Bill Hunt in Labor? Labor in Pain?

Quint in a past life?

A tad bit of lunchtime indigestion for Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters, conventional wisdom's opponents for the June 2010 sheriff's election: I spotted Bill Hunt sitting outside at a Santa Ana cafe this morning with, drum roll, Wayne J. Quint, head of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs (AOCDS).

Behind cool shades, Hunt looked like the cat that ate the canary. Though outwardly sassy, Quint still had bruises and cuts (of the emotional kind, of course) from his recent bouts with a certain DA spokeswoman over deputies allegedly testi-lying to protect another deputy in an excessive-force case. Were those relatively fresh Hummer tire marks on the right side of his face? Did I get a whiff of methyl salicylate?

Anyhoooo, you may recall that Hunt is the former sheriff's lieutenant and popular police chief of San Clemente who ran afoul of our foul, prison-heading ex-top cop by publicly rebuking said foul ex-top cop's ethics and incompetence in the 2006 election. As I've previously reported, Hunt is contemplating a run for sheriff, a move that would likely hurt Walters the most by splitting the anti-Hutchens vote.

Hunt, now a private detective, has told me that he'll probably run if he gets the AOCDS endorsement.

And Quint? What did he have to say? He'd only volunteer that he enjoys the articles Susan Kang Schroeder writes under my byline.

--R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly