The California Republican Party accused Assemblyman Carl DeMaio of ‘deceiving voters’ Thursday in a cease-and-desist letter to his political advocacy group “Reform California.”
The party took issue with a statewide voter guide that Reform California distributed, which used the party’s logo and called itself the “Republican Official Endorsement Guide.”
The letter from California Republican Party general counsel Ashlee Titus called the mailer “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.”
Reform California said the First Amendment protects its mailer.
“Reform California not only has a constitutional right — but a duty — to distribute its voter guide to Republican voters so they know which candidates are the SELLOUTS and which candidates are the FIGHTERS in each race on the ballot,” Reform California communications director Dylan Martin said in an email.
Titus said the mailer violated the state’s Truth in Endorsements Law.
“Your Mailer, your Website, and your text message communications could not violate this statute more squarely if you had set out to draft an exemplar of prohibited conduct,” Titus wrote to DeMaio.
In addition to endorsing candidates, the mailer cautioned voters that Democrats were using fake Republican voter guides and concerned residents should call DeMaio’s office.
DeMaio attacked a voter guide sent by outgoing 48th District Rep. Darrell Issa and San Diego County Supervisor candidate John Franklin, claiming it was fake, despite its endorsement of DeMaio.
That mail piece, titled the “Republican Leadership Official Endorsement Guide,” included a disclaimer that it was not from an official political party organization, similar to the disclaimer at the bottom of Reform California’s “Republican Official Endorsement Guide.”
Issa — who has been in a bitter feud with DeMaio since they ran against each other for Issa’s former 50th Congressional District seat in 2020 — praised the state party for standing up to DeMaio.
“Carl’s attempted to confuse voters that he speaks for the Republican Party,” Issa wrote on X. “This action by the CRP makes it absolutely clear – he does not.”
Reform California blamed the cease and desist letter sent to DeMaio – but not the Republican Leadership voter guide – on the longstanding feud between DeMaio and the Republican party.
“It comes as no surprise that the failed Establishment Republican Party insiders are attacking Carl DeMaio and his Reform California movement because we are doing the job that the party has failed to do for so many years,” Martin said.
Issa referenced those ongoing divisions between Republicans and DeMaio on X, saying “(DeMaio’s) smeared and lied about Republicans his whole career and continues to lie about good Republicans today.”
Other San Diego Republicans have taken issue with DeMaio this election cycle as well.
The San Diego Republican Party failed to make any endorsements at a party meeting in March, for the first time ever. Party members blamed DeMaio for the failure, which came after DeMaio ousted the former chair, Corey Gustafson, for refusing to endorse his 2024 Assembly race. They accused DeMaio of packing precinct committees with recipients of Reform California money during this cycle.
Reform California outraises the local party by millions and is one of the state’s biggest conservative fundraising machines, according to CalMatters.
Without endorsements, the San Diego Republican Party cannot send an official voter guide. But Reform California offers its own county-specific guides — statewide, not just in San Diego.
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