This post first appeared in the Politics Report.
Last week, we wrote about the “Official Republican Voter Guide” Assemblymember Carl DeMaio was distributing. It claimed to be the “official Central Committee Slate” and the “REAL San Diego County Voter Guide for Republicans” which you could find at RepublicanVoterGuideCA.com.
Of course it was not the official Republican voter guide. DeMaio himself had helped ensure that the local Republican Party did not endorse candidates this cycle and did not put out it’s own official voter guide.
The local Republican Party refused to do anything about it.
But not the California Republican Party. In a blistering letter sent Friday, and touted by Rep. Darrell Issa and other foes of DeMaio, Ashlee N. Titus, the general counsel of the California Republican Party demanded he cease and desist from distributing the guide as it was.
“This letter constitutes a demand that you, your slate mailer organization Reform California Voter Guide (ID 1469001), and your website RepublicanVoterGuideCA.com immediately cease and desist from a coordinated, brazen, and unlawful campaign to deceive California voters into believing your privately controlled slate mailer is an official publication of the Republican Party. It is not. Your conduct constitutes a knowing and willful trademark infringement under federal and state law, a direct violation of California’s Truth in Endorsements Law, an unlawful solicitation of contributions in the name of a political party, a violation of the mandatory slate mailer disclosure statute, and an act of voter deception. The CRP demands that it stop immediately.”
It is unsparing and worth a read: “Make no mistake about the gravity of this matter. You are not an unsophisticated political novice. You are a sitting California State Assemblymember, the Chairman of Reform California, a former San Diego City Councilman, and a candidate the CRP itself has endorsed. You know full well that the CRP and its county central committees are the only bodies authorized under California law to issue official Republican Party endorsements, and you know exactly what you are doing when you brand a paid slate mailer with the words ‘OFFICIAL,’ ‘Republican Central Committee Slate,’ and the Republican Party’s elephant emblem. Your conduct is not a mistake. It is a calculated deception of California’s Republican voters, and it will not be tolerated.”
Friday, the top of DeMaio’s website read “Carl DeMaio’s Reform California Voter Guide for Republicans” instead of “Official Republican Voter Guide.”
Titus said litigation was likely to ensue and she demanded DeMaio and treasurer April Boling preserve documents.