http://www.billhuntforsheriff2010.com/posts/oc-register-hunt-wants-...

Sheriff candidate Bill Hunt is having a fundraiser tonight, and what is significant about it is where it is being held:

On Target Indoor Shooting Range in Laguna Niguel.

"Come on out and compete against Bill in both timed and accuracy events," the invitation reads. "If you would prefer not to shoot in the event, then feel free to come and watch."

These two sentences capture a reality about Hunt's campaign to unseat Sheriff Sandra Hutchens in next year's election. The Second Amendment is going to play a significant role. Not the only role, but a significant one. You don't want to talk gun issues, we've got other issues, the Hunt message seems to be. Feel free to come and watch. But gun issues are going to be a part of the mix.

This is so, obviously, because of Hutchens' handling of concealed-weapons, or CCW, permits – both as a policy matter (making them harder to get) and in the ham-handed way her senior staff behaved during a Board of Supervisors meeting on the issue. It's been her only major misstep since she was appointed 16 months ago.

But it has galvanized support for an alternative. One of the 30 people who showed up at a $99-a-head fundraiser Hunt held at Lucille's in Lake Forest a couple of weeks ago was R.J. Morris, who says he was the "crazy guy" in the audience a Hutchens staffer referred to disparagingly at the supervisors meeting. There were members of the N.R.A. at the fundraiser as well, handing out fliers in opposition to proposed state legislation (AB 962) that would restrict the transfer of handgun ammo between people.

Hunt, a former Sheriff's lieutenant forced out by Mike Carona after he ran against him and lost, can say with authenticity that he's not a mere opportunist. He was on the other side of the CCW issue long before anyone had ever heard of Sandra Hutchens. I can remember him telling me in an interview in 2005 that he thought Carona was too restrictive with CCWs.

Hunt is clear that with him as sheriff O.C. would be a "shall-issue" county – that is, basically any law-abiding citizen who wants a CCW permit will get one. How would he interpret the state's undefined "good cause" standard by which sheriffs can issue CCWs? "For me," he says, "the 'good cause' requirement would be satisfied if they want to use it for self-protection." He also promises to become a leader in a campaign to make California a "shall-issue" state.

The CCW issue doesn't just serve him on its face, it serves him because he can use it to contend that Hutchens is a creature of anti-gun L.A.

"We have an appointed sheriff who came down here with Los Angeles values," he told the gathering of about 30 supporters at Lucille's. "Is the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department the model we want (for) our Sheriff's Department?"

Hunt, like every challenger, wants to be defined by more than just the fact that he isn't the current officeholder. He has ideas of his own beyond CCWs. Most significant seems to be his passion for reforming the much-criticized jail system Hutchens inherited from Carona. Hunt counts his experience working the jails as among the most formative of his career. Hutchens is not creative enough, he contends, and he offers specifics.

He would restrict movement among inmates (the primary method by which contraband gets inside) by getting rid of the huge chow halls and turning them into overflow housing. Inmates can eat in their cells. Require deputies in the jails to be proactive – routinely shaking down cells and enforcing rules both large and small.

In this vein, Hunt is an unabashed fan of Maricopa County (Ariz.) Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the self-proclaimed "America's Toughest Sheriff," whose prisoners wear pink underwear, live in tents when jail cells overflow, can volunteer for chain gangs, and are treated to classical and patriotic music (and Sinatra!) on "KJOE," an in-house radio station. Arpaio is coming to O.C. on Nov. 5 to do a fundraiser for Hunt.

"I think Joe is great," Hunt told his Lake Forest audience. "I look forward to being mentored by him when I get into office."