Wieder Keeps Aide Who Impersonated Journalist on Staff

Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder on Thursday criticized a volunteer working as her press secretary in the 42nd Congressional District race for impersonating a reporter to get information, but she declined to remove him from her campaign organization.

“It was very dumb,” Wieder said. “The campaign doesn’t need it. I don’t need it. . . . It was wrong.” But she added: “I can’t fire him because he’s a volunteer.”

Wieder did say, however, that the volunteer, Drew Simpson, “is not going to be doing press” in the future. “I can tell you one thing,” she added, “if he were employed, he’d be unemployed.”

Falsely claiming to be a reporter for Los Angeles radio station KFWB, Simpson joined in Wednesday night as a Times reporter was interviewing Douglas Langevin outside a candidates forum in Huntington Beach. Langevin is a leader of a recall effort being mounted against Wieder because of her record on development issues on the Board of Supervisors.

Press Secretary for Two Weeks

“I wanted to get at his motives for the recall,” Simpson said later. “I don’t think he would have talked to me as openly as he did if I had said I was Harriett’s press secretary.”

Simpson was Wieder’s press secretary only two weeks. He was brought in to handle calls from the news media after controversy arose over Wieder’s admission that she had falsely claimed to have a college degree.

During the interview that Simpson joined Wednesday night, Langevin said he intended to serve a recall notice on Wieder as soon as possible but not at the forum because he did not want its sponsors--Huntington Beach Tomorrow, a slow-growth group--tied to the recall effort. He also handed the interviewers, including Simpson, copies of the recall notice to be served on Wieder.

Apprised of his comments, Wieder took the offensive and challenged Langevin during the forum to serve her with the recall notice.

“So, Doug Langevin, what’s taking so long?” she asked him. “Serve me right now. Come on.”

When the forum ended, Langevin saw Simpson and Wieder together and discovered Simpson’s true identity. Langevin accused Simpson face to face of lying to gain an interview.

“A Dirty Trick?”

“I’m irate at it being misrepresented that I was having an interview with KFWB when in fact I wasn’t and you are actually Harriett Wieder’s press secretary,” Langevin said. “Don’t you think that is somewhat of a dirty trick?”

At first Simpson, who worked as a part-time news editor at KFWB during 1984 and 1985, denied that he had done anything wrong.

“I did not lie,” he said. “I told the man I was from KFWB.”

But later, during questioning by reporters, he admitted that he has no current connection with the radio station and apologized.

“That was my frat trick,” said Simpson, 44, who is taking a vacation from his $41,766-a-year job as public information officer for Coastline Community College in Fountain Valley to serve as a volunteer in Wieder’s campaign.

He said he wanted to learn about the motives of the recall proponents, who have threatened to challenge Wieder for supporting large-scale development projects despite the presence of Measure A, a slow-growth initiative, on the June 7 primary ballot in Orange County.

“I did not want Harriett to be embarrassed by being ambushed,” Simpson said.

The incident was the latest in a series of problems encountered by the Wieder campaign.

Two weeks ago, Wieder admitted that she had lied for 25 years about having graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit with a degree in journalism when in fact she never attended college.

Lied in Deposition

Wieder, 67, said at the time that she was “ashamed” that she was never able to go to college because of her family finances.

Last week, it was disclosed that Wieder lied about the degree not just on her resume but under oath in a deposition taken in a civil lawsuit in October.

Asked Thursday about campaign literature from her successful race for the Huntington Beach City Council in April, 1974, that included mention of a Wayne State degree, she said: “I’m not running in this congressional race on that fabrication and on that lie.”

Simpson’s actions added to the controversy and gave new ammunition for her three major Republican rivals in the race to replace Rep. Daniel E. Lungren (R-Long Beach), who is giving up the seat to pursue his disputed appointment as state treasurer. The 42nd District stretches from northwest Orange County to Torrance and the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Former White House aide Andrew Littlefair said the impersonation of a reporter is “another example of the way they operate. I think they operate over the edge in terms of deceit and half-truths.”

Stephen Horn, former president of Cal State Long Beach, said he was disturbed by the “pattern and practice of deceitful behavior” in the Wieder campaign.

And former presidential speech writer Dana Rohrabacher said obtaining information in a fraudulent manner “obviously reflects an attitude that flows from the top to the bottom of her campaign. They sort of take liberties with the truth.”

Simpson’s actions also sparked criticism from officials at KFWB.

Bill Yeager, executive news editor at the radio station, confirmed that Simpson was “a part-time editor for a period of time” but has had no relationship with the station for at least two years.

‘It Was Unnecessary’

“I think what he did was wrong,” Yeager said, adding that the station’s legal department has been asked to look into the situation. “I am sending him a letter denouncing his act,” Yeager said. “An apology is in order.”

Wieder and other campaign aides moved quickly Thursday to distance themselves from Simpson’s actions to minimize further damage to the congressional campaign.

“It’s not only unfortunate, it was unnecessary,” Wieder said. “It was stupid. It was wrong.”

She added: “The message is loud and clear. You accomplish nothing by lying.”