O.C. Democrat Admits Election Law Violation

Former Huntington Beach Mayor Linda Moulton-Patterson pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor election law violation stemming from her unsuccessful bid last November in a special election for the 67th Assembly District seat.

The surprise guilty plea by the Democratic candidate was the result of a months-long investigation by the district attorney’s office that has largely been aimed at Republicans accused of putting a stealth candidate on the ballot to siphon votes from Moulton-Patterson.

The investigation has led to the guilty pleas of three aides to Republican legislators and the indictments of Assemblyman Scott Baugh, the winner of the election, and two Republican staffers.

Moulton-Patterson, 53, pleaded guilty to one count of filing false nomination papers. She admitted to swearing that she personally had witnessed the signatures on her nominating petitions when she had not.

She was ordered to pay a $5,400 fine and perform 200 hours of community service. She also was barred from running for office during a three-year probationary period and agreed not to participate in any political campaigns during that time.

“I made a mistake--not a knowing one--and will take responsibility for it,” she said Wednesday.

Her fine was substantially larger than the penalty given the three Republican aides, who pleaded guilty in March to falsifying a nominating petition to place a decoy Democrat on the ballot in the election. One of the aides worked for Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), one for Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and the third ran the recall campaign.

A fourth Republican, Rhonda Carmony, an aide to Rohrabacher, faces trial in August on three felony counts for her alleged role in recruiting the decoy candidate. She denies committing any crime.

Ironically, the goal of the Democratic spoiler was to siphon votes from Moulton-Patterson.

In a statement read in court, Moulton-Patterson admitted that at least one of her nominating petitions was circulated by a friend and that a number of others were signed outside her presence during a “signing party” at her house on the day of the filing deadline. Even though she did not gather all the signatures, the candidate herself signed almost all the petitions as their circulator.

The law requires that the circulator of a nominating petition swear under penalty of perjury that she has witnessed all the signatures.

During the campaign, Moulton-Patterson had maintained that all her petitions were proper and that she had circulated all the ones with her signatures. On Wednesday, she said that a petition circulated by someone else, and the ones with signatures she did not witness, were mixed in with others “inadvertently.”

“I wasn’t aware I had done it,” she said. “It was just a mix-up. It was careless and done in haste.”

Moulton-Patterson, who is a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in August, appeared devastated after entering the plea.

“You can see it is killing her,” said her attorney, Jennifer Keller.

The recall election in the 67th Assembly District was a pivotal one in state politics. It sought the recall of renegade Cypress Republican Doris Allen, who had joined with Democrats to frustrate the Republican majority in the Assembly. The prize for GOP leaders would be the speakership of the California Assembly.

The race was hard fought and well financed on the GOP side, with the state’s and county’s top Republican leaders fearful that if Moulton-Patterson ran as the sole Democrat, the field of four Republicans would split the GOP vote and allow her to win.

The idea of recruiting a decoy candidate, Laurie Campbell, grew from that concern. Campbell, however, was removed from the ballot when a court found she had falsified her nominating petitions.

The eventual winner, Baugh, provided the key vote to elect Pringle as speaker. However, Baugh himself was indicted in March for perjury and violations of the state campaign finance law. Those indictments grew out of the investigation into the decoy candidacy of Campbell.

Prosecutors allege Baugh lied on campaign finance documents last year to hide his relationship with Campbell, a longtime friend who had given him $1,000. Baugh, who also faces trial in August, denies the allegations.

The investigation of Moulton-Patterson began with a complaint filed by GOP activist Leon McKinney in January. However, Rohrabacher had charged as early as December that Moulton-Patterson’s petitions were falsified, too, and that Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi’s office was involved in a witch hunt for only investigating the Campbell candidacy and her links to Baugh.

The district attorney’s office has said nothing about the Moulton-Patterson investigation for months. Supervising Deputy Dist. Atty. Guy Ormes described Moulton-Patterson as cooperative once she was approached by investigators following the complaint.

Keller said outside the courtroom Wednesday that her “client is coming forward and taking responsibility and saying ‘The buck stops here.’ ” She added that Republicans such as Baugh and Carmony have tried to hide the fact that Campbell was a Republican plant.

“Even now, the leaders of the plot are hiding and vilifying the district attorney. They should step forward, admit wrongdoing and accept their punishment,” she said.

Surprised by word of the guilty plea, county GOP Chairman Thomas A. Fuentes was critical of the district attorney.

“It troubles me that you and I should suddenly learn out of the blue that a major politically sensitive election matter with criminality is being resolved behind closed doors,” Fuentes said. “Is this the justice system? Where is the right of the people to know what is happening? Where is a clear public forum for our justice system that would ensure that it is being done correctly? Where is the right of the people to know?”

Creighton Laz, attorney for Carmony, was shocked by the news. “Wow. My, my, my,” he said. “That is very interesting.”

He was critical of Keller for saying his client should plead guilty. “At this point in time, our position is Rhonda did not commit a crime,” he said.

Jim Toledano, chairman of the county Democratic Party, could not be reached for comment.