Campbell Might Face County Suit : Politics: Board will be asked if ex-Assembly candidate should be sued to recoup costs of taking her off ballot.

The Orange County counsel’s office will ask the Board of Supervisors next month to decide whether the county should go to court to recover damages from former Democratic Assembly candidate Laurie Campbell and any others involved in placing her on the ballot.

It cost the county $40,000 to reprint material for the 67th Assembly District special election when a Sacramento judge ordered Campbell removed from the ballot a month before the Nov. 28 election.

The judge found that Campbell had filed falsified nomination papers, signing that she had circulated them. However, they actually were circulated by several unidentified people, a Times investigation found.

Campbell was removed from the ballot just days before the Registrar of Voters was to begin distributing absentee and sample ballots. Most of the ballot material for the election had already been printed.

If the supervisors decide to sue, the county likely would have to prove that Campbell acted illegally when she filed her papers in order to recover the money, legal sources said.

Acting County Counsel Laurence M. Watson said Thursday that he has a draft opinion that will ask supervisors to decide whether to initiate a suit in Orange County, join a suit filed in October by the Democratic Party in Sacramento or not seek a financial penalty.

“We will not let this slip through the cracks,” Watson said. “Once we decide what to do in this office, it will go to the board. I would say sometime in January we will go to them.”

None of the supervisors returned calls for comment.

The potential suit by the county is not the only liability facing Campbell, whose candidacy is being investigated by the Orange County district attorney’s office. It is a felony under the state elections code to file falsified nominating papers.

Democrats, whose suit forced Campbell from the ballot, are discussing seeking reimbursement for the county as part of that lawsuit or suing under a bounty-hunter provision in the False Claims Act to recover losses to the county, said George Waters, an attorney for the Democratic Party.

Potentially, Campbell and others involved in the gathering of signatures for her nominating petition could owe perhaps $40,000 to the county and another $40,000 to lawyers for the plaintiffs, Waters said.

Campbell’s attorney, Michael Rothschild, could not be reached for comment.

Ed Duran, the assistant county counsel handling the case, said the draft opinion will present options and various legal theories to the board and ask for direction.

“It is a decision the board should make, which of any of the options should be taken,” he said.

Watson indicated he would prefer to seek recovery apart from the Democratic lawsuit.

“If I were going to file something,” he said, “I would file a lawsuit in Orange County to recover the costs.”