The Faculty Association Old Guard's sleazy tactics: 1985

 

Saddleback College's Sharon MacMillan

     Originally, the stuff below was a continuation of my recent post re the controversial selection of the site for our district's second, and northern, campus. In fact, however, the subject changed to the involvement of the district's faculty union (the Faculty Association) and its involvement in local politics. So I've fashioned a new post about that.
     As it turns out, some of the same unionists who dragged the district through the mud in 1996 were employing similar tactics as early as 1985, when faculty's big issue had been getting rid of a detested chancellor, Larry Stevens. (See 1982: The district hires Larry Stevens and learns to regret it.)

     1985. OK, so let’s jump now to the end of Eugene McKnight’s tenure as trustee of the Saddleback Community College District (1985). Today, I came across this old LA Times article. Some interesting names came up:

Mailer in Saddleback Campaign Is Assailed : Newsletter by 'Republican' Taxpayer Group Not Sent Out by GOP, County Chairman Says

November 01, 1985 BILL BILLITER  Times Staff Writer

Then-Chancellor Stevens

     Thomas A. Fuentes, chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County [and future trustee for the SOCCCD BOT], Thursday denounced a campaign mailer that was sent to some voters in the Saddleback Community College District and that said it was "distributed by Orange County Republican Taxpayer Federation." [Spoiler: the Old Guard’s Sharon Macmillan and her ilk were behind this mailer.]

     Fuentes said such a group "is not affiliated in any way with the official Republican Party of Orange County, nor is it affiliated with the California Republican Party." 

Unethical Behavior Claimed 

     The mailer attacks two incumbent trustees on the Saddleback Community College Board, Bill Watts and Robert Price [you’ll recall that, a decade earlier, Price was “a member of the select citizen's advisory committee to determine the need for a northern campus”], and also Mike Eggers, a candidate for the board. The mailer says that the "Price, Watts, Eggers Triad Seeks Control of College Tax Money."

     The mailer also accuses Eggers of unethical behavior and connection to admitted political corruption figure Patrick Moriatry [sic], an Anaheim fireworks company executive. [Re Moriarty, see Moriarty freed from prison.]

     Eggers, who is an aide to Rep. Ron Packard (R-Carlsbad) and runs Packard's office in Mission Viejo, formerly handled a public relations newsletter for 3,000 charitable organizations that sell fireworks. Eggers said Thursday that he has never had direct relations with Moriarty and that the mailer was "a smear."

     Eggers is one of four candidates in Tuesday's election seeking the Saddleback Community College District seat being vacated by incumbent Eugene McKnight, who is retiring.

'Very Inflammatory' 

Carraway

     Fuentes said the mailer was "trying to utilize the good reputation of the Republican Party to lend credibility to . . . very inflammatory charges."

     Fuentes noted that the "Orange County Republican Taxpayer Federation" listed a Placentia address but no officers of the alleged group.

     "This kind of tactic demonstrates a blatant disrespect for the voters and for the Republican Party," he said.

     Eggers said the mailer was part of the teachers' union's campaign to win control of the Saddleback Community College District board in Tuesday's election.

     The mailer was in the form of a newsletter of the "Consumer Action Council," which listed Earl H. Carraway as its chairman. Carraway is the husband of Saddleback College faculty member Sharon MacMillan, immediate past president of the Saddleback Faculty Assn., the teachers' union.

Properly Registered 

     Carraway could not be reached for comment, but in a press release that he sent to news media Thursday he said the "Orange County Republican Taxpayer Federation" is a political action committee that is properly registered both with the state and the Orange County registrar of voters.

     Carraway's press release added: "I and other Republicans who paid to distribute the Consumer Action Council newsletter are concerned about protecting the good image of the Republican Party in Orange County; we feel that Mike Eggers is bad for that image."

     Eggers said the mailer, by linking him to Moriarty, "is probably costing me a thousand votes." He said he has received questioning calls from voters, "but after they hear the facts, they're angry about the mailer and are promising to work for me."

Eggers, 2006

'Do Not Know' Moriarty

     Eggers, 37, said that from 1982 to mid-1983 his private public relations firm, Mica and Associates, wrote the newsletter for Organizations for Safe and Sane Fireworks. He said that group consisted of 3,000 charities from 345 communities in the state, all of which sell fireworks around the Fourth of July.

     "I do not know, nor do I have any relationship with, Pat Moriarty," Eggers said. "I've seen him twice, both at social occasions. He was never directly involved in the organization that hired me to write its newsletter."

     In addition to Eggers, three other candidates are seeking McKnight's trustee seat. They are Iris Swanson, a retired college executive assistant who has been endorsed by the teachers' union; Cal State Fullerton sociology professor Perry E. Jacobsen, who has been endorsed by McKnight, and Ian Doyer, who is retired.

     Ain’t that rich?

     How rich? Well, when the faculty union's favorite trustee, Steve “Holocaust denyin’” Frogue, resigned from the board in the summer of 2000, the Faculty Association Old Guard (which then included Sharon M) showed up at a special board meeting to urge the selection of Tom Fuentes as Frogue’s replacement.

     I kid you not.

P.S.: Re Mr. Earl H. Carraway, Sharon MacMillan's husband: He ran, unsuccessfully, for Congress against Schmitz and Hinshaw in the early 70s. He's a Republican and some sort of anti-tax nut. (See LA Times.) He has been an elected member of school boards. He is the author of Shake Off The Dust 1936: A Memoir and resides (or once resided) in Nellie Gail Ranch. In recent years, he has been a realtor (in Lake Forest).

     As a Republican, a proponent of "back to basics" education reform, a member of Rick Warren's church (see below), and a foe of taxes, he would seem to be very conservative. He once pursued an amendment to the CA Constitution re elimination of construction bans in agricultural preserves. Perhaps he has Libertarian leanings.

     Carraway’s SVUSD Candidate Statement from 2012:

Candidate: Earl Carraway

OCCUPATION: Educator/Realtor/Publisher 

     I, Earl H. Carraway, pledge not to vote for any new taxes. I’ve served as a teacher, public school administrator, elected trustee for the Tustin Union High School District (which included high schools in Mission Viejo, Irvine and Tustin) and United States Marine Corps, receiving one battle star.

     Awarded Bachelor and Master’s degrees from California State University Long Beach. Graduate work: Chapman, Whittier and Fullerton State Universities.

     Successful small business owner: Raised funds for charities such as Children’s Hospital OC (CHOC). Member: Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). Our family atttends Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church.

     Thirty year Saddleback Valley resident. I believe in open government, small class sizes for our children, support for our teachers, back to basics education, balanced school budgets, parental participation in the education process and not raising taxes.

     I authored/published with Amazon.com: “Shake Off The Dust 1936", 48 short stories of a teenager’s great depression era memories. Book described by critics as: “What you would get if Mark Twain had written ‘The Catcher In The Rye’.”

     Live in Laguna Hills with daughter and wife: Sharon MacMillan Carraway, Ph.D. I promise, you won’t regret your vote for me. Thank you.

     If Mr Caraway is still among the living, he is 84 years old.