Roberti Backers Ask State to Investigate His Opponent : Politics: They say Carol Rowen may have used unauthorized signatures of legislators in 2 brochures.

Supporters of state Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) asked the state attorney general’s office Monday to investigate whether brochures sent to voters by Roberti’s Republican opponent violate a state ban on phony political endorsements.

Roberti’s backers called for an inquiry into two mailers sent by Carol Rowen, a Tarzana pension consultant who is battling Roberti in a June 2 special election for the San Fernando Valley Senate seat vacated by former Sen. Alan Robbins.

The brochures, sent out over the signatures of GOP Assembly members William J. Filante (R-Greenbrae) and Tricia Hunter (R-Bonita), contained sharp attacks on Roberti that were later disavowed by both lawmakers. Thousands of voters received copies before the April 7 primary.

The mailer with Hunter’s signature noted that Robbins and two other former Democratic senators have been convicted of federal corruption charges and contended that Roberti was their ringleader and “may be next.” In fact, Roberti has never been mentioned as a subject of the ongoing federal probe of alleged corruption in the Legislature.

Hunter apologized to Roberti twice before the primary, saying she “would never have approved such a letter being sent out with my name under any circumstances.”

The brochure carrying Filante’s signature charged that Roberti “operates unethically” and attacked him for “spending over a million dollars of his special-interest money” in an effort to buy the Valley seat. Roberti is running in Robbins’ old district after being forced out of his Hollywood-based district by reapportionment.

Filante also apologized to Roberti, saying he had not approved the harsh language in the letter. Filante blamed the situation on a “misunderstanding of my staff.”

Roberti subsequently charged that both brochures were part of a smear campaign against him orchestrated by Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana) and his wife, Marlene, a political consultant who is managing Rowen’s campaign. The Banes denied that assertion.

Roberti’s staff had claimed early in the campaign that Marlene Bane asked Roberti to hire her as his campaign manager for a fee of up to $50,000. When he made her a far smaller counteroffer, Roberti aides said, she recruited Rowen to run against him--an allegation denied by Marlene Bane and Rowen.

The complaint against Rowen was signed by two Democratic Party activists who live in the Valley. A Roberti spokesman acknowledged that it was drafted by a Sacramento lawyer paid with Roberti campaign funds.

The complaint charges that the Rowen mailers appear to violate a 2-year-old law outlawing the use of unauthorized signatures in campaign literature. The statute was passed after former President Ronald Reagan’s signature was used without his permission in smear mailers directed at six Democrats in 1986 Assembly races.

But Rowen said both Filante and Hunter knowingly signed final versions of the brochures that were sent to voters.

Rowen said Hunter recanted her comments about Roberti only after he “threatened that her legislation would never see the light of day.”