O.C. Republican Infighting Ends in Uneasy Truce

Two weeks ago, Orange County Congressman Dana Rohrabacher was so incensed by Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi’s investigation of one of his political proteges that he called for the county’s top prosecutor to resign.

Now, the usually unrestrained Huntington Beach Republican is pulling his punches, refusing to comment on fellow Republican Capizzi except to say: “I have no grudge against the D.A.”

This, from the same man who revels in political battle? The lawmaker who felt so betrayed by Republican Assemblywoman Doris Allen when she cozied up to Democratic Assembly members to became speaker that he led the effort to throw her out of office?

What gives?

Call it a silent truce, prompted, perhaps, by the wisdom of hindsight and by advice to both Rohrabacher and Capizzi by local Republican power brokers to cool it.

“I think it’s all died down. It went away,” said Doy Henley, president of the conservative Lincoln Club of Orange County and one who spoke to both Rohrabacher and Capizzi. The two politicians, Henley believes, simply got wrapped up in “the passion of the moment.”

Or the truce could be attributed to “mission accomplished,” says Michael J. Schroeder, the second-highest state Republican Party official, who joined Rohrabacher in demanding that Capizzi step down.

The pair held a news conference Dec. 23, the day after district attorney’s investigators searched the home of Scott Baugh, newly elected assemblyman from Huntington Beach and Rohrabacher’s protege. On the day of the search, Rohrabacher described the tactic as “reminiscent of the way Nazis and gangsters act.”

The district attorney’s office is investigating Baugh for alleged campaign finance irregularities in the Nov. 28 special election for Allen’s 67th Assembly District seat, which Baugh won. Prosecutors also are investigating Baugh’s links to Laurie Campbell, a Democratic candidate who was thrown off the ballot in that race after a judge determined her nominating papers were falsified.

Baugh’s win finally gave Republicans control of the Assembly and led to the election last week of Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) as speaker.

“Part of the reason why Dana and I reacted was that Capizzi’s [investigation] potentially had the effect of changing the outcome of [Baugh’s] election” to the Assembly, Schroeder said.

“Baugh was the deciding vote” in securing a GOP majority in the Assembly, Schroeder said. “Now that the speakership election has been decided, a lot of the interest in this will fade.”

Pringle thinks the acrimony broke out because “everybody was whipped up, and the media was very instrumental in fanning the flames. I think it is wise for everyone to calm down and relax and not point fingers and attack one another.”

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While the political sabers may no longer be rattling, they have not been completely put back in their scabbards.

Capizzi’s investigation into Baugh’s election continues. Through a spokesman, Capizzi said he “hasn’t talked to Rohrabacher, nor has he asked anyone to act as an intermediary between himself and Rohrabacher.”

Rohrabacher, meanwhile, says that while he bears no grudge against Capizzi, he still hopes the district attorney “reins in some of the subordinates and they find out what we’ve been saying all along has been true, that no criminal activity took place worthy of prosecution.”

Beyond that, neither side is saying much, and that’s just what local Republican leaders prefer.

“We certainly don’t want to see this type of a confrontation between two good Republicans,” said Dale Dykema, a Lincoln Club vice president whose son serves as Rohrabacher’s legislative director on Capitol Hill.

With Pringle’s election a high point for the GOP, activists say there’s no reason for the party engaging in an embarrassing fratricidal fight and stealing some of that limelight.

“We need to focus our energies on getting control in Sacramento,” said Buck Johns, another Lincoln Club board member. “Most of the people are kind of worn out with this kind of stuff.”

For more than a year, California Republicans have worked to wrest control of the Assembly from Democrats, only to be frustrated by political maneuvers that had more plot twists than an afternoon soap opera.

Republicans thought they finally had the post in hand last November, when Baugh replaced Allen.

But Baugh’s campaign was marred by allegations that Republicans planted Campbell in the race to siphon votes from the only major Democratic contender, Linda Moulton-Patterson. Pringle and Rohrabacher have acknowledged that their aides were involved in varying degrees in fostering Campbell’s campaign. Both have said they learned of the scheme after the fact and that no illegal activity occurred.

Any civility that existed between Baugh’s supporters and the district attorney’s office came to an abrupt end early on the morning of Dec. 22, when investigators, armed with a warrant, searched Baugh’s apartment. Baugh contended that he was knocked to the ground by agents, but the district attorney’s office denied there was any physical confrontation.

From Washington, Rohrabacher condemned the incident, saying Capizzi had “gone berserk,” and demanded his resignation. The demand was repeated the next morning at the news conference in Huntington Beach, where Rohrabacher was joined by Schroeder and Shawn Steel, treasurer of the state GOP.

Some in the local political establishment took the side of the district attorney, who made a name for himself early in his career by pursuing political corruption cases, political activists said. Other conservative political activists sided with Rohrabacher, whose bold leadership and flair for political theater have made him immensely popular in his district, they said.

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In many cases, the Republican rift caused discomfort until the general consensus formed that both sides got carried away.

“I think the D.A. was doing the job he’s supposed to do. That’s what we hire him for,” said Henley, who did not personally support Baugh’s election and commends Capizzi. But Rohrabacher “is a great guy and works hard and is very passionate . . . and I don’t blame him either.”

However, political combatants “trying to be too clever or innovative or whatever--we don’t need that,” Henley said.

Henley also noted the extra political danger of Rohrabacher’s action: “What do you want to do? Pick a fight with the D.A.? I don’t think so.”

Johns says the search of Baugh’s apartment seemed “heavy-handed,” but Rohrabacher’s call for Capizzi’s resignation did not help matters. “I think we need to let the dust settle,” Johns said.

Jo Ellen Allen, vice chairwoman of the county GOP, said she understands why the congressman reacted so strongly in defense of Baugh. In her mind, the prosecutors’ search for records was conducted as if Baugh had committed a serious crime, Allen said.

“I think the general public is sick of it all,” she added.

But Schroeder, Rohrabacher’s ally, says their silence for the moment has less to do with pleas from the Lincoln Club than with the fact that there has been no further action by the district attorney’s office.

“Nothing has occurred, so there’s nothing for us to react to,” Schroeder said. “There is no agreement to do nothing.”

Times staff writer Eric Bailey contributed to this report.