Attorney General to Take Up Inquiry Into Irvine Campaign

The head of the state attorney general’s office in San Diego said Friday that his office will “continue with the inquiry that the Orange County district attorney started” involving the 1984 campaign of Irvine City Councilwoman Sally Anne Miller.

Assistant Atty. Gen. Harley Mayfield said he has agreed to a request made by Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks last week that the attorney general’s office look into “allegations regarding some possible unlawful campaign activity of Miller’s,” since Hicks wanted to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

Hicks is using the political consultant firm of Nelson-Padberg Communications of Costa Mesa for his reelection campaign, the same firm that is a “potential witness” in the Miller case.

The district attorney’s office in January began investigating “approximately $10,000 worth of checks . . . for a last-minute” political mailer produced by Nelson-Padberg and sent out by the Miller campaign, according to Mary Ann Gaido, the two-term Irvine City Council incumbent who was defeated in 1984 and against whom the mailer was directed.

Miller said last week that she had done nothing wrong in her campaign and suggested that the district attorney’s investigation stemmed from a “sour grapes” complaint from Gaido.

“I can’t say how long the investigation is going to take,” Mayfield said, adding that he was going to assign an investigator to the case Friday. But Mayfield refused to comment further on the investigation. “We have not made any evaluations (of the Miller case) regarding the merits,” he said.