Political smear campaigns in Grover Beach now include cement.
“My signs were stolen or vandalized. Ninety-eight percent of them were gone, and a couple vandalized with cement thrown on them,” Grover Beach City Councilmember and mayoral hopeful Karen Bright said.
Bright is worried about more than damaged campaign signs in the lead-up to the Nov. 8 general election where she’s vying for the mayoral seat against Stacy Korsgaden. On Oct. 29, she came across mailers lambasting her, which were paid for by Korsgaden.
“Despite spending all of our money, Costly Karen has failed to get results for Grover Beach,” the mailer read.
Headlined “Career politician Karen Bright,” the bright yellow card alleged that she raised the cost of living by voting to increase sales tax by $1.8 million a year. The sales tax in question is Measure F-20—a 1 percent tax increase that Bright voted to place on the 2020 general election ballot. Almost 53 percent of registered voters in Grover Beach subsequently passed it.
“The thing that concerns me the most is that she says I voted for it. I voted to put it on the ballot. It was the voters who decided, not me,” Bright said.
The mailer also blamed Bright for increased crime rates, increased homelessness, and for restricting access to the Oceano Dunes. Bright told New Times that she has never voted against closing the dunes and is confused about how she’s directly involved in the causing the spikes in crime.
“The police response time is 2.4 minutes, which is unprecedented. I don’t understand … unless she thinks I went on my own private crime spree or something,” Bright said. “I’ve run a number of campaigns in the city, but this is the first time I’ve seen this type of mudslinging. This is dirty politics.”
Korsgaden told New Times that she stands by the mailers. She added that she also had signs that went missing. Both mayoral contenders said they filed crime reports with the Grover Beach Police Department. In fact, Korsgaden said she filed the police report five days before Bright’s signs disappeared.
“When I saw hers missing, I called her to communicate my concern,” Korsgaden said. “I do not have a campaign committee. I can’t imagine she was the person that took mine, and I certainly did not take hers. I was so upset, I was willing to remove all my signs.”
Bright now has a two-person “sign patrol” team that scopes Grover Beach every evening at 5 p.m. to repair and replace her signs.
While Korsgaden sympathized with Bright about the missing signs, she said she’s running for mayor to “reverse the trend” of imposing high fees and taxes.
“She’s [Bright] voted in a way in the past that’s restricted access to the Oceano Dunes, because she abstained,” Korsgaden said. “I can say honestly, that because of her stance on fees and taxes, that’s causing our cost to go up and our revenue to go down. So, we have increased crime and increased homelessness. Everything is related.” Δ
This article appears in Nov 3-13, 2022.