Fitch, Phillips Tie Jones, Schubert to Trump in Joint Mailer

May 29, 2018 |

With ballots in voters' hands and the June 5 primary quickly approaching, candidates challenging Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones and District Attorney Ann Marie Schubert have been joined in mailing tying both to President Donald J. Trump. 

The mailer, which was received appeared in mailboxes today, was sent on behalf of Milo Fitch and Noah Phillips, who are challenging Jones and Schubert respectively. The mailer paid for by the Sacramento County Democratic Central Committee.

Although primaries typically have lower turnout than general elections and tend to have a higher turnout of older, more conservative voters, the SCDCC is betting on the unpopularity of Trump, who nationally has been hovering around a 40-percent approval rating. In this way, the SCDCC is gambling that by making the election of the two highest law enforcement in the county a referendum on Trump.

The gamble is most crucial, from their perspective, in the race between Phillips and Schubert. With only two candidates in the race, it is a winner take all contest that will be determined after the tallies are compiled next week.

In the race for Sheriff, there is a bit more wriggle room given if no candidate wins over 50-percent of the popular vote, the top two finishers will advance to the November general election. Fitch and Jones are expected to fight it out for the top two positions in the four-candidate field, but if neither meets the majority, they will advance to November. 

The mailer includes an unflattering black and white picture of the President with the tagline "Collusion?" While Schubert has not publicly embraced the policies of Trump, Jones spoke during a Trump led Whitehouse law enforcement seminar on a variety of issues, most notably immigration. 

Using Trump as a negative surrogate has been one of the ongoing themes in the race for the two positions. Even though Trump is highly unpopular across a broad swath of the public, this race will be an indicator in November's other races such as the campaign for the congressional seat occupied by Dr. Ami Bera as to the viability of using the President as a bludgeoning device by the Democratic party over Republican rivals.