SQUIDFRY 02.22.18: The Dark Side

THE DARK SIDE… Squid wakes up in the middle of the night from time to time, remembering the abject ickiness of the 2014 campaign that put Steve Bernal into office as Monterey County Sheriff. Dirty tricks abounded in a nasty campaign against then-Sheriff Scott Miller. Bernal’s massive $500,000 campaign fund was bankrolled largely by Margaret Duflock, a San Ardo rancher and his brother’s mother-in-law, who contributed about half that.

One of the masterminds behind some of the campaign tricks for Team Bernal was Christian Schneider and his company, Pivotal Campaign Services.

So Squid’s beak dropped open with the news that Schneider was leading another sheriff’s campaign – that of Bernal’s opponent, Salinas City Councilman and sheriff’s Deputy Scott Davis. For months Davis had played coy, refusing to say whether he’d hired Schneider as the political rumormill would have it, but campaign disclosure forms don’t lie. As of a Jan. 31 report, Davis has paid Pivotal Campaign Services a hair over $25,000.

They say politics makes strange bedfellows, and while Schneider may no longer be bedding down with Bernal, he’s now firmly snuggled up to Davis.

Let the hijinks commence.

UNDER DA SEA… Speaking of bottom dwellers, Squid hung out with underwater friends over the three-day weekend. Much wine flowed and the jokes were plentiful. “Why don’t sharks attack attorneys?” asked Lester Fangworth von Sharkington, a majestic yet neurotic thresher shark. “Professional courtesy!”

Squid thinks that professional courtesy also applies to the race for Monterey County District Attorney – if a race of one can actually be considered a race. When DA Dean Flippo announced Feb. 16 that he would retire after nearly 30 years as top prosecutor, Squid wondered who might step up to run and take his place.

For years, Stephanie Hulsey was regarded as the anointed one – Flippo’s hand-picked successor – but she ran for judge and the rest was history. Andy Liu has inhabited both sides of the fence, starting as a prosecutor before becoming a defense attorney, but he, too, is now a judge.

So is it too early to call a new Anointed One, Jeannine Pacioni? The veteran prosecutor announced her run within a few hours of Flippo announcing his pending retirement, and kicked off her official campaign with a press event on Feb. 20, surrounded by a lot of bald men with mustaches – aka, a who’s who of local law enforcement.

It’s unlikely anyone is going to step up and fight for the spot, which means it’s Pacioni in a slow walk. Still, Squid wonders if Hulsey and Liu are happy in their judgeships.

At the very least, one of their names on the ballot would make things interesting.