Kline Vote 'A Mini-Revolution' (The Orange County Register)
Grass-roots write-in campaign overcame long odds to force a runoff.
By Greg Hardesty for The Orange County Register
Originally published in The Orange County Register, March 7, 2002
The write-in candidates who derailed Judge Ronald C. Kline's outright re-election Tuesday said they did it by educating voters in the final weeks of the campaign.
"Eleven of us pounded the pavement and worked our tails off to get people to understand what was going on," said Karen Robinson, 38, a Costa Mesa City Council member and write-in hopeful. "We did what the experts said we couldn't do—and that's a victory in itself."
The incumbent Kline received 33 percent of the vote and will face a runoff in November. His challenger won't be known for up to four weeks, when officials finish hand counting votes.
Kline, 61, needed 50 percent plus one vote Tuesday to be re-elected to another six-year term. But he got trounced by the write-ins, who collectively received 67 percent of the votes.
Write-in ballots filled in incorrectly are bound to narrow that gap somewhat, but not enough to change the result.
Fred Smoller, chairman of the political science department at Chapman University, called the victory "extremely rare," especially since the write-in candidates were not well-funded.
"I think this is an election that is going to be studied by political scientists for quite a while," said William M. Vlosky, 44, a San Clemente lawyer and write-in candidate. "It's so unique.
"What we saw here, I think, was a mini-revolution. People heard through word of mouth. There was something intolerable that had to be corrected."
Kline referred all questions about the election to his attorney, Paul S. Meyer.
"Litigation is pending," Meyer said. "Judge Kline is presumed innocent."
Kline surrendered to federal authorities in November on child pornography charges. They said they found more than 100 images of nude boys on his computer.
In January, Kline was hit with state charges of child molestation based on a suspected incident 25 years ago.
Kline, who has specialized in civil cases since joining the Orange County bench in 1995, is confined to his Irvine home with an electronic monitoring device, pending the outcome of the criminal cases.
He has pleaded not guilty to the pornography charges and is scheduled to enter a plea this month in the molestation case. Kline continues to earn his $136,000 salary.
Becoming familiar to voters was a big challenge for the write-in candidates.
In the four months between Kline's federal indictment and the election, many candidates focused on the judge's criminal charges.
"Every time I talked to somebody and told them the story (about Kline), they were like, 'What? Who can I vote for?'" Robinson said. "They thought the moral implications alone meant he should be out of the race."
The 11 candidates also had to educate voters about properly filling out ballots. Voters had to write the name of the write-in candidate on a blank, then punch a hole to the right of the name.
Many candidates gave a lot of credit to the media for the victory. KFI-AM talk radio, for example, has been rallying against Kline for months.
"I can campaign all day and talk to 600 or 700 people," Vlosky said, "but (KFI hosts John and Ken) can talk to (thousands more) people in 30 seconds."
Many candidates relied on inexpensive ways of campaigning, such as sending out "looped" e-mail messages. Others passed out fliers.
Terese Oliver, a write-in hopeful, credited fellow lawyers for hitting the phones and spreading the anti-Kline message.
"I think that what happened is the awareness level (about Kline) didn't rise until one or two weeks before the election, and that really snookered him," Oliver said.
