Witness Linked Pringle Aide to Ballot Spoiler

Grand jury transcripts released Monday indicate that Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle’s top political strategist urged GOP aides last September to recruit spoiler candidate Laurie Campbell for a winner-take-all special election.

Testimony before the Orange County Grand Jury, taken last December and part of more than 460 pages of transcripts, indicates for the first time that longtime Pringle political consultant Dave Gilliard discussed a Campbell candidacy with Rhonda Carmony, who pleaded not guilty Monday to charges that she helped falsify Campbell’s nominating petitions.

While it is not illegal for members of one political party to recruit someone from another party to run in an election, it is a felony to fraudulently fill out any part of a nomination paper or to knowingly file a falsified nominating petition.

Gilliard is vacationing in Hawaii and could not be reached for comment. He has not been charged in the case.

Pringle has repeatedly stated that he knew nothing of efforts to draft a decoy candidate for the Nov. 28 special election to replace then-Assemblywoman Doris Allen. Scott Baugh captured the election, giving control of the Assembly to the GOP and the speakership to Pringle.

Pringle spokesman Gary Foster said Monday, “Speaker Pringle knew nothing about the recruitment of Laurie Campbell or any other Democrat, and if he had been approached with the idea, he would have forbidden it.”

The conversation between Gilliard and Carmony, who was organizing the campaign for then-candidate Baugh, took place Sept. 20 in a speaker-phone call, according to the testimony of Todd Nugent, a Baugh aide who was with Carmony during the discussion.

It was the eve of the deadline for candidates to file in the special election, and Nugent and Carmony were in the campaign office of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), who was Baugh’s mentor. Carmony was also Rohrabacher’s campaign manager.

Nugent told grand jurors that Carmony was discussing with Gilliard electoral strategy in the developing campaign to replace Allen. Gilliard was concerned that the four Republican candidates on the ballot would divide the GOP vote, Nugent testified.

The conversation turned to splitting the Democratic vote, and Gilliard said the “best scenario would be four Democrats” on the ballot as well, Nugent testified.

Nugent said he remembers Gilliard saying, “Well, this Laurie Campbell, we need to get her on the ballot.”

Nugent testified that during the phone conversation, either Carmony or Gilliard brought up Campbell by name and also discussed the relationship between Baugh and Campbell, who are longtime friends.

“I remember someone saying that they knew each other. . . . It could have been Dave, it could have been Rhonda, that they did know each other,” Nugent testified. “. . . I remember someone mentioning the fact that they were friends or they knew each other.”

Nugent, who became Baugh’s campaign manager and now works in Baugh’s district office, testified that he did not know who Campbell was and did not like the idea of recruiting her or any other Democrat.

“I remember thinking to myself, that’s a crazy idea,” he said. “I don’t want to be a part of it. . . . I don’t know that I believe it to be underhanded, I just didn’t think it was as honest--I don’t believe it was honest,” Nugent testified.

Three GOP aides, including former Pringle aide Mark Denny, have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of falsely circulating nominating petitions for Campbell, who was removed from the ballot by a Superior Court judge before the election.

The grand jury returned indictments March 21 against Carmony, Baugh and Baugh chief of staff Maureen Werft. Baugh has been charged with four felonies and 18 misdemeanors, including several relating to his campaign’s admitted failure to report a $1,000 donation from Campbell and her husband, Rick.

All three pleaded not guilty Monday.

The Nugent testimony was taken in December, before last year’s grand jury turned the case over to the current panel. The previous jury heard from four witnesses--including Nugent--on Dec. 18 and 19 but was not asked to indict anyone, grand jurors said.

Though Campbell is a longtime friend of Baugh’s, Baugh hid the extent of their relationship throughout the campaign. Campbell testified in February that she received a phone call from Baugh on Sept. 19, during which Baugh asked her if she “was still interested in running” as a Democrat.

When she told him she was, Baugh responded that “he knew some people that would be interested in me,” according to her grand jury testimony.

The telephone conversation between Carmony and Gilliard about recruiting Campbell took place the next day, according to testimony.

Times staff writer Ken Ellingwood contributed to this report.