Paulette Poppins Departs copy

“I shall stay until the wind changes…”

Matthew Leslie

“I have too much respect for the people in this community to continue to put them through this clearly toxic campaign.” –Paulette Marshall Chaffee, oblivious to the disrespect she showed the people of the 5th District by moving there this summer to run for office in the first place.

Paulette Marshall Chaffee’s carpetbagging run for Fullerton City Council has come to an abrupt and ignominious end, announced by an email to supporters on Monday:

Paulette Suspension Letter

Mrs. Marshall Chaffee moved into a condominium on the edge of the 5th District just in time to legally qualify as a resident to run for office there in August of this year. She previously resided in the comfortable 2nd District Chaffee family home, also the residence of Mayor Doug Chaffee, who is running for Orange County Board of Supervisors. Even longtime supporters of the Chaffees were taken aback by the brazen move to a district created as a result of a lawsuit citing the lack of Latino members on Fullerton’s City Council.

Disingenuous to the end, she doesn’t even mention the obvious reason for quitting in her weepy, self-pitying announcement, instead complaining about “animosity, negativity, and corrosive discourse,” as if her own inappropriate presence in the race wasn’t a major distraction from any meaningful discourse in the first place. She also charges no one in particular for a campaign that has “devolved into a debate about race and ageism,” which she “personally finds offensive.” She still seems completely unaware of, perhaps even incapable of understanding, how grossly offensive many voters found her expedient move from an expensive neighborhood up in the hills into a heavily Latino and less affluent district expressly for the purpose of running for office there.

The opening sentence of her swan song email begins with the proclamation “When the City of Fullerton voted to have elections by districts, I saw an opportunity to make a difference in the community I grew up in, went to school in, and have worked in for many years,” echoing the rationale of many carpetbaggers who think they are somehow entitled to represent a district where they haven’t lived for decades, just because they work there or “grew up there.” Yes, she “saw an opportunity,” all right, an opportunity to completely violate the spirit of the new district based system by simply switching residences when her husband, Doug Chaffee was unsuccessful in his attempt to have the council select District 2 as one of the two districts to go up for election in 2018.*

Nowhere in her announcement does she reference the two videos that have surfaced, each of which appears to show her removing signs critical of her campaign, one from private property, and walking away with them—not exactly an honorable, or legal, way for a credible candidate to behave. Indeed, such a thin skinned reaction to legitimate criticism and cavalier disregard for the law (from a lawyer!) demonstrated a lack of either appropriate temperament or character, making her unsuitable to hold public office. It’s a good thing that the people of Fullerton will be spared her services.

Hastily bowing out on the eve of a forum traditionally well attended by City Council candidates provided a swift answer to the question of what she could possibly do to salvage her campaign in the face of such an embarrassing and unexpected revelation of her activities. Needless to say, it was the proper decision to make, ending a campaign that should never have begun in the first place. Even so, a little humility would have been in order, but is nowhere to be found in her emailed explanation for withdrawing. Now that she has, let’s see how long it takes her remove her OWN signs from the streets of Fullerton.

*A decision from which he, arguably, ought to have recused himself. It is difficult to believe that he was unaware of his wife’s plans to run for City Council.