Mysterious anti-sheriff PAC raised unreported money – for an entirely different race.

(Editor's Note: As this week's issue went to press, Californians for Law and Order filed updated—but still incomplete—paperwork with the San Benito County Elections Department. Listed as the main contributors to the PAC behind the campaign hit piece on incumbent Sheriff Scott Miller are the Monterey County Public Defenders Association, and Don Landis Jr., the Assistant Public Defender and second in command at the Monterey County Public Defenders Office.)

Here’s the thing about campaign season: Chaos is typical. Volunteers energized by a political party or candidate show up for the cause, and then make calls to voters for hours upon hours. They use janky cell phones they expect to last no longer than two or three elections, and it’s not uncommon for a handful of phones to go missing.

One of three phones that went missing this primary season is the listed phone number of Californians for Law and Order. It’s a political action committee (PAC) that spent $7,570 on a smear campaign against Sheriff Scott Miller, with TV and radio ads and a four-page glossy mailer titled “Sordid Associations.” The mailer included an uncredited photograph taken from the Weekly and used without permission.

“I wish I could tell you this wasn’t one of my phones, but it appears it is,” says Daniel McCormick, a Democratic political consultant who manages campaign phone banks. When informed by the Weekly the PAC phone number had been tracked back to him, he said the phone went missing from his office sometime in the past two months. McCormick canceled the account after being contacted by a reporter.

From there the story gets more convoluted than campaign finance law. What makes it particularly difficult to decipher: The PAC has failed to report where its money came from. It filed documents in a way that made it tricky to track down its leadership. And the PAC’s initial donors thought they were donating to a judicial race when in fact their money was used to smear Miller.

The PAC didn’t register as a committee with the California Secretary of State and the San Benito County Elections Department until mid-May, about two months after it received a contribution of $2,750. California law requires committees to register within 10 days of receiving at least $1,000.

That initial funding, received in early March, came from the Monterey County Public Defenders Association. Its members believed they were supporting defense attorney Andrew Liu’s successful bid for judge against Deputy District Attorney Steve Somers.

“We donated the money for a particular candidate,” Association Vice-President Tom O’Keefe says. “No one in our organization has had discussions with anyone in the PAC about how the money was to be used.”

But Liu says he never received backing from the association, and he finds the connection to the Law and Order PAC troubling.

“The Monterey County Public Defenders Association never made any contributions to my campaign. If they intended to assist my campaign, I was unaware of it,” he says. He adds he’s proud he ran a clean campaign.

“My campaign never sought any help from this PAC, nor would we have,” he says. “I find the tactics used by this PAC in the sheriff’s race to be extremely offensive.”

The PAC registered as a general-purpose committee which, by definition, supports multiple causes or candidates. But Californians for Law and Order reports spending money on only a single issue: going negative on Miller.

It remains unclear if PAC leadership misrepresented itself to the public defenders to collect their cash.

Democratic campaign consultant Chris Marohn says he launched Californians for Law and Order – and claims he watched it get co-opted by a Republican operative from San Luis Obispo County.

“In February, me and a few other concerned people got together and decided to give behind-the-scenes help to a judicial candidate that we felt needed it,” Marohn says.

But Marohn was also campaign manager for Mike Richards, a former sheriff’s commander who came in third in the four-way race against Miller. Richards, fired in 2012 by Miller, filed one of the discrimination claims outlined in the Law and Order mailer.

“Once we felt our help was done, we disbanded our little committee and walked away, probably early April,” Marohn says of the PAC. “We felt that our stated objective had been accomplished.”

Marohn’s name doesn’t appear anywhere on the PAC paperwork. But listed as the PAC’s principal officer is Omar Perez. Perez is an elected member of the Monterey County Democratic Central Committee, and Marohn resigned from his elected seat on the committee about two weeks ago. Perez, Marohn and McCormick are also founding members of The Liberty Initiative, a young professionals group involved in social justice causes.

“I don’t know much about the PAC,” Perez says.

As to the smear campaign against Miller: “I don’t know anything about any of the hit pieces.”

Asked directly if he was aware his name appears on the PAC’s forms, Perez says only, “I have no comment.”

Current active members of the PAC are located in San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara and San Benito counties.

“All these things seemed designed to conceal the true identities of the people behind it,” Miller says. “Whoever is behind this is a vile human being and they really need to check their integrity level.”

PAC Treasurer Maria Cid, who filed all the paperwork and is a member of the San Benito County Democratic Central Committee, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

PAC spokesperson Amber Johnson, former executive director of the Republican Party of San Luis Obispo County, responded by email: “We believe we have filed all reports in a timely manner.”

Responding to how the phone number appeared on the paperwork, Johnson writes, “It appears the campaign contact phone number was incorrect.”

Megan Theard of Morgan Hill, who was paid $200 for consulting work for the PAC, responds to the Weekly’s questions about filing errors this way: “All not true.”

When pressed on the phone issue, Theard writes by email, “It’s Daniel’s phone. Politics are just dishonest, what can I say.”

She later emailed to say she didn’t know McCormick.

McCormick says he’s never met or heard of Theard, and he’s now consulting an attorney. He was not a member of the PAC, and he actually did some work for Somers, Liu’s opponent.

The PAC’s next campaign finance filing deadline is June 30.

To view documents associated with this story click below

CORRECTIONS: An earlier version of this story stated that phone banking for the June 3 primary was conducted out of the Monterey County Central Democratic Committee's Center for Change. It was not; renovations on the new center headquarters in Seaside were completed about two weeks ago, and the committee has relocated from its Monterey location. The committee itself did not do any phone banking this election. Phone banking by McCormick and Marohn for this election was done remotely, by cell phone. 

In addition, Christopher Marohn resigned from his elected position on the Central Democratic Committee about two weeks ago; his name and position as secretary on the executive committee still appear on the Committee's website.