Pringle Endorses Baugh as GOP’s Best Bet for Allen Seat

Assembly Republican Leader Curt Pringle announced Thursday that he will back Scott Baugh in his bid to replace Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress).

Allen faces recall in the Nov. 28 election in her northwest Orange County district. Baugh, a corporate attorney from Huntington Beach, is competing with three other Republicans and a Democrat in the simultaneous replacement ballot.

Also receiving an endorsement Thursday was Republican Haydee V. Tillotson, who won the support of the Southern California Alliance of Law Enforcement, which represents 30,000 officers.

Pringle announced his support of Baugh after a Thursday morning confab at the Center Club in Costa Mesa among Republican leaders, who gathered to assess the latest poll results in the race. The poll showed Baugh and Democrat Linda Moulton-Patterson bunched together in the first rank near the 20 percentile mark. Trailing in a second tier were the other candidates--Tillotson, Shirley Carey and Don MacAllister.

Also endorsing Baugh after the meeting was state Sen. John R. Lewis (R-Orange) and Dale Dykema, vice president of the Lincoln Club, a group of wealthy Republican political activists.

The gathering was called to determine the best way to ensure that a Republican would win the seat despite the divided GOP field, said several of those at the meeting.

Pringle called Baugh and Tillotson both “strong candidates,” but said he feels “it is important to unite behind one Republican and to encourage everyone to unite behind” Baugh.

Pringle’s hope of winning the Assembly speakership would be dealt a crushing blow if the Republicans do not win this race, which is being run in his own county. He acknowledged he has the most on the line of any of the local legislators, adding that support of Baugh was partly driven by the poll results. Others, he said, might not feel as strongly about the need to back Baugh, “who is in the strongest position to win.”