Watergate Figure Seeks O.C. Judgeship

Attorney Donald Segretti, who served 4 1/2 months in a federal penitentiary for “dirty tricks” during Richard Nixon’s 1972 presidential campaign, is running for an Orange County Superior Court judgeship.

Segretti, who has kept a low profile since his 1974 conviction, said Thursday that friends encouraged him to run for the seat being vacated by Judge Floyd H. Schenk.

“I had name recognition 25 years ago,” the 53-year-old attorney said from his Newport Beach office Thursday. “This is a way I believe I can make a positive contribution. I really do believe that. I don’t want to drag my family through any grief or aggravation. This is not an office like an assemblyman, a congressman or a senator. Generally, these are low-key campaigns and low-key offices.”

But UC Irvine political science professor Mark Petracca, a well-known liberal voice in the county, called the situation “pathetic.”

“He should be thankful he’s not in jail,” Petracca said. “Do you want someone with that kind of lack of judgment judging you?”

In 1974, the Los Angeles-born Segretti pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of distributing political literature without attribution. He is associated with an infamous letter written on Sen. Edmund Muskie’s stationary denigrating blacks and accusing other presidential candidates of sexual misconduct.

His exploits were recounted the book and film “All the President’s Men.” The book was written by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the journalists who uncovered the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon’s resignation.

Segretti was not part of that infamous break-in at the Washington hotel, but was part of the effort by the Nixon campaign to discredit Democratic candidates in the presidential campaign.

Segretti pleaded guilty and went to Lompoc Federal Prison.

In 1976, the California State Bar suspended Segretti’s license to practice law for two years and recommended that he retake a section of the bar exam relating to professional responsibility and legal ethics.

State law allows someone convicted of a misdemeanor to run for a judgeship if his record has been clean for at least 10 years.

Election watchers who otherwise would not have paid attention to the judicial race were surprised and intrigued at Segretti’s decision. Friends and business associates said Segretti, who lives in Corona del Mar with his wife of 15 years and their 12-year-old daughter, has built a strong reputation for himself as a bankruptcy/business attorney and that he would make an excellent judge.

Representatives of the Lincoln Club, a wealthy Republican group of which Segretti is an active member, called him an excellent lawyer and a patriot. His transgressions would have been overlooked in today’s political climate, said club President Doy Henley.

“Don paid his debt,” Henley said. “The whole thing with Watergate was something of a witch hunt anyway.”

“Only in America,” said Buck Johns, a developer and another Lincoln Club member. “Maybe this will dredge up a little history.”

Other candidates running for the seat on March 26 said they would not bring up Segretti’s record during the campaign.

“We’re not politicians,” said Jim Brooks, a judge at the West Orange County Municipal Court and a candidate. “It surprised me to learn he was running, but it doesn’t bother me. If he qualifies, then he’s welcome. That’s the nature of the Democratic process, and I wish him all the luck in the world.”

The other four candidates for the seat are Municipal Court Commissioner Clancy Haynes, Assistant Dist. Atty. Tom Dunn and attorney and Coast Community College Trustee Nancy Ann Pollard. Dunn is expected to drop out of the race and seek another judicial seat.

In Republican-heavy Orange County, a connection to former President Nixon could either be a kiss of death or a competitive edge, election watchers say, particularly in the case of a local judicial race that otherwise would generate little interest.

“There could be two different reactions,” Haynes said. “People might rally around Mr. Segretti. There’s also a large element which would probably be just as put off by all this as they were then.”

If elected, Segretti would hardly be the first Nixon-era figure to go through a rebirth. Former Nixon staff members have become priests, novelists, international consultants and radio talk show hosts.

Evan Henerson is a reporter for the Newport Beach-Costa Mesa Daily Pilot.