Looks like negativity didn't work
The San Bernardino County Taxpayers Coalition, an independent expenditure committee that reported spending close to $3,000 on phone calls and mud-slinging mailers wasn't very successful in knocking down their targets.
Late in the campaign, the Coalition dispatched hit pieces attacking newspaper executive Jerry Bean and retired teacher Nancy Ruth White. The futility of the pieces can be measured in the fact that Bean emerged as the top vote getter and White finished in a competitive third place.
Bean and incumbent Pete Aguilar won the two seats that were up for grabs this year. Some of the same campaign donors who supported Aguilar gave money to the Coalition. Aguilar, who was himself targeted by a negative phone call, disavowed the mail pieces.