James Rufus Koren and Wendy Leung, Staff Writers
Posted: 02/16/2010 07:08:37 PM PST

Corruption charges filed last week by the District Attorney raise the political stakes for all of the elected officials involved.

Both prosecutors who brought the charges – District Attorney Michael A. Ramos and Attorney General Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown – and two county supervisors with ties to the case are up for election this year.

Supervisor Gary Ovitt is as yet unopposed in the Fourth District, and three challengers for Paul Biane’s Second District office face an uphill battle to unseat the incumbent in June.

The offices of both supervisors have been implicated in the alleged bribery scheme, though neither has been charged with a crime.

“It’s really tough,” said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College. “It would take a very solid case. Accusation by itself is probably not sufficient.”

Last week, Ramos announced charges against former county Assessor Bill Postmus and former Assistant Assessor Jim Erwin in an alleged conspiracy aimed at getting county leaders to approve a $102 million settlement payout to Colonies Partners development group in 2006. The allegations don’t mention Biane and Mark Kirk, Ovitt’s chief of staff, by name, but identifies two John Does – a county supervisor and a supervisor’s chief of staff – as uncharged co-conspirators.

Tuesday marked the first day candidates could turn in nomination forms for public office and it remained unclear whether anyone will step in to challenge Ovitt.

Ovitt said he’s not worried about the election or the potential impact of last week’s announcement.

“I’ve worked hard to establish good relationships with elected leaders and leaders in private industry, and I’ve not heard anything from them,” Ovitt said. “They still feel confident I’m doing a good job.”

Biane’s position is more precarious. He’s facing three possible challengers – Fontana Councilwoman Janice Rutherford, mountain newspaper publisher Dennis Labadie and Rim of the World school board member Peter “Scott” Markovich.

Biane, who on Tuesday announced his intention to run for a third time, said he is innocent and will address Ramos’ allegations throughout his campaign.

“I want to stay in office to clear my name,” Biane said.

Ramos’ investigation will be a campaign issue for at least two of Biane’s challengers.

Markovich, 48, would not say whether Biane had an improper role in the Colonies settlement, but he called the Upland development that led to the settlement a “prime example of everything that’s wrong with government.”

He said news about the Colonies settlement shows county leadership no longer represents residents.

Rutherford said she is considering running and wants to restore transparency and trust to the board so the county can move forward and address economic issues.

“The issues we’re facing right now – budget, jobs – are too serious to leave to a cloud of ethical problems,” she said.

For Ramos’ part, the investigation and last week’s announcement will likely look good to voters in June, Pitney said, even though the case won’t be resolved by election day.

“It may be enough to show action and progress,” he said. “I think people realize the district attorney doesn’t control the court calendar.”

Dennis Stout, the county’s former district attorney and a possible opponent for Ramos in June, accused the top prosecutor of announcing the charges last week, in part, to influence the upcoming election.

“There’s no smoking gun in (the charges) that happened in the last few weeks,” Stout said. “It if wasn’t because of the evidence, then it must have been because of the election.”

Ramos, though, denied the announcement was tied to politics.

“The timing of what we’re doing is all surrounding when we complete certain parts of our investigation,” he said. “We want to make sure we have all our evidence and facts in order and that everything is corroborated. Once that is all said and done, it’s time for us do do our jobs.”

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