Rohrabacher, Pringle Aides Helped Campbell : Politics: GOP congressman and Assembly leader both say they opposed the campaign ploy and weren’t involved.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and Assembly GOP Leader Curt Pringle admitted Tuesday that their aides played roles in an effort to undermine a Democratic Assembly candidate during last month’s election, a ploy being investigated by the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) said his campaign manager, Rhonda Carmony, was “peripherally” involved in efforts to recruit a previously unknown Democrat and dilute support for a more established Democratic candidate in the special election for the 67th District Assembly seat.

“It’s clear she was on the periphery of it, but not involved in it. She was not in the leading force,” Rohrabacher said, contending it was not illegal to find a Democrat to run in the race.

Democrats have charged that the candidacy of Democrat Laurie Campbell was engineered by one or more Republican legislators and designed to help defeat Linda Moulton-Patterson, an established Democrat who was running to succeed Assemblywoman Doris Allen. GOP leaders have previously denied any involvement.

Campbell was thrown off the ballot after a Sacramento Superior Court judge determined she submitted falsified nominating papers.

Allen was recalled Nov. 28 and Republican Scott Baugh captured her seat. But Baugh is being investigated by the district attorney’s office for alleged links to the Campbell candidacy and campaign finance irregularities.

Pringle (R-Garden Grove) conceded Tuesday that an aide, Mark Denny, had participated in gathering the signatures for Campbell.

Denny, who works in the lawmaker’s Garden Grove district office, admitted to Pringle that he helped gather signatures to put Campbell on the ballot.

“I just did not believe at the time that Mark had physically collected signatures,” said Pringle, who has been buffeted by the allegations as he prepares to challenge for the Assembly speakership when lawmakers return next year. “I didn’t believe he would be involved with that. We have a practice in this office that nobody is to get involved with political activities without talking to me first. That was not something that was approved, or would have been approved.”

Rohrabacher also said he was not involved in any campaign to recruit a Democrat and discouraged it when the proposal was aired.

Rohrabacher said his immediate reaction to the idea of Republicans recruiting a Democrat was “that it was a stupid idea, that it was not illegal but it appeared underhanded, and was not a good thing to do. And I was opposed to it and wouldn’t have anything to do with it.”

Despite her skirting his orders not to get involved, Rohrabacher stood by his aide.

“Rhonda has committed no crime. Rhonda has broken no law, and I don’t think anybody else has either,” he said.

In an unrelated matter, Carmony was charged in September with seven violations of the state Political Reform Act involving work she did in 1992 for a political action committee that sent out mailers about a Diamond Bar councilwoman.

The congressman emphasized, “I don’t know Laurie Campbell; I have never spoken to Laurie Campbell.”

Rohrabacher attributed the effort to help Campbell get on the ballot to “people who are on the second-string [of local political operations] who are self-starters.”

They “didn’t need anyone to tell them [to put Campbell on the ballot]. They were just off and running. People just helped out a little bit here and did a little bit there. There was no prime mover here,” Rohrabacher said.

The congressman added that if he had not warned Carmony not to get involved, “she would have been right in the middle of it.”

Reached by telephone, Carmony refused to comment, referring all questions to her attorney, Creighton Laz. Laz did not return a phone call late Tuesday for comment.

A staff member at the registrar of voters office said she saw Carmony outside late in the afternoon of Sept. 21, the day Campbell submitted her nomination papers and paid her $699 filing fee.

Others say Campbell met with at least one Republican political worker in the parking lot of the registrar’s office in the late afternoon to receive and sign the nomination papers, which had been circulated by others.

Jeff Butler, a paid aide to the recall campaign, said Tuesday that recall campaign manager Jeff Gibson told him that Gibson and Denny helped gather the 40 signatures from Democrats necessary to get Campbell on the ballot. Gibson also told him that he met Campbell in the parking lot to show her how to fill out the forms, Butler said.

Gibson’s attorney, Ernest L. Eady, said his client is disturbed by the allegations.

“Obviously he’s concerned, he’s talking to an attorney,” said Eady. Although the attorney is still in the preliminary stages of reviewing his client’s situation, he urged the public not to jump to the conclusion that Gibson was somehow involved in wrongdoing.

“From what I know, and granted, it’s limited information at this point, he has done nothing wrong,” Eady said. “I really can’t comment beyond that, because I’m still looking at all this.”

Butler also said Pringle chief of staff Jeff Flint was part of the effort to get Campbell on the ballot.

But Flint said in a statement read Tuesday by his attorney that “allegations Jeff Butler made against me are false. Furthermore, it is publicly known that I was and still am of the opinion that an additional Democratic candidate . . . would have no effect in the ultimate outcome of the race.”

Flint’s attorney, Charles Spagnola, also said that Butler’s comments were likely colored because he had been fired by the Allen recall campaign. Flint served initially as campaign manger of the recall and later as a strategist.

Denny refused to discuss the allegations Tuesday.

In another development, the Orange County Democratic Party asked state Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren to nullify the Nov. 28 election that sent Baugh to the Assembly and install Moulton-Patterson in the 67th District seat.

Party Chairman Jim Toledano said Baugh has taken the office “unlawfully” because of allegations he violated campaign reporting laws and played a role in Campbell’s candidacy.

Steve Telliano, a spokesman for Lungren, said the office had not received the letter from Orange County Democrats and would not have a comment until it could be reviewed. Ron Brower, Baugh’s attorney, did not return repeated phone calls.

Toledano said that California law requires Lungren to take action against a candidate he believes has usurped public office. He maintained that Baugh is guilty of campaign wrongdoing and therefore Lungren should move to have the election thrown out and Moulton-Patterson installed in the seat.

“The proceeding which you will file will force Baugh to end his lies and evasions, and for the first time compel him to tell the truth,” Toledano said in the letter, adding that all voters in the state “expect that the law will be enforced against those in power.”

During the 3 1/2-month campaign, Baugh did not disclose a $1,000 contribution from Rick Campbell, Laurie Campbell’s husband, omitting it from three state-required campaign finance reports filed between the time he received the money and election day.

When questions arose about Laurie Campbell’s candidacy, Baugh initially denied knowing her, then acknowledged that the two had met and attend the same Newport Beach church. He has since admitted knowing the Campbells for seven years.

Brower two weeks ago acknowledged that Baugh returned the contribution to the Campbells at his house, handing over a sealed envelope to them on the evening of Sept. 21, the day Campbell entered the race.

Brower has said Baugh was unaware the envelope, which had been given to him by campaign treasurer Dan Traxler, contained $1,000 in cash rather than a check. However, Traxler--commenting through his lawyer--has said he gave Baugh cash because Baugh told him to get cash.

Butler was one of several people called to appear Tuesday by the Orange County Grand Jury on the Baugh and Campbell matters. Baugh campaign manager Todd Nugent appeared in the district attorney’s office around lunchtime with his lawyer, Robert G. Gazley, apparently after testifying before the grand jury.

Brower also visited the district attorney’s office on Tuesday.

Times staff writers Len Hall and Rene Lynch contributed to this report.