Letter to Voters Tells Bane’s View of Cuts to Longshore Staff

The Democratic chairman of the Assembly Rules Committee, angry at Republican criticism over the reduced staffing of a deceased GOP assemblyman’s office, Friday sent a letter to 56,000 voters warning them to beware of “any fraudulent attempts to bypass the legally constituted district office.”

“Until you elect your new representative in November, no one may fill the job of your Assemblyman,” Rules Committee Chairman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana) says in the letter. “Please do not allow false rumors or misinformation to discourage you from taking advantage of the Assembly services to which you are entitled.”

The controversy over staffing for the 72nd Assembly District erupted Monday when GOP candidate Curt Pringle, 29, of Garden Grove held a press conference outside the office of Assemblyman Richard E. Longshore (R-Santa Ana), a one-term legislator who died the day after the June 7 primary.

Pringle, whom the Republican Party chose to run in Longshore’s stead, accused Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) of having all but shut down the district’s office. Pringle offered to fill the void with his campaign staff, which includes one woman hired from Longshore’s staff.

The skirmish is part of what is expected to be a $1-million-plus battle between Democrats and Republicans in Orange County over the 72nd District, which includes Stanton and parts of Anaheim, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Westminster. It is the only legislative district within the county in which Democrats outnumber Republicans and, except for Longshore’s tenure, it traditionally has been represented by a Democrat. Pringle is opposed by Democrat F. Christian (Rick) Thierbach.

Democrats want to win the district back in part to help Brown bolster his majority in the Assembly after a year in which the so-called “gang of five”--composed of legislators in his own party--threatened his speakership. Republicans want to retain the district as part of their effort to get control of the Assembly in time for redistricting, which would be done after the 1990 census.

After Longshore died, his district and Sacramento office staffs were reduced from a total of about a dozen people to one person in each office. Bob Connelly, chief executive officer of the Rules Committee, said Friday that the reduction was in accordance with a longstanding practice followed whenever an Assembly member of either party leaves office.

“We simply put a generic minimum staffing in place . . . to make sure that calls from the public are serviced,” Connelly said. “It’s just good governmental and business practice.”

Connelly said he received a request Sept. 6 from the remaining district staff person, Scott Taylor, for an additional part-time person to cover the office in his absence. He said that after talking with Taylor, the Rules Committee staff denied the request.

Connelly said he was unaware until Pringle’s press conference that the district office had been closed while Taylor took a vacation this week. He said he dispatched a sergeant at arms, Lynis Johnson, to cover the office until Taylor returns Monday.

On the first day of Taylor’s absence, Pringle, flanked at the press conference by four Orange County Republican legislators, called the staffing level at Longshore’s office “outrageous” and accused Brown of telling “those of us who live here that we didn’t matter.”

Bane said when he learned of the press conference, he became angry. He said he decided to send the letter to voters--at a cost of about $10,000 in Assembly funds--in order to “straighten out his (Pringle’s) lie” that constituent inquiries were not being serviced.

“If he hadn’t’ve lied, we wouldn’t have put out the letter,” Bane said.

When told of the letter on Friday, Pringle’s political consultant, Gary Huckaby, asked, “Was it done at public expense?” Told that the letter had been paid for by the Rules Committee, Huckaby said, “It sounds like a little bit of political use to me.”