Lewis’ New Career Prompts Scrutiny

For 18 years, state Sen. John R. Lewis has honed his skills as a key behind-the-scenes political strategist for California Republicans, organizing campaigns and mail programs from his office in Sacramento.

Now, during his final term representing Orange, he’s stepped from behind the office door and emerged as one of the most influential paid campaign managers in Orange County, plotting the strategy for three candidates during the primary.

“John is as good as there is at this game,” said Buck Johns, a director of the Lincoln Club, which raises money for the GOP in Orange County. “He’s probably the best strategist around when it comes to figuring out how to put a campaign together.”

Lewis, 43, recently signed on to manage the campaign of Republican Eric Woolery, who is running for the nonpartisan seat held by retiring Supervisor William G. Steiner. Since June, Lewis has been the campaign manager for Marshal Michael S. Carona’s bid for sheriff, and he is handling the GOP congressional race of attorney Lisa Hughes, running against Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove).

The campaigns represent the first time Lewis is being paid for the political clout he’s wielded for 18 years. Both Carona and Hughes have paid him $5,000 so far.

The state Senate is considered a full-time job, but senators are allowed to engage in outside work as long as they do not represent clients with business before the Legislature. Senators are paid $78,624 a year. Political pros can’t recall anyone running a campaign while still in the Senate.

Johns acknowledged that the dual role of legislator-paid consultant is a delicate one. And he conceded that Lewis’ involvement in a campaign might affect endorsements in his candidates’ races. In fact, Johns said, he favors Anaheim City Councilman Bob Zemel in the congressional race but hasn’t endorsed him because of Lewis’ involvement with Hughes.

“There’s no question that we’re in the influence business,” Johns said. “I think he has got to be sensitive to [perceived conflicts], and I think that he is.”

The blurring of public and private business has irked Zemel, one of three Republicans seeking to unseat Sanchez.

In December, Lewis sent Hughes to pass out Senate proclamations on his behalf to Korean American community leaders being honored. It was good exposure for Hughes, a family law attorney and chairwoman of the state Lottery Commission who is making her first run for office.

Zemel said Lewis shouldn’t send a paying client to represent him on official business. “The state of California should be on her campaign [funding] report,” he said.

The situation also bothered Isaac Elnecave, policy advocate for California Common Cause in Los Angeles, who said Lewis was using the influence of his office to assist Hughes. There are no Senate rules barring that type of arrangement.

“Once you start straying over that line, it starts becoming more and more difficult to control,” Elnecave said. “Campaigns have a tendency to take on their own logic. There are lots of legislators with outside jobs, but you have to be very careful when you’re using your influence on behalf of a paying client.”

Lewis said he sent Hughes, a longtime friend, because neither he nor anyone from his office could attend the event. He’d do it again, he said, “only in an emergency.”

He said concern for potential conflicts led him to refuse several requests to run campaigns for the Legislature this year. He acknowledged that being involved in a Republican primary, in which many conservatives have split with Lewis by backing Zemel, “has had its uncomfortable moments.”

Lewis was elected to the Assembly in 1980, among a crop of Orange County conservatives sent to Sacramento in the wake of 1978’s passage of Proposition 13, the landmark property-tax reform initiative. At 25, he was the youngest member to be elected to the Assembly. He served until 1991, when he won the seat vacated when state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim) was appointed to the U.S. Senate.

Occasionally, his political zeal has landed him in trouble.

Lewis was involved in the planning of a controversial effort in 1988 to place uniformed security guards at 20 polling places in Santa Ana, where Republican Curt Pringle was locked in a close Assembly race with Democratic prosecutor Tom Umberg.

The stunt was roundly condemned by Republicans and Democrats, including the then-chairman of the state GOP. Insurance carriers for the party and Pringle eventually paid $400,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit brought by five Latino voters who said they were harassed.

In 1989, Lewis was indicted for forgery by a Sacramento County grand jury for mailing last-minute letters under then-President Reagan’s signature attacking Democrats in 1986. Neither Lewis’ use of White House stationery nor Reagan’s signature was authorized.

The indictment was dismissed by an appeals court, which ruled that forgery charges could be brought only if there was an intent to defraud victims of money or property. But in 1990, the Legislature passed a bill making it a felony to use unauthorized “handwritten or mechanically reproduced” signatures in campaign material.

In 1991, Lewis easily won a special Senate election to represent his solidly Republican district.

Lewis conceded that he will be “very busy” in the coming months between state duties and campaign work. He said he may take on more races after the June primary. And there is one other race that he might consider running for himself--the 47th Congressional District, if Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) ever seeks another job.

“I’ve got two more years to think about what I want to do with my life,” he said.