was fully committed to helping Greg O’Brien, a Judge who was running for the same seat. Within the next few years, I came across Ingalls name as a money person for several candidates in both parties and when he passed away suddenly at a relatively young age, I was told that he had pretty much straightened his life out, but that people believed some of what he had done when he was drinking (and perhaps more) had taken its toll on his body and that it had just broken down from the wear and stress.
Anyway, I am writing way too much on the history of Walt Ingalls which is not really that important to the original subject except in how it will affect the Assembly campaign. I still think it’s a values thing and I don’t think Garcia is helped by this at all.
Ingalls as he started to reform his life was accepted by members of both parties and all political persuasions. That is shown by the fact that he was honored by the legislature with no objections and the fact that many politicians of all beliefs were willing to take his help and the money he raised for their campaigns. That meant that not only did they think he was okay, they also didn’t think there would be any political fallout in doing so.
To me that is as it should be and everyone deserves the chance and support to move beyond past problems.
Frankly in my very limited dealings with Bonnie Garcia, I found her to be that type of person also and I think that resonated with people in her district. I though for example Clute’s attacks on her for what she said about Arnold were silly.
But when I hear an attack like this being used in a political campaign, I put her in a different category. Some people who I guess are better people than I am tend to believe you are either good or bad with no in between.
They apparently live lives where they do no wrong and even when they take a dump, it comes out violets and roses. Walt Ingalls life was different, he had a lot of negatives along with a lot of positives in the years he lived.
When he died, Steve Clute authored a bill doing what was traditionally done for every former legislator in the pre-term limits era which is to name something after the deceased legislator that they had a major role in when they served.
Clute was picked for that because he served in Ingalls old seat and he is now being attacked for having done so.
To me, Clute’s actions remind me of something I heard Jimmy Stewart say about an actor who had fallen on hard times later in life because he had been drinking. He said that we all have some times when life will give us some hard knocks and hopefully we overcome them, but that some of us wouldn’t and a part of being a good person was in remembering the person that was there, before the rough times threw them for a loop. I respect the type of person who thinks that way and really respect Clute for not waffling on honoring someone who had some problems.
Apparently the people running Bonnie Garcia’s campaign don’t agree with that and think Ingalls should have been disowned. They apparently also believe there is a political price to pay for doing so. In their world, the old line from Shakespeare about evil being interred with the body definitely doesn’t apply and even the idea that something might be done out of sympathy for the family and friends of the deceased is not as important as clearly defining successes and failures in this life.
We will soon find out what the people in her district think, but as I said, I think it’s not only a values judgement, I also think its something people will all have an opinion on, so I believe if she continues down this path, this will be a major point of discussion in the race. JMO!
October 30th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Bartlett a conservative? Come on Tom.
October 30th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Any African American who remained a lifelong Republican and supported Ronald Reagan in every race he ever ran for qualifies as a much more devoted, courageous, conservative in this Democrats eyes that most of the YAF’ers I have met but that’s just based on observation.
October 30th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Other sponsors of the resolution: Jim Brulte, Doris Allen, Dean Andal, and 11 others.
The coauthor was conservative Democratic Senator Presley, a legend in Riverside.
Leave it to Bonnie Garcia to try to take the focus off her inappropriate remarks by setting in her own mess kit. Again.
October 31st, 2006 at 12:00 am
No sale.
We’ve just gone throough 6 weeks of mayhem over the
disgusting text messages sent by Mark Foley.
By contrast, here is a guy who the Riverside police say was in a public
park exposing himself and trying to pick up plainclothes cops.
It’s a little late in the day for your side to invoke
the Mercy Rule.