DA Hestrin upset with both Supervisor candidates over mailer

More fall-out over a political mailer in the Riverside County Supervisor’s race that has District Attorney Mike Hestrin upset with both candidates.

A mailer, sent out by the campaign of Palm Desert City Councilwoman Jan Harnik, includes a photo of Hestrin along with his opposition to California’s AB-109. It is a prison realignment law supported by Harnik’s opponent Supervisor Manuel Perez.

Hestrin sent an open letter to both campaigns taking issue with Harnik’s mailer.

Now, he’s upset with the Perez campaign.

If you look closely, “info @electmanny.com” originally sent-out Hestrin’s open letter about the Harnik mailer with Hestrin’s name showing up in the address line, making it appear as though it came from him.

Hestrin is also upset with the Harnik campaign writing in a letter “I asked the Harnik campaign to immediately remove my name, photo, and quote from all of their campaign materials.”

Read: District Attorney Mike Hestrin slams Jan Harnik for likeness usage, quote in campaign mailer

The Harnik campaign is standing by its mailer saying this in a statement. “District Attorney Hestrin is a public official and the law does not require his permission to quote him or use his photograph.”

Perez campaign response to the matter:

“We are very appreciative that District Attorney Mike Hestrin drafted a letter over Memorial Day weekend in order to push back against Jan Harnik’s misleading campaign. We released the letter as both a press release and an email to voters. In my rush to send out the email, I did not run the final version of the email past Hestrin’s team and for that, I apologize.” – Statement from a spokesperson for the Perez campaign

Hestrin said he is not endorsing either candidate in the 4th District Supervisor’s race.

Full letter by Hestrin to both candidates:

District Attorney Hestrin has repeatedly spoken out about how the Manuel Perez backed AB 109 law has hurt public safety in our community and caused crime to increase in our county.

That’s why the Harnik campaign quoted a May 4, 2015 KESQ news report in which District Attorney Mike Hestrin was quoted as saying the combination of AB 109 and Prop 47 were “a disaster” in a recent mailer.

The statement of Mr. Hestrin was absolutely accurate and is one of many he has made about a bad law backed by Supervisor Perez. Mr. Perez does not deny that he voted for AB 109.

Now the Perez campaign is sending an email claiming to be from D.A. Hestrin to voters, when the email is actually from Perez. As previously ruled by a superior court judge, Perez’s campaign is “misleading.”

District Attorney Hestrin has told both sides that he is neutral in this race. Jan Harnik respects our District Attorney and have previously told him that her campaign will abide by his wishes not to include his name or image in future campaign advertising. However, the fact is the District Attorney Hestrin is a public official and the law does not require his permission to quote him or use his photograph. And the fact remains that he has been a frequent critic of the prisoner release legislation (AB 109) that Supervisor Perez voted for.