O.C. Assembly Candidate Called GOP Plant : Politics: In six-way race for Doris Allen’s seat, unknown conservative Laurie Campbell could dilute the Democratic vote.

In the most pivotal Assembly race in recent California history, at least one of the candidates is not necessarily competing to win.

Laurie Campbell, a Democrat, says she got into the 67th Assembly District race because it appeared that four Republican candidates might split the vote, allowing the lone Democrat, Linda Moulton Patterson, to capture the conservative district in northwest Orange County.

“I know that by my running, I may prevent someone with a more liberal agenda from winning,” Campbell said. “My personal fear was Linda Moulton Patterson would win.”

Some Democratic Party officials bluntly suggest that Campbell is nothing less than a Republican Party plant.

Campbell refused to address the allegation, labeling it a “rumor.”

“You know as well as I do . . . that there are a lot of rumors about a lot of people,” she said.

A conservative and political unknown, Campbell moved to Orange County this year, transferring her voter registration from Glendale. She calls herself pro-family, and--unlike Moulton Patterson--she is anti-abortion.

Her hope is that a conservative will replace Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R--Cypress), the former Assembly Speaker who faces recall. The election will help decide which party controls the Assembly when it reconvenes in January.

While Democratic leaders have asked Campbell to drop out, she says she is staying in the race. Getting elected is not the point. “I am not so idealistic to think that I could possibly win,” she said.

So who persuaded her to run?

Campbell refuses to say.

But her strategy is right out of the Republican Party playbook: Having failed to limit their own candidate field, GOP leaders have openly expressed their desire to dilute the Democratic vote.

Democrats are crying foul. Republicans say they face the same tactics elsewhere in the state.

What’s going on here is Orange County politics as usual, a chess match voters do not see, say knowledgeable observers and insiders. In this election, the six-way contest offers an additional opportunity for gamesmanship: The winner can capture the seat with a small percentage of the vote, far less than a majority.

“All races are manipulated as much as possible, because that is what the parties are there for,” said Senate Minority Leader Rob Hurtt (R-Garden Grove), who has given a couple of million dollars to support Republican candidates statewide in recent years. “They exert influence as much as possible. . . . Anyone who thinks otherwise has their heads in the sand or are not paying attention.”

“This is a funny game that the general public is not involved in,” he said. “I’m not sure it has ever been any different.”

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If anything, this contest is being played with particular ferocity.

The added heat is rooted partly in the peculiar circumstances of the two-part ballot on Nov. 28. Assemblywoman Allen faces a recall backed by the state and county Republican Party.

Simultaneously, the six candidates are in a winner-take-all contest to replace her in the district, where party registration is half Republican and a third Democratic. There is a chance for a Democrat to squeak through because there is no primary beforehand to winnow the field, pitting one Democrat against one Republican.

Adding to the fever are the enormous stakes.

“Without question, this race takes on gigantic proportions, Olympian proportions,” said GOP strategist and fund-raiser Buck Johns, noting that the race will not only help pick the new Assembly Speaker but also help determine who controls committees and where powerful political action committees steer their contributions. “Millions hang in the balance on this thing.”

Talk has been rampant since the nomination period closed on Sept. 21 that Campbell is a Republican plant.

Assemblyman Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) told table mates at an Orange County Bar Assn. luncheon last week that Campbell “is our candidate,” according to one lawyer there.

Morrow, who backs the recall and has endorsed Republican Scott Baugh in the race, confirmed the remark but said it “was based on rumor. I have no firsthand knowledge of it. . . . Obviously, as you gleaned, it would certainly benefit the Republicans to have more Democrats in the race.”

A Republican Party strategist who spoke to The Times on the condition he not be named said that he was called just prior to the opening of the nomination period by a representative of the influential California Independent Business PAC, which has spent several million dollars in the state supporting mostly conservative Republican candidates. Catherine Raynor, the field representative for the PAC, told him she “was looking to recruit a Democrat to get into the race.”

He and several other party strategist said it is widely believed that Raynor’s PAC is behind the Campbell candidacy.

Danielle Madison, executive director of the PAC, denied any connection, while admitting her group was “looking to encourage another Democrat to get on the ballot. I never had a chance to do it. It happened without us being able to get involved.”

