As I mentioned at the end of Part 1, Sheriff Hutchens' friend-and-sometime-adviser Paul Morabito returned my call early this morning.

After a few preliminaries and introductions (Morabito he was very familiar with this blog), we started with me telling him what my research had yielded thus far, and he confirmed it. He's a very friendly, garrulous man. I have to say he came across as very open and wasn't defensive (as a most people likely would be) about giving generously to both political parties.

Morabito said he'd been a registered Democrat when he lived in California, and then registered as a Republican when he moved to Nevada in 2005. Why did he switch parties? He met then-Rep.. Jim Gibbons, was impressed by him and wanted to help elect him Governor. Gibbons pointed out he could vote for him unless Morabito registered as a Republican, and so he did. Morabito said he could be most accurately described as a very conservative Democrat, then said "If anything, I'm a classic libertarian. I want to know what an elected official is going to do to expand freedom."

I inquired as to the impetus behind his with law enforcement organizations (the LA Sheriff's Department, the Washoe County Sheriff's Dept., and now the OCSD).

"I'm intrigued by people who serve in office, especially those who carry guns," Morabito said. He expressed concern that public officials, especially law enforcement, be concerned themselves with the freedom of their fellow citizens.

"What have you done lately in your career to make me more free?" he said is the question he has for elected officials and law enforcement.

I'd seen in bio that Morabito had served as a "senior policy advisor" to L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, and I asked him to expand on that. Morabito said it was a unpaid capacity in which he served Baca from 2000 to 2005. He advised Baca on organizational, staff and efficiency matters -- things that "bore most people" but interest him, Morabito said.

"A good staff is like a custom suit," Morabito said. "If you wear it right, you'll never know you have it on."

Morabito also used his political connections to help Baca on legislative matters (Morabito fund-raised for then-Governor Gray Davis annd was a chairman of the California Coastal Conservancy). For example, Morabito said he introduced Baca to then-Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, which he said led to Burton and Baca becoming friends.

Morabito said he performed a similar role in Hutchen's transition as an adviser on organizing and staffing the Office of the Sheriff, and on maintaining a wall of separation between the official and the political. He said he also wrote the acceptance speech Hutchens' gave at her public swearing-in on June 25.

The topic of Sheriff Huthcens' ditching the driver and security detail walked through the conversation, and I asked if that was his idea. Morabito said it wasn't, but that Hutchens was considering it and asked him his opinion (he thought it was a good idea).

Morabito said he met Sandra Hutchens during the course of serving as senior policy advisor to Sheriff Baca. His involvement with Hutchens' bid for OC Sheriff began when he got a call from retired LASD Undersheriff Bill Stonich.

"He said Sandy's tossing her hat in the ring for OC Sheriff," Morabito recalled, and wanted to know if he would help out. Morabito said he did what he could, including hosting a dinner at his summer home in Laguna Beach.

When I asked if he'd be playing a continuing role as an advisor to Hutchens, Morabito said no. he was reluctant to even be considered an advisor.

"I'm her friend, not her advisor. I'd much rather have her and her husband over to my house for dinner," he said. "I'm not interested in getting a contract or anything out of this. I just think Sandy will be a great sheriff and i want her to succeed."

Morabito observed that there is a "certain type of people" who are attracted to law enforcement leaders and want to be involved in a way that requires proper training and certification -- but are unwilling to undergo that training and want the responsibility anyway.

He asserted that's not the kind of role he's played in his involvement with law enforcement, which he confines to areas that coincide with his experience and abilities.