Allen Cleared to Seek Old Seat in Assembly

Former Assemblywoman Doris Allen, bidding for political rebirth after being booted from office in a tumultuous 1995 recall, won a court fight Tuesday to run again for her old Assembly seat in Orange County.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Cecily Bond rejected a bid by state officials to deny Allen, California’s first woman Assembly speaker, a spot on the ballot because of the state’s term-limits law.

The 1990 law restricts Assembly members to three two-year terms. Allen, a Republican, was not quite halfway through her final term when she was recalled Nov. 28, 1995. Attorneys for Secretary of State Bill Jones, who plans to appeal, argued that by merely being elected a third time Allen should be cut out of an opportunity to run in June’s 67th Assembly District GOP primary.

Bond, however, said such reasoning runs counter to the “plain meaning” of the law, which says a lawmaker “may not serve” more than three terms in the Assembly.

“Under any definition, she did not serve three terms,” Bond said, adding that “there is no ambiguity here.”

Allen, who crossed the Republican Party in 1995 by striking a deal with Democrats to become speaker and largely cut GOP colleagues out of the action, reacted with elation and promised a vigorous campaign to defeat incumbent Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach).

“This is personal for me,” Allen said. “I served my district honorably without any hint of scandal or wrongdoing. I don’t think I deserved what happened in that recall.”

But Republicans dismissed Allen’s candidacy as mostly a nuisance.

“If I thought she had any following or credibility I would be upset. We’d have to refight the battle,” said Assembly GOP Leader Bill Leonard (R-San Bernardino). “But I’m starting to feel sorry for her. It’s a real sadness. This belongs more in the theater than the public eye this way.”

State Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) agreed: “It’s just sort of amazing that someone who was so overwhelmingly rejected by the voters in that district would delude herself that she’s coming back.”

Baugh, who faces a June trial date to settle felony and misdemeanor charges of campaign wrongdoing stemming from his election to replace Allen, said he would take her challenge seriously.

“Once again, you’re going to have a real Orange County Republican, me, running against Willie Brown’s Republican from Sacramento,” Baugh said.

Some Republicans were predicting that Allen’s inclusion in the race would only further split an already-crowded GOP primary field and ensure Baugh’s victory.

Baugh, meanwhile, said he intended to point out to voters that Allen has lived in Sacramento since her recall and argue she has lost touch with the district.

Allen, who sold her Orange County home after the recall but has since gotten an apartment in Westminster, said Baugh is the one who should be concerned, given his looming criminal trial.

Democrats, meanwhile, were smirking. “I think it’s wonderful the court is allowing people to run for office,” said Senate Leader John Burton (D-San Francisco). “But she’s a Republican and I’m a Democrat, so I’m supporting the Democrat in the district and not her.”

Allen played a pivotal role in helping Democrats maintain a measure of power after Republicans captured a majority in the Assembly in November 1994. Brown, the powerful San Francisco Democrat who held the speakership since 1980, managed to persuade another disgruntled Republican to support him. When that Republican was recalled in the spring of 1995, Brown turned to Allen for help.

She struck a deal that allowed her to become speaker with only the votes of Democrats and herself. Allen largely shut out GOP colleagues from any measure of power; they launched a recall drive resulting in her ouster.

But Allen said Tuesday that she has always been loyal to Republican principles and was simply revolting against an old-boy network that was turning the party in the wrong direction.