It is well known in political circles that Trung Nguyen, Mike Schroeder, and Assemblyman Van Tran began a "scorched earth campaign" against Janet Nguyen after she won her race against Trung Nguyen for Supervisor. This campaign is being waged despite the fact that all three are Republicans who should place holding this seat above their disappointment that Trung lost.

One aspect of the scorched earth campaign was for Trung and Schroeder, both lawyers, to dirty Janet up with accusations of criminal activity, while also running up her legal bills and draining her coffers for a rematch next year. I think this is wrong, and I stated so in an article written for Red County earlier this month, and in a series of emails between Schroeder and myself.

In today's Orange County Register, Schroeder denies that he is engaging in such tactics against Janet. Well, he is. We all know it. And his willingness to publicly deny the obvious really undercuts his credibility as a spokesman for Sheriff Carona and others.

As an aside - Schroeder criticizes Steve Greenhut for saying that Schroeder filed lawsuits and complaints against Janet, and claims that he has filed "only" one lawsuit, an appeal, and two complaints. (As if that much legal activity in 8 months against one person is OK!) Schroeder is correct that there is only one lawsuit, but there have been two appeals (the April 11 "emergency" appeal that was denied and the current appeal), three FPPC complaints and a complaint with the attorney general.