2nd Worker in O.C. Election Guilty of Fraud

The campaign manager for the Doris Allen recall pleaded guilty Monday to taking part in a Republican effort to manipulate the ballot in last year’s 67th Assembly District election, becoming the second GOP worker to be convicted in the election fraud case.

Jeffrey Christopher Gibson, 24, admitted that he and an aide to Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle gathered signatures in Garden Grove last Sept. 21 to foster the candidacy of decoy Democrat Laurie Campbell.

Gibson also said that he and Pringle aide Mark Denny later that afternoon joined Campbell and an aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) at the registrar of voters office, where they gave the petitions to Campbell, then watched while she filed them and falsely swore that she had circulated them.

Gibson pleaded guilty in Municipal Court to a single misdemeanor, fraudulently making a nomination paper, and agreed to cooperate with the district attorney’s investigation of alleged wrongdoing in the 67th District campaign.

The Nov. 28 election was pivotal for the GOP. Huntington Beach Assemblyman Scott Baugh’s victory and Allen’s ouster that day gave Republicans enough votes to take control of the Assembly. With Baugh providing the winning margin, Pringle was elected speaker in January.

Gibson was sentenced Monday to three years’ probation, fined $2,800, ordered to serve 200 hours of community service and prohibited from participating in campaign work during his probation.

He became the second GOP worker to implicate Rhonda Carmony, Rohrabacher’s campaign manager, as being instrumental in the election fraud, according to their sworn declarations to the court.

On Friday, GOP worker Richard Martin, 26, pleaded guilty to helping file false nomination papers, a misdemeanor. Both he and Gibson now have said under oath that staff aides and campaign workers employed by Republican legislators tried to rig the Democratic ballot and ensure a Republican victory in the Assembly contest.

Gibson also said that Denny used a computer in Pringle’s campaign office to obtain the names and addresses of Democrats in the neighborhood where the two gathered signatures.

No evidence has emerged publicly to indicate that Pringle, Rohrabacher or Baugh participated in the scheme.

Rohrabacher on Monday repeated assertions he made in December that Carmony had only a “peripheral role” in the effort to dilute the Democratic vote of well-known Democrat Linda Moulton-Patterson.

“If Rhonda was more involved, she would have gone out and collected the signatures herself or organized it so that the job was done right,” Rohrabacher said.

“I am convinced that Rhonda Carmony has not broken the law and she has never exchanged words with Laurie Campbell.”

Carmony’s attorney, Creighton Laz, said, “We strongly dispute most of the facts in Gibson’s statement. I don’t know why he is saying what he is saying.”

And Pringle spokesman Gary Foster said, “Mark Denny did not have approval to get anything off the campaign computer. Had he asked, he would have been denied permission.”

Denny and Carmony could not be reached for comment.

In a separate case, Carmony has been charged with seven misdemeanor violations of the state Political Reform Act for her alleged role in setting up an independent campaign committee that in 1991 circulated a flier critical of a Diamond Bar councilwoman. Carmony allegedly failed to file required campaign reports, according to the district attorney’s office. She is due in court March 20 for a pretrial hearing.

In the 67th District race, Campbell, a longtime friend of Baugh, was removed from the ballot in late October by a Sacramento judge who found she had filed falsified nomination papers. A few days later, the district attorney’s office started investigating the circumstances of her candidacy. On election day, it was revealed that her husband had given the Baugh campaign a $1,000 contribution less than a week before she was recruited to get into the contest.

While it is not a crime for a Republican to recruit a Democrat, it is a felony to falsely fill out any part of a nomination paper or to knowingly file a falsified nominating petition. Penalties can include a $1,000 fine and imprisonment for up to three years.

In his court declaration, Gibson described his actions beginning about 3 p.m. on Sept. 21, two hours before the deadline for candidates to file for the 67th District race. Arriving at Pringle’s campaign office, he said, he overheard the end of a “heated [telephone] conversation” between Carmony and Pringle’s then-chief of staff, Jeff Flint.

After the call, Flint left the campaign office. Meanwhile, Carmony called again, looking for Flint, but instead talked to Denny, Gibson said.

“Carmony made it clear [in the conversation with Denny] that without our help, Campbell would not get on the ballot,” he said, and that “Carmony had more or less volunteered” us to gather signatures for Campbell. Carmony said she would send someone to Garden Grove with the petitions, Gibson said, and all would meet later.

Denny got a Democratic voter list from Pringle’s campaign computer, Gibson said, while the two of them waited for the Campbell petition delivery.

A little while later, Jeff Butler, a worker for the recall and the Baugh campaign, arrived with Campbell’s petitions, Gibson said. Then Gibson and Denny left to gather signatures. Afterward, they called Carmony and arranged to meet at the registrar’s office parking lot.

There, Gibson joined Carmony and Campbell, who were seated together in a car, he said.

“Carmony looked through the petitions and handed them one at a time to Campbell to be signed,” he said. “Campbell asked where she should sign and Carmony answered. This happened at least twice.”

Carmony also filled in some missing addresses on one of the petitions, Gibson said, replacing spaces that had contained only ditto marks. “See Jeff, it’s no big deal,” he said she told him.

At 4:57 p.m. Carmony, Campbell and Gibson went into the registrar’s office.

“I watched Campbell file the nominating petitions that Denny, myself and others had circulated,” he said.

* IN WORKER’S DEFENSE: Rep. Dana Rohrabacher backs his campaign director. A15