GOP consultant complains the media portrays him as a bad guy. Heh.

From the beginning, the creation of Californians for Law and Order, the political action committee against Sheriff Scott Miller, didn’t make much sense. And from the beginning, people have been telling me the PAC’s activities carried the distinct taint of GOP political operative Brandon Gesicki.

He loves sending out mailers that falsely imply Democrats love his GOP candidates (Ila Mettee-McCutcheon and Lou Calcagno, for example). He also managed Abel Maldonado’s 2008 campaign when Maldo, a staunch Republican, ran as a write-in in that year’s Democratic primary.

This time, he was directing the campaign of Miller opponent Steve Bernal. He didn’t seem to have any demonstrable ties with Californians for Law and Order, which originally registered as a PAC in San Benito County. PAC organizer Chris Marohn, who managed the campaign of Miller opponent Mike Richards, collected seed money from the Monterey County Public Defenders Association and the PD’s office second-in-command, Don Landis. Both thought they were donating to help influence a judicial race; instead, the PAC generated hit ads on Miller.

To keep his name from being attached to the attack group, Marohn, a neophyte political operative and one-time elected member of the Democratic Central Committee, used a phone registered to fellow DCC-er Daniel McCormick – who claims he lost it, despite other reports he handed it over – to establish the PAC. PAC treasurer Maria Cid screwed up so badly that she put the wrong name of a PAC consultant on the disclosure form when the consultant was actually Marohn’s wife.

The point of it all – so many great lies behind such a minor amount of money, less than $10,000 – was to attack Miller through ads released weeks before the primary. The ads referenced ongoing legal problems of Miller’s adult son, Jacob, who served time for a series of drug-related offenses.

Keep in mind, Marohn probably couldn’t manage a four-car funeral without screwing it up. When the Weekly connected Marohn’s name with the PAC, he admitted he organized it, but claimed it was wrested from his grip by a GOP operative he declined to name.

A few weeks ago, Weekly reporter Sara Rubin, photographer Nic Coury and I were grabbing a fast lunch at Taqueria El Zarape next to our offices when Gesicki came in. He sat with us while he waited for his to-go order and we talked about the PAC. “Who do you think is behind it?” Rubin asked him.

I turned to Gesicki and said, “I think you’re behind it, Brandon.”

He said, “I know you do,” and then told to Rubin (I was laughing too hard to hear him at this point), that we had hurt his feelings and cast him as a bad guy in the past. He then changed the subject to our need to investigate Miller more thoroughly.

Fast forward to last week and the day when campaigns have to file updated disclosure forms detailing what they raised and what they spent. Californians for Law and Order filed new paperwork that showed mostly nothing: Donations of $99 or less don’t require the donor to reveal his or her name, and all the donors capped their input to stay secret. Except for two, who threw in $999 each: Oregon residents Susan and David Hargett.

I asked Rubin and reporter David Schmalz to find the connection. After staring at the Hargetts’ Facebook and LinkedIn pages until I was dizzy, I told them to check where Brandon Gesicki went to college. Et voila. David Hargett and Gesicki both majored in political science at the same time, at the same small college in Ohio.

When Rubin called him, Gesicki said, in essence, well yeah, of course I was involved. He denies being the kingpin, but says he solicited $99 donations from nine friends. The Hargetts were extra-generous because they were appalled – appalled! – at what a bad sheriff Miller is.

As for the obfuscation, Gesicki told Rubin we didn’t ask him the right questions. So here’s one I emailed him: Did you walk, saunter, stroll, skip or meander a check into any television or radio station to pay for Californians for Law and Order/CLO Oppose Sheriff Miller advertising?

His answer, a few hours later: “NO! Have a nice day.”

MARY DUAN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com