Shock, anger and fear were some of the reactions in Santa Clarita today as several brand new Laurie Ender campaign mailers arrived in SCV Mailboxes.
The mailers, which arrived in Newhall, Canyon Country, and Valencia on the eve of the election, claim that Ender’s opponents support a nuclear power station in Canyon Country, a needles-exchange program in Newhall, and a redlight district for Valencia.
“Like you,Laurie Ender Opposes Bob Spierer’s plans for a 100 megawatt Nuclear Reactor in Canyon County,” one mailer said, in apparent reference to a heretofore unknown plank of the Spierer campaign.
In another mailer, the council candidate targeted addresses in Newhall and said that a vote for Laurie Ender would be a “vote against Maria Gutzeit’s plans for a needle-exchange program for Heroin addicts in Newhall.”
The well-coordinated mailing campaign also included neighborhoods in Valencia.
Residents there received a mailer on Monday outlining Ender’s oppositions to a proposed redlight district in Valencia, a position she says opponent Diane Trautman is secretly supporting.
“Diane Trautman wants to turn Valencia into a red-light district with a bordello on every corner. I want better for Santa Clarita. Vote for me April 8!” the mailer said.
Each mailer contains stark visual images. In the Canyon Country-targeted mailer, a nuclear power plant is superimposed onto a picture of Whites Canyon Road, and Bob Spierer has red, devil-like horns drawn on his head.
And in the anti-red light district mailer, a picture of Diane Trautman is positioned above a darkly-shaded photo that shows bordellos and loose women trawling for johns on the corner of Valencia & McBean.
All three campaigns expressed shock and outrage at the Ender campaign mailers.
“Claiming that I had no position on the hospital expansion was outrageous,” Bob Spierer said. “But for her to claim that I secretly support a nuclear fission reactor in Canyon Country is beyond the pale,” Spierer said.
“She apparently will stop at nothing to get elected,” Gutzeit told SCVTalk.com by phone on Monday. “I had to check the calendar and make sure it wasn’t April 1 when I got the Ender mailer,” Gutzeit continued, adding that she nearly fainted at the thought that some voters might believe she supports a needle exchange program.
Diane Trautman, a planning commissioner, said that she has never spoken out in favor of a redlight district or legalized prostitution in Valencia.
“This mailer literally took my breath away. I thought I was in a bad dream,” the candidate told SCVTalk.com.
Laurie Ender refused to comment for this report and referred all media questions to her high-powered campaign team based in Santa Monica.
“Each of these candidates have made statements that could be construed in some way as showing possible support for these controversial projects,” said Todd Blair, Ender campaign chairman.
Reaction to the mailers in Santa Clarita was swift and fierce. By noon on Monday, a “No Nukes!” coalition had sprung up in Canyon Country, a concerned Mothers of Valencia group had organized a petition in Valencia against the red light district, and a group of Master’s College students had built a website to fight the needles-exchange program.
All groups said they planned to vote for Ender.
Reached by phone on Monday, local political consultant Scott Wilk acknowledged that the mailers “were probably not fair,” but said that they could only help, not hurt, the Ender campaign.
“In a purely Machiavellian sense, the latest mailers are brilliant,” Wilk said.
Developing…