FULLERTON, Calif.—Candidates vying to become the next district attorney (DA) for Orange County faced off in a public forum May 4 hosted by the North Orange County Bar Association.
The debate, at Elk’s Lodge in Fullerton, will be the only event with all four candidates present running for office, including current OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer, business owner Pete Hardin, federal attorney Bryan Chehock, and former deputy district attorney Michael Jacobs.
The candidates were asked a variety of questions, with Spitzer and Hardin appearing to disagree the most on issues. The three men vying for Spitzer’s seat often used the questions to attack Spitzer’s first term in office, with Spitzer defending the work he has done in his first term when he was elected in 2019.
“The reason I’ve been elected so many times over 30 years is because the community trusts me and they know me,” Spitzer said. “Because after 30 years they understand that Orange County is California’s safest large county … that is not by accident. We enforce the law and society’s most serious offenders get prosecuted.”
In his opening remarks, Hardin contended that he is not the most experienced attorney running, yet said that is not what the job is about.
“Make no mistake, I don’t want to misrepresent myself, folks. I don’t claim to be the most experienced trial attorney. I know that I’m not. That’s not what this job is about,” Hardin said. “What I claim to be is a leader who will administer this office, this fundamental pillar of democracy in our community the way that it ought to be … because that’s the leadership that we deserve an Orange County, not showmanship.”
On the question of whether Spitzer is a “micromanager” and if deputy district attorneys would be allowed discretion in adding or removing penalties to offenders in court, such as being allowed to file enhancements, Hardin said Spitzer’s alleged micromanaging has led to office morale being at an all-time low, causing deputy DA’s to quit.
Chehock said prosecutors need to have the discretion to handle cases appropriately, yet discretion should be given based on how long a deputy DA has had the job.
Jacobs said from his experience at the DA’s office it’s usually the supervisors who decide items like enhancements anyway, so “it really shouldn’t be a problem.”
Spitzer agreed with Jacobs in that there is not a problem.
“I’ve never interfered at all in the charging decision from the filing deputies,” he said.
Another question asked was if women and people of color were underrepresented in the DA’s office.
“[In] my experience in the DA’s Office, there never has been that kind of problem. Positions have been filled by merit and promotions have been filled by merit,” Jacobs said. “There are over 50 percent female deputies.”
Spitzer said there was no problem, and that on his first day in office he promoted two women deputy DAs.
“Women needed to be and now are fully represented and need to be represented at all times at management levels,” he said.
Hardin used the question to attack Spitzer, saying women feel uncomfortable in his office and do not feel well represented.
Then the moderator brought forward allegations made against Hardin by his opponents, including that he had been charged with adultery while in the marines, was considered a womanizer who committed sexual harassment while a prosecutor in the DA’s office, and broke into the home of his child’s mother to speak with her.
Hardin denied the allegations, though contended the adultery charge was true. Later in the debate, he also admitted that Spitzer had put out his personnel file with the sexual harassment, which indicates it was real.
“All right Pete, you just lied and we caught you,” Spitzer said. “There was a memo … that documented everything about you. It was reported about you by one of your fellow prosecutors. You then lied to the press and said ‘there’s no memo.'”
During the event, opponents of Spitzer sitting on the right side of the room routinely shouted over him when he was talking.
Tatiana Turner, a woman being charged by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office for attempted murder after allegedly running over Trump supporters at a rally in 2020, appeared to be purposely coughing loudly only while Spitzer was talking. After repeatedly violating audience rules, she was asked to leave the room, and she did, but nearly caused the proceedings to end.
Chehock said the overall DA race needs to focus on real issues, not Spitzer and Hardin lobbing insults at one another.
“We need to talk about real things and real problems that this county is facing. You can’t put out pictures of a horrible scene in Los Angeles and a beautiful scene in Orange County, and suggest that [Los Angeles District Attorney George] Gascón and Pete Hardin are responsible for the horrible scene in LA and that Todd Spitzer is responsible for the beautiful beach scene in Orange County. That’s not a meaningful conversation about issues that we’re facing.”
Hardin closed by saying crime is still up under Spitzer’s administration, and that it needs to change.
“In the last four years, Todd Spitzer has entirely lost the trust of this community,” Hardin said. “Crime is up across the board and more in Orange County than it is in LA. [Spitzer] will blame George Gascón for the right time in LA but doesn’t want to take responsibility himself for the rising crime in Orange County.”
Spitzer shot back, saying Orange County is safe and does not need to change.
“It’s not time for a change. It’s time to keep Orange County the way it is. Beautiful, crime-free, clean, no graffiti, no potholes, not homeless people living on every single intersection,” he said.
