Santa Rosa has fined two political groups backed by public safety unions $1,000 each for mailers that violated the city’s campaign finance laws.
The violations were sparked when Santa Rosa City Councilwoman Marsha Vas Dupre saw a mailer criticizing Councilman Gary Wysocky and council candidate Julie Combs for wanting to ‘continue the infighting.’

Congressional candidate Norman Solomon says he stands by his campaign mailer critical of opponent Stacey Lawson, rejecting assertions that the two full-color fliers are hit pieces. “What’s important is that they were factual,” Solomon said Thursday. Lawson, a San Rafael businesswoman and political newcomer, fired back. “If my opponents want to resort to distortions and lies then that is their choice,” she said. “Only people in the lead get attacked and only those who are trailing attack.”

Some say this election flier some is a hit piece. The Efren Carrillo campaign mass mailer asserts that former Sonoma County Supervisor Ernie Carpenter is “running fast and loose with the facts” and that his “campaign rhetoric is ‘Hogwash.’” What do you think?

Campaign contributions in last year’s Sonoma County supervisors race between David Rabbitt and Pam Torliatt topped $706,000, eclipsing a previous county record of $647,000 set in the 2008 battle between Sharon Wright and Shirlee Zane. Unions, environmental groups and business interests poured money into this year’s pivotal campaign, which had the potential to swing the five-member board toward either a moderate, pro-business majority or a more slow-growth, progressive stance.

Local civil and immigrant rights activists are creating a countywide “anti-racism rapid response team” they say will confront incidents of hate speech and hate crime in Sonoma County. The new group will be drafting a pledge asking political candidates to condemn the use of racist imagery or language in their campaigns. It is a response to a political mailer that attacked supes candidate Pam Torliatt over her support for an immigration “sanctuary” policy.

Almost two months after the election, a controversial campaign mailer that is still causing pain and concern throughout the Latino community surfaced at the Petaluma City Council meeting this week. Supervisor-elect David Rabbitt says he would have taken a different approach on the campaign mailer that linked his opponent, Pam Torliatt, to the 2008 murders of a San Francisco family by an illegal immigrant. He pledged to work with Latino groups when he takes office in January.

A group of 22 local Latino leaders says the term “illegal immigrant” has become code for Latinos in California. They want the community to reject rhetoric that stigmatizes and dehumanizes the nation’s largest minority group, singling out the “sanctuary” campaign mailer created by opponents of south county supes candidate Pam Torliatt.

Steve Rustad, freelance editorial cartoonist for the Argus-Courier, has been suspended by the Petaluma newspaper for creating the artwork used in four independent campaign mailers opposing Petaluma Mayor Pam Torliatt in the 2nd District Sonoma County supervisors race. The award-winning cartoonist’s work on the “Perils of Pamela” mailers violated the newspaper’s ethics policy.

The election has been over for days, but one particularly provocative campaign mailer is still reverberating through the Sonoma County labor and business worlds. The North Bay Labor Council pulled out of the Sonoma County Alliance, criticizing its financial support of a committee that sent a mailer attacking supes candidate Pam Torliatt over her support for an immigration “sanctuary” policy. The issue has sparked mutual accusations of racism.

A pair of late election mailers from Sonoma County Board of Supervisors candidate Pam Torliatt have sought to link her rival David Rabbitt to Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, saying the two share the same values and supporters. Rabbitt, who is a registered Democrat, says the mailers mislead voters about his party affiliation.