Political Forgery a Crime

Assemblyman John R. Lewis (R-Orange) should hardly be crowing about last week’s state appeal court decision in which a forgery charge against him was dismissed. Lewis said he was “happy but not surprised” that the court ruled that he had committed no crime in falsifying the signature of former President Ronald Reagan on hundreds of thousands of campaign letters to voters. But the court also said that, if sworn testimony about Lewis’ actions was true, he was “guilty of misconduct which impinges on the public’s interest in the integrity of its governmental institutions.”

Lewis was indicted a year ago by a Sacramento grand jury on one felony count of forgery for his role in sending the 1986 campaign letters on behalf of Republican candidates in six Assembly districts. Lewis, who was directing strategy for the races, ordered the letters sent even though he knew the White House had rejected drafts, according to grand jury testimony of former GOP aides involved in the decision. In one district, letters accused a Democratic assemblyman of “caving in to the powerful underworld drug industry.” The falsified signatures were noticed when letters bearing them were “returned to sender” at the White House.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento had stopped Lewis’s trial to decide whether the state forgery statute applied to political documents. After deliberation, the court held that, under the law as written, forgery was a crime only if it defrauded people of money or property.

But the court all but invited the Legislature to close the loophole for such political activities by adding a statute to the “political offense” section of the state elections code. Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, who prosecuted the case against Lewis, has vowed to sponsor legislation to make such political forgeries illegal. Van de Kamp should ignore Lewis’ accusations that he pursued Lewis as a “political vendetta” and follow through on that vow.

For its part, the Legislature should adopt legislation outlawing political forgeries before the new cycle of elections begins. Misleading voters in this way should be a crime punishable by law.