Steve Rocco, the reclusive candidate who has had Orange County voters scratching their heads since his unexpected election to a local school board last month, broke his silence Friday.
Rocco -- who has eluded voters, reporters and even district officials after his election -- agreed to an interview with The Times and public radio station KPCC-FM (89.3), but offered little insight into his philosophy on education.
Instead, Rocco, who has run unsuccessfully for office before, described himself as a crusader who is the target of a well-orchestrated conspiracy by some of Orange County's top officials -- a group he calls "the partnership."
"I ran for the same reasons I decided to run in the past -- to fight the partnership," he said.
Political observers and voters were stunned when Rocco defeated a heavily favored candidate Nov. 2 for a seat on the Orange Unified School District board without ever handing out a campaign flier or making a speech. After his victory, he holed up in the house he shares with his mother, drawing widespread attention from the news media and stirring intense speculation among district residents.
Rocco is a frail man, with a pale, gaunt face covered partly by a scruffy beard. During Friday's interview, held at his lawyer's Santa Ana office, he wore large glasses with clip-on sunglasses attached. A frayed piece of black fabric tied around his left arm, he said, was to memorialize his father, who he said died Nov. 9. Rocco periodically scribbled notes on a piece of paper, meticulously noting the time each entry was made. He refused to be photographed.
Rocco refuted claims that he has been avoiding the spotlight since the election, saying that he has been mourning his father's death and consumed with arrangements for his funeral. He expressed surprise that his election has garnered so much attention and also frustration over news reports quoting those who described him as mysterious or unstable.
"The only thing I did was run. I didn't create this."
Rocco, who will take his seat as a trustee Thursday, ran unsuccessfully in 2000 to be mayor of Santa Ana and two years later for a seat on the Rancho Santiago Community College District board.
He attended Santa Ana College off and on from 1969 to 1991, earning two-year degrees in criminal justice, sociology, history, liberal arts, anthropology and speech communication. He holds elementary and secondary teaching certificates, but does not work as a teacher.
