Orange County’s School for Scandal

What is it about Orange County politics?

From 1974-77, an eye-popping 43 Orange County political figures were indicted, among them, two congressmen, three supervisors and the county assessor, according to the California Journal. One of the most extraordinary cases involved Dr. Louis J. Cella, a Santa Ana physician and hospital owner who was convicted of diverting Medicare and MediCal funds to finance political activities. Once ranked as California’s most generous campaign contributor, Cella supported such politicians as ultraconservative Larry Schmidt, a former Orange County supervisor, and liberal Democrat Ken Cory, then an Assemblyman representing Garden Grove.

The ‘80s witnessed more political scandal in Orange County. In 1986, W. Patrick Moriarty, an Anaheim fireworks manufacturer, was convicted on charges of mail fraud related to illegal campaign contributions. Two years later, the FBI-run Sacramento sting snared former state Sen. Paul Carpenter, a Democrat whose district included parts of Orange County, on corruption charges.

The most recent scandal stems from Republican anxiety over a Democrat taking last year’s winner-take-all election to replace former Assembly Speaker Doris Allen (R-Cypress). Republican Scott Baugh won the election handily, but the fallout from the GOP shenanigans that may have helped elect him has left a cloud hanging over new Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) and the Republicans’ tenuous grip on Assembly control.

In the last six weeks, three Orange County political operatives have been indicted on charges stemming from the continuing probe of alleged campaign irregularities connected with the Allen recall. Those indicted include Baugh, who is charged with four felonies and 18 misdemeanors, all arising from his successful campaign to replace Allen. Three more GOP operatives, including a Pringle aide, have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from their role in putting Democrat Laurie Campbell on the ballot, to siphon off votes from another Democratic candidate.

What makes Orange County ripe for such political scandal? Is it a suburban landscape that lacks a geographical--and political--center? Is it a universal hostility toward government? Or a zeal to control its political levers?

Long-time observers cite burgeoning growth in the 1960s and ‘70s as the catalyst for power grabs by politicians and business leaders intent on influencing regulatory decisions. The corruption has been driven more by lust for political dominance than by personal greed. The questionable behavior surrounding the Allen recall fits this model.

Some Orange County politicians have blamed an aggressive district attorney for their troubles. In the ‘70s, GOP Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks waged war primarily against Orange County Democrats, among them Cella. Baugh has attacked current Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi, a fellow Republican, for the timing of Baugh’s indictment--four days before the March primary.

Orange County’s climate for scandal has also been affected by a debilitating tension between fragmented governmental authority and monolithic political power--sometimes held by individuals like Cella or conservative magnate Howard F. Ahmanson Jr., sometimes by business elites like the Irvine Co. and Orange County’s potent “growth industry,” sometimes by political groups.

The thrust toward suburbanization in the ‘70s aggravated this tension by diffusing government accountability and responsibility. Growth decisions were driven by the private sector. “The ethics of business,” said one observer, got confused “with the ethics of politics.”

There is still no geographical center, no major urban hub, in Orange County. There is no Mayor Willie Brown or Richard Riordan--no dominant governmental figure. Orange County’s bankruptcy, which resulted in felony charges against several officials, directly relates to the county’s diffusion of authority and lack of oversight.

Conversely, except for a brief interval during the post-Watergate ‘70s, when Democrats held a plurality of voter registration, Orange County politics have been largely a monopoly of the Grand Old Party. Conservative Republicans hold sway over the county’s state legislative and congressional delegations. Orange County Democratic Party Chairman James Toledano called the recent indictments “the logical consequence of absolute power corrupting absolutely.”

But Republicans are not alone in their political shenanigans. During the high-water mark of Democratic clout in Orange County in the ‘70s, 17 campaign workers for two Democrats, then Rep. Jerry Patterson and then-Assemblyman Richard Robinson, were indicted and convicted on misdemeanor charges of false registration. Today, Toledano is under fire for his handling of a questionable $10,000 contribution. That’s not surprising, say observers, because the county’s Democratic Party, out of power and virtually out of sight, is “dysfunctional” and “nobody cares what it does.”

In the absence of a competitive two-party system, Orange County residents have tended to tune out government and politics, possibly creating conditions ripe for scandal. Historically, Election Day turnout has been low. Mark Baldassare, who tracks Orange County trends, said, “Of all eligible voters, the percentage of people registered to vote [in Orange County] is lower than in Los Angeles County or San Francisco. You wouldn’t expect that for a place that’s supposed to be an educated, affluent, suburban county.”

Perhaps the entrepreneurial ethos of Orange County is another factor contributing to electoral dirty tricks. In 1977, the California Journal labeled political consultants William A. Butcher and Arnold C. Forde “an Orange County trademark for tricks of the trade.”

In the 1980s, two GOP Assemblymen from Orange County, Pringle and now-state Sen. John R. Lewis, were linked to political chicanery. Pringle was investigated after Orange County Republicans hired security guards allegedly to intimidate Latinos in Pringle’s district from voting in the November 1988 election. Pringle withstood legal challenges to his victory, but was defeated for reelection in 1990. Lewis was charged with forgery for the unauthorized use of the signature and endorsement of former President Ronald Reagan in campaign mail. He was indicted, but a state appeals court threw out the charges.

From the ideological wars of the right-wing John Birch Society in the ‘60s and ‘70s to the reported role of the arch-conservative California Independent Business PAC and its executive director in the recent “decoy-Democrat” scheme in the Allen recall, the “true-believer syndrome” has often sparked questionable political behavior. For ideological zealots, the ends too easily justify the means. One observer of Orange County politics sees the “we have to take over the Assembly” attitude as a critical part of the current scandal swirling around the Allen recall. “It has gone beyond a political cause,” he said, “to become a moral cause.”

Fragmentation and monopoly, apathy and zeal, power and impotence--these are the forces that have shaped the civic culture of Orange County. They have created a dynamic that seems naturally to fuel a cycle of scandal and reform that continues to dominate political life.*