Baugh Recruited ‘Decoy’ Candidate, Affidavit Says

Orange County prosecutors have evidence that Republican Assemblyman Scott Baugh was directly involved in recruiting a longtime friend to run as a Democrat last year in the hope of siphoning support from a Democratic rival in a Nov. 28 special election, according to an affidavit filed in court Thursday.

Prosecutors support their claim with pages of testimony from the decoy Democratic candidate, Laurie Campbell, who contends that Baugh (R-Huntington Beach) was involved in the plan from the very beginning and had conversations with her about “diluting the Democratic vote” and paying her legal bills when the plot went sour, the court documents show.

The district attorney’s office also alleges that Baugh has committed at least six felonies by violating state campaign finance laws, including money laundering and failure to report donations made to his campaign, according to the affidavit filed in support of a search warrant request.

Baugh repeatedly has denied knowledge of a GOP plot to manipulate that election. Three political workers, one a former aide to Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle, pleaded guilty this month to participating in such a scheme, which involved GOP aides circulating nominating papers for decoy Campbell and helping her file as a candidate on Sept. 21.

Campbell told investigators that, according to Baugh, the plan to put her on the ballot had the “blessing” of Pringle, who was counting on the recall of maverick Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) and Baugh’s simultaneous victory to give the GOP control of the Assembly, the documents show.

“Campbell said Baugh told her it was Curt Pringle’s people who [were] behind this nomination paper incident,” according to the affidavit. “Baugh told Campbell that [Rep.] Dana Rohrabacher is ‘really ticked’ at Pringle’s office for allowing this to happen.

“Campbell said that Baugh said it is Baugh’s understanding that this whole idea was Carmony’s [campaign manager for Rohrabacher], but she had Pringle’s blessing to go forward with it.”

Baugh and Rohrabacher (R-Newport Beach) declined comment Thursday. Rhonda Carmony could not be reached for comment, but her attorney, Creighton Laz, said she has been instructed to appear in court at 9 a.m. today. Being asked to appear, Laz said, “would indicate there’s been an indictment.”

Through a spokesman, Pringle also said he had no involvement in Campbell’s candidacy.

A grand jury has been hearing evidence in the case for more than a month, but the pace picked up when the three political workers pleaded guilty to participating in the GOP scheme.

According to the affidavit, filed by prosecutors to obtain telephone, bank and credit records of Baugh and others:

* The district attorney’s office believes Baugh committed perjury repeatedly by filing incomplete and incorrect campaign finance reports and other required campaign documents from October through January.

* Baugh omitted a $1,000 contribution from Campbell’s husband, Rick, from campaign reports filed in October and November, effectively hiding his relationship with Campbell, according to Baugh’s former campaign treasurer, Dan Traxler.

* Pringle acknowledged that his chief of staff, Jeff Flint, knew about the plan to recruit Campbell and that Flint knew that another Pringle staffer, Mark Denny, was involved.

* Campbell said Baugh made the key overture to her. She was contacted a day later by a GOP campaign worker, Richard Martin, who helped her obtain her candidacy paperwork, she said.

* Campbell said Baugh told her that her legal bills would be paid by others. She said that Dave Gilliard, Baugh and Pringle’s campaign consultant, helped her obtain two attorneys.

The investigation into the irregularities in the 67th Assembly District election began almost five months ago, after The Times reported that Campbell had filed falsified nominating petitions and the Orange County Democratic Party filed a complaint with Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi’s office.

The Orange County Grand Jury has taken testimony since mid-February from a parade a witnesses in the two-pronged case. Campbell, one of the first, appeared Feb. 13.

One aspect of the case involves Campbell’s candidacy and the effort to dilute the vote for well-known Democrat Linda Moulton-Patterson. A second involves the fiscal affairs and campaign reporting by the Baugh for Assembly campaign.

Baugh succeeded Allen by capturing the winner-take-all special election Nov. 28, the same day Allen was recalled. Baugh’s election gave Republicans the votes to take control of the Assembly. They elected Pringle speaker in January.

Campbell’s foray into California politics began at a party at Baugh’s house last August, according to the affidavit. Campbell said she met Carmony and Martin, one of the Republican aides who recently pleaded guilty to election fraud, and was drawn into a discussion about the field of candidates, where those present noted that the only Democrat in the race at that point was Moulton-Patterson.

“Well, I should run,” Campbell recalled saying.

Over the next few weeks, Campbell said she talked several times about the election with Baugh, whom she had known since 1986, when both worked at the Sacramento offices of the law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Only two days before the filing deadline, Campbell said she talked to Baugh and that Baugh told her “some people were interested in backing her” to run as a Democrat. The next day, Campbell received a phone call from Martin, who worked in the recall and Baugh campaigns, the affidavit shows.

Martin instructed Campbell to pick up her candidacy papers at the registrar of voters office and then retrieved them from her at her Irvine office, the documents show. They also detail Campbell’s meeting with four GOP aides in the parking lot of the registrar’s office, where she received and signed the petitions that had been circulated by others.

According to the affidavit, Campbell paid the $699.36 filing fee using $700 in cash “from her husband, Kendrick “Rick” Campbell [which came] from the return by Baugh of a $1,000 contribution Rick had made earlier to Baugh’s campaign.”

The affidavit details frequent contacts between Baugh and Campbell. When the decoy candidate ploy soured in October and Democrats challenged the Campbell candidacy in court, Baugh told her not to worry about her attorney’s bills.

“[Your] attorney fees will be taken care of,” she said, according to the affidavit. Campbell was ousted from the election in October, when a judge determined she filed falsified nominating papers.

The district attorney’s office contended in the affidavit that Baugh committed multiple felonies between January and November, 1995, all related to his alleged failure to truthfully disclose the source and repayment of thousands of dollars in loans to his campaign. Perjury is punishable by two to four years in state prison.

Some of the allegations concern Baugh’s omitting contributions. Others involve his accepting personal loans from individuals, then turning around and lending similar sums to his campaign to, in effect, conceal the source. These loans were reported as coming from Baugh rather than their originator, the affidavit contends.

Baugh omitted a $1,000 loan from Rick Campbell by listing it on two 1995 campaign statements as coming from himself, investigators contend. In another instance, Baugh listed $27,000 in loans as outstanding when they had been repaid within five days. Baugh misstated the dates they had been repaid, investigators contend in the affidavit, so it would appear there was more money in the campaign treasury.

Democrats reacted with disdain to the reports in the affidavits.

“This proves that dirty tricks are still alive in Orange County,” said Assembly Democrat Leader Richard Katz of Sylmar. “They believe their cause is so righteous they’re untouchable and can do whatever it takes to win.”

Orange County Democratic Party Chairman Jim Toledano, whose complaint sparked the investigation, called on the district attorney to charge Rohrabacher, Pringle and Baugh for conspiring to throw the election.

Pringle could not be reached for comment, but his spokesman continued to stick by the speaker’s version of events: that he knew nothing about the efforts to put Campbell on the ballot.

According to the affidavit, Flint knew on Sept. 21 that Pringle staffer Mark Denny was circulating petitions for Campbell, Pringle told investigators.

In interviews with investigators on Feb. 23 and March 10, Pringle said that Flint told him “that he never talked to Laurie Campbell and he did not circulate her nomination papers.” Pringle also told investigators that Flint told him “he was aware of Denny’s activities.”