Madison defended the tactic, saying that “we could recall Doris and have Linda, and this would be ridiculous.”

“We were looking to encourage choice,” she said. “Linda Moulton Patterson is a left-wing radical; she does not even represent the Democrats in that district.”

Madison, whose group has backed the recall but never given money to a Democrat, said that they might contribute to either a conservative Republican or Campbell.

Campbell remains elusive.

Though most low-visibility candidates are eager to talk to the media, she avoided early efforts at telephone contact. Since an initial, reluctant phone interview last week, she has refused repeated requests to meet.

And she has refused to identify who asked her to run.

“They asked me not to,” said the 35-year-old legal secretary, whose husband, Kendrick Campbell, is a registered Republican.

“Some are friends, and some are family. . . . Some are fairly well known, and some don’t live in the district,” she said, adding that they include members of both major parties and people who go to her church, Mariners Church in Newport Beach.

Baugh also attends Mariners--a nondenominational, evangelical Protestant church.

Campbell said that she knows Baugh, whom she described as conservative, and that “we share similar viewpoints” on most things.

“There is one conservative Republican,” she said, “and I am a conservative Democrat.”

“If people feel compelled to vote for a Democrat, they can vote for me,” she said. “But if they have to vote their party and vote conservative, vote for a conservative Republican.”

Campbell called Republican candidate Haydee V. Tillotson “fairly liberal,” saying the opinion evolved from “different things I have read.”

Tillotson’s campaign, however, stresses her conservative credentials, party loyalty and community activities.

Baugh’s campaign maintains that he is the only “solid conservative.” He has called Tillotson “moderate to liberal” on social issues.

Campbell said she plans on “spending very little” in the race and does not expect to hire a campaign consultant.

Baugh denied any association with her campaign.

“I had nothing to do with her candidacy,” he said.

In an interview with The Times, Baugh at first denied even knowing Campbell. But Baugh amended his statement after a Times reporter noted that he and Campbell attend the same church and that Democrats are calling her a plant.

“I do want to clarify” the initial comment, he said. “I do know Laurie and did know she went to Mariners. . . . I don’t know why she is in that race.”

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The Democrats, of course, are expressing shock that politics is allegedly being played in Orange County.

“I think she is not a serious candidate,” said Tom Umberg, former assemblyman and Democratic Party leader. “She was certainly encouraged, if not recruited, by the Republicans to potentially dilute the Democratic vote. She is, in essence, doing their bidding.”

Gary Huckaby, a longtime political consultant and now a spokesman for the Fair Political Practices Commission, said that the strategy of putting in “a ringer, to do exactly what may be happening” here, is “a tried and true one in California history.”

“It is very difficult to prove unless someone steps forward and says, ‘We are proud of it,’ ” he said.

Larry Levine, a Los Angeles-based campaign consultant for Democrats, agrees with that and adds: “If someone from the other side wants to give [Campbell] money to draw votes away from a stronger Democratic candidate, you can claim it is a dirty trick, but it is not illegal. . . . If they paid her to become a candidate, that would be a felony.”

To several of the 43 Democratic voters in the 67th Assembly District who signed Campbell’s nomination petitions, the idea of having a spoiler in the race is upsetting.

Nichole Brunk, 21, of Huntington Beach called it “very unethical” and “very corrupted” if Campbell is not really in the race to win. Brunk, who is office manager for a Huntington Beach company that manufactures yacht sails, signed the Campbell petition at a local post office. She said she has never met Campbell.

“Voting is confusing enough as it is, and enough people don’t understand the process,” she said. “To throw things out of right field creates a result that is not true to the desires of the people.

“It undermines the system of allowing people the right to choose and steals from the validity of the vote.”

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Profile: Laurie Campbell

Age: 35

Birthplace: Seoul, South Korea

Profession: Legal secretary

Education: Cascade Union High School, Oregon, 1978; U.S. Army administrative (stenographer certificate) and intelligence (Morse code interceptor) schools, 1979; Barclay College, Sacramento, paralegal certificate, 1987; attended Golden Gate University, Sacramento, 1992-93

Personal: Married, with one child

Party affiliation: Democrat; registered Jan. 4, 1995

Husband’s affiliation: Republican

Activities: Big Sisters of Los Angeles; Sunday school teacher, Mariners Church, Newport Beach