Santa Ana Incident : Poll Guard Inquiry Taken to Sacramento

FBI agents carried their investigation of the Orange County Republican Party’s use of uniformed security guards at polling places to the state capital this week, interviewing at least one person who worked on Assemblyman Curt Pringle’s 1988 campaign.

Sen. Edward R. Royce (R-Anaheim) confirmed that two FBI agents interviewed one of his aides, Dave Gilliard, on Wednesday. Royce said he was not interviewed by the agents and did not participate in their discussions with Gilliard, who worked for several weeks last fall as a press aide in the Pringle campaign.

The Orange County Republican Party spent $4,000 to hire 20 security guards to monitor the polls on Election Day last November in 20 heavily Latino Santa Ana precincts in the 72nd Assembly District. The guards were hired, Republican officials have said, because of rumors that non-citizens--who may not legally vote--might be bused into the district to cast ballots for Pringle’s Democratic opponent, Christian F. (Rick) Thierbach.

Guards Were Removed

Party officials have said that the guards were instructed not to stop anyone from voting and that they were removed by midday at the request of county Registrar of Voters Donald F. Tanney.

Pringle, of Garden Grove, said he also was aware that the agents were in the capital. He said Carlos Rodriguez, the Sacramento-based political consultant who directed Pringle’s campaign, had told him he expected to be interviewed.

Pringle added, however, that he had not confirmed that such an interview had taken place as of Thursday.

Orange County GOP Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes has said it was Rodriguez who requested that Republican Party funds be used to hire the guards.

Neither Gilliard nor Rodriguez could be reached for comment Thursday.

Jim Neilson, an FBI spokesman in Los Angeles, would say only that the incident of the security guards is under investigation.

The disclosures are the first public confirmation that the FBI is actively pursuing the investigation.

A separate, civil lawsuit aimed at overturning the result in the 72nd District election has been filed in federal court in Santa Ana. On Monday, U.S. District Judge J. Spencer Letts refused to dismiss that lawsuit, saying its allegations, if true, are “an outrage.”

Pringle, who defeated Thierbach in the Nov. 8 election by fewer than 900 votes, said no FBI agent has approached him or his staff about the incident. But he said he would gladly speak to federal authorities if asked.

“I don’t mind this investigation,” Pringle said. “Let them do it fast. If they want to talk to me, fine. I want to get this over and concentrate fully on doing the job I was elected to do.”

Pringle said he believed that the agents were doing no more than conducting a routine review based on complaints filed by Latino groups.

“It is my understanding that whenever there is a complaint filed, the FBI follows through on it,” Pringle said. “I’m sure they’re just covering all the bases.”

Royce said the agents apparently interviewed several people involved in the Pringle campaign. But the only interview he could confirm was the one with Gilliard.

“No one has contacted me,” he said. “I know the reason they talked with Dave Gilliard was that he was involved for several weeks in the campaign.”

But Royce added that Gilliard was not involved in the decision to hire the security guards and was “back here” working in the capital by Election Day.