Carl DeMaio has been seeking Democratic votes throughout his campaign for Assembly, though in very different ways. The Republican radio talk-show host and former San Diego City Council member spent considerable resources trying to convince Democratic voters and Democratic-leaning independents to back their party’s favored candidate, Kevin Juza, in the March primary where candidates from all parties competed on the same ballot. The strategy was to elevate Juza over GOP rival Andrew Hayes in the heavily Republican 75th Assembly District, thus allowing DeMaio to waltz to victory in November. It almost worked. Hayes, a Lakeside Union School District trustee, eked out a second-place finish by a half-percentage point over Juza. Now the DeMaio campaign and related committees are spending money on mailers and door hangers targeted for Democratic homes that depict Hayes as an extreme opponent of abortion rights. DeMaio also opposes abortion, but has spent years trying to finesse his position. Last week, he did not answer a question about where he stands on abortion. Ironically, Democratic and independent voters could determine the outcome in the sprawling north and east San Diego County district with two Republicans going head-to-head. None of those campaign pieces mentions or advocates for DeMaio, but the intention is clear. “Democrats Urge Vote NO on MAGA extremist Andrew Hayes,” says one door hanger. This is far from an official Democratic Party piece. It’s being funded by DeMaio’s political operation. That’s all standard fare in bare-knuckle politics, if unsavory at times. The effort to deceive voters goes further, though. The door hangers, at least, lack the legally-required disclosure about who paid for it. In this campaign and previous ones, DeMaio has been the subject of campaign violation accusations, which he has pointed out have been filed with the California Fair Political Practices Commission by political opponents. The FPPC has one ongoing investigation of DeMaio and is reviewing at least one other complaint, with claims ranging from failure to report disclosures properly to wrongly using his Reform California organization for the Assembly campaign. Hayes and his allies are making their own efforts on the Democratic front, along with holding the Republicans who backed him in the primary and attracting other GOP voters. Keep in mind that this is a very different election than the primary, with perhaps twice as many voters casting ballots. Further, it’s a presidential election year, which tends to juice Democratic turnout. So there are a lot of new voters to contact. The voter registration breakdown in the 75th District is 41.5 percent Republican, 29.4 percent Democrat and 21 percent indicating “No Party Preference.” Hayes appears to be getting independent campaign backing worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from public-safety unions: The state Police Officers Research Association (PORAC), the California Professional Firefighters, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association and the San Diego County Deputy Sheriff’s Association. A few non-public-safety unions also endorsed Hayes. A lot of that is targeted toward Democratic-leaning voters as well as Republicans. But Hayes had similar backing in the primary, yet finished second with 18.7 percent of the vote to DeMaio’s 42.9 percent. All but a few percent of the remaining votes went to Juza and two other Democrats. A bit of subterfuge by Hayes supporters to promote Democrat Christie Dougherty may have helped keep Juza out of second place. DeMaio may have served only one council term and lost elections for Congress and mayor, but he has become a high-profile political power with a statewide footprint. Combative, virulently anti-union and often anti-GOP establishment, he basically has said he wants to go to Sacramento to refashion the California GOP in his image. The police and firefighter organizations may be unions but their endorsements are prized by candidates across the spectrum, particularly Republicans. They may be motivated more by their hatred of DeMaio than what they like about Hayes, who was a former top aide to state Sen. Brian Jones, R-Santee. In 2010, then-Mayor Jerry Sanders and others pushed an initiative to do away with public employee pensions, while keeping them for police officers and firefighters. Councilmember DeMaio opposed both exemptions. A compromise was struck that left only police with pensions. That still rankled the San Diego Police Officers Association, which at the time was headed by Brian Marvel, now the president of PORAC. Further, a side agreement to the pension ban was a five-year pay freeze for all city workers, including police officers. Marvel filed the most recent FPPC complaint against DeMaio. DeMaio also is battling the Republican Party of San Diego County. Internal strife that seemed settled wasn’t, and now the local GOP is gearing up to use its resources to back Hayes, who is directing contributors to donate to the party for his cause. Hayes gained the party endorsement well before the primary, then DeMaio got in. After the March vote, DeMaio sought to flip the endorsement his way. He had an ally in then-party chair Paula Whitsell. Her move angered some other party officials and influential Republicans. A shake-up of party leadership ensued and Whitsell was forced out. An agreement was reached under which Hayes would keep the endorsement but the party would not use its ability through “member communications” to support either candidate. That was a big deal. Key to that settlement was that DeMaio would not support any other candidate who was running against a party-endorsed candidate. Cory Gustafson, the new chair, said DeMaio violated the terms by continuing to support a non-endorsed candidate for a Poway City Council seat, according to Scott Lewis, editor in chief of the Voice of San Diego. Gustafson declared the agreement was void. DeMaio would not grant an interview, but responded to an emailed list of questions with a general statement mentioning unfair taxes and how “a handful of people want to distract everyone with drama and infighting…” DeMaio entered this election promising to stir things up. On that, he has delivered. What they said Dame Maggie Smith (via Andrea Junker @Strandjunker) “Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.”