Rohrabacher Adds Claim Democrat Cheated in Race

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher on Wednesday accused former Democratic Assembly candidate Linda Moulton-Patterson of falsifying some of her candidacy paperwork, saying others circulated at least one of her nominating petitions.

“Basically, the overwhelming evidence indicates that Linda Moulton-Patterson did everything that the Democratic Party has sued Laurie Campbell for, and now [Moulton-Patterson] is lying about it,” the Huntington Beach Republican said.

Election law requires that the person circulating a nominating petition fill out certain information, then sign the papers while declaring he or she witnessed all signatures. A judge removed Democratic candidate Laurie Campbell from the Nov. 28 ballot for the 67th Assembly District race, finding that she didn’t personally circulate her petitions, though Campbell swore she had.

Rohrabacher said that a complaint against Moulton-Patterson would be filed with the district attorney’s office, which already is investigating Campbell and the winner of the Assembly race, Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach), for possible election law violations.

“If the congressman wants to bring this to our attention, it will be reviewed thoroughly, just as the Laurie Campbell matter has been,” Deputy Dist. Atty. John Anderson said.

Moulton-Patterson refuted some of Rohrabacher’s allegations, but conceded that she did not fill out all the information on the petitions in her own hand, as the law requires.

Moulton-Patterson, whose campaign collected about 90 signatures in one day, has said since October that she gathered the bulk of her signatures at a “signing party” at her house or personally in Huntington Beach, while some others were gathered by people who were legally designated as circulators.

“My signatures are good,” she said. “I witnessed them; this is ridiculous. Rohrabacher is trying to draw attention away from the fact that his candidate [Baugh] broke the law in a big way by passing out an envelope with cash in it and doing other things.”

She called on the district attorney to look for and “prosecute any wrongdoings vigorously.”

Rohrabacher said, “Linda and Laurie should be held to the same standard,” and added, [It] would be a stupid use of the law to criminalize political activity.”