Hard Worker Had Made Way Among Democrats : Party Turns From Felon in Its Midst

Orange County Democratic leaders are attempting to distance themselves from a convicted felon who later won a place in local party organizations through “hard work,” and even got himself elected to a state Democratic Party committee.

“In politics you’re always looking for people who will work hard and produce,” county Democratic activist Chris Townsend said Tuesday. Townsend, former president of Orange County’s Democratic Associates, said the man, Howard O. Kieffer, “was very hard-working.”

Kieffer, 33, a marketing consultant who resides in Trabuco Canyon, was indicted by a federal grand jury in January on charges of defrauding the government and filing fake income tax returns that netted him $212,000 in refunds.

In 1984, Kieffer was convicted of two counts of felony grand theft, including fraudulently purchasing airline tickets and illegally deeding himself a house that he used as collateral for a loan. When the loan was foreclosed, the actual owner, a widow, was forced to give up the home to pay for it, authorities said.

County Democratic Party Chairman Mike Balmages said the controversy over Kieffer has been embarrassing to the party but said he was not sure what else could have been done.

No Guidelines

“There are no proscribed rules or guidelines on how to handle something like this,” Balmages said. “When allegations surface, you automatically get American feelings that a person is innocent until proven guilty . . . you do nothing until the allegations are proven to be true.

“On the other hand, Howard has apparently been convicted of something, and that is troubling because you do want to distance yourself as a party from people whose integrity is in question.”

Kieffer, while refusing comment on the previous or current criminal cases, said Tuesday that only a few of his Democratic friends had spurned him in the wake of his legal troubles.

“When the indictment was first announced, I received in the first weekend probably 150 phone calls.” Kieffer said. “It was 5 or 6 days before I received my first negative phone call, and then there were only two.”

He added that while he awaits trial, “Life goes on and you can’t just crawl in a hole and hide. . . . I can’t do that. I just have to hold my head up.”

Kieffer ran the Laguna Hills regional office that provided get-out-the-vote and voter registration services for presidential contender Michael S. Dukakis and other Democratic candidates.

“I think I’m a good organizer, and I think I’m known as somebody who gets things done,” Kieffer said.

After stories of his indictment and previous convictions were published, Kieffer was asked in February to resign from the board of the associates, a Democratic Party support group. When he did not, he was removed, Townsend said.

“Because of the nature of felonies he had pled guilty to, it would be inappropriate for him to remain on the board, which has fiduciary responsibility of the organization,” Townsend said.

Kieffer said he did not resign because his term was to have ended in a week in any case.

Kieffer also was an alternate on the county Democratic Central Committee. He was recently removed from that spot by the man who had appointed him, Howard Greenebaum, who unsuccessfully challenged Rep. Ron C. Packard (R-Carlsbad) in last November’s election.

Kieffer also has, in effect, been removed from his spot on South Orange County’s 70th Assembly District Committee, to which he was elected at the state Democratic Party convention last month. The election was subsequently called into question because of allegations that people ineligible to vote had participated. New elections have been ordered for Kieffer’s post as well as officers of the district committee.