NEIL DERRY DIRTY POLITICS CAMPAIGN AGAINST JAMES RAMOS

NEIL DERRY DIRTY POLITICS CAMPAIGN AGAINST JAMES RAMOS
The dirty politics have already started in the race for 3rd District County Supervisor. Incumbent Neil Derry launched an assault on the character of his opponent, San Manuel tribal chairman James Ramos, in a campaign mailer tying Ramos to “gang members,” “drug dealers” and “killers for hire,” labeling Ramos a “Casino Boss” with ties to the Mexican Mafia. It was found plastered on hundreds of windshields outside Ramos; campaign headquarters in Redlands Tuesday night, where Ramos was hosting a campaign kickoff. In a statement Wednesday, Ramos called Derry’s hit mailer a “false and pathetic attempt to smear me. I believe that voters want and deserve something better than these types of gutter politics.” Ramos said he would run a positive campaign on real issues and the future of the county, and announced the endorsement of District Attorney Michael Ramos. The flier was mailed to 11,000 Third District constituents Wednesday. The Third Supervisorial District includes the Morongo Basin. A Ramos spokesman said Derry’s campaign tactics are those of a desperate man. “It’s so pathetic,” they said. “He’s trying to create a story that doesn’t exist there. A serious candidate would not have put out a flier like that. That kind of a mailer is a real insult to voters. It’s so over the top that it backfires.”