Complaint to State Says D.A. Aides Are Solicited for Rackauckas Funds

Superior Court Judge Anthony Rackauckas Jr., on leave to run for district attorney, has solicited contributions at least twice from members of that office, prompting a complaint to the state Attorney General’s Office.

State election law forbids officeholders or candidates seeking to head an office from soliciting money from employees they may end up supervising.

However, solicitations are allowed if they are made to a “significant segment of the public,” which Rackauckas contended applies in this case.

Senior Assistant Atty. Gen. Gary Schons said Monday that his office will evaluate the complaint, originally sent to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

The anonymous complaint, obtained by The Times, claimed that pressure from Rackauckas supporters inside the office for colleagues to attend his fund-raising events has “become untenable for those of us who wish to remain neutral and apolitical.”

The job is being vacated by Dist. Atty. Mike Capizzi, who is running for attorney general.

Rackauckas said Monday that two solicitations inviting district attorney employees to fund-raisers fell within the law’s exemption because the mailings were sent to thousands of potential supporters.

“When we were arranging the first fund-raiser, we were getting a lot of input from people in the [district attorney’s] office who wanted to be invited,” Rackauckas said. “We didn’t want to exclude anyone.”

The Rackauckas mailings were sent to the employees at their work addresses.

The first mailer was for an Aug. 28 event in Tustin and was sent to 4,000 people, said Kay Rackauckas, the judge’s wife and an Orange County prosecutor.

The second mailer, for a fund-raiser Thursday in Irvine with victims’ rights advocate Fred Goldman, was sent to 6,000 people, Kay Rackauckas said.

As of Dec. 31, 1997, Rackauckas had collected $10,425 from 31 employees of the office, including 24 deputies, six investigators and one technical support worker, according to campaign disclosure statements.

There are 220 attorneys and about 100 investigators in the office.

County government watchdog Shirley Grindle said she received a copy of the complaint and was disappointed that Rackauckas hadn’t returned the contributions.

“The intent of the law was to protect employees or potential employees from being put in an uncomfortable position and to keep politics out of the office,” she said.

She said Rackauckas told her in a conversation that he was unaware of the law before the solicitations and that “he wouldn’t do it again.”

Rackauckas said Monday that he has no plans to solicit other contributions from prosecutors. And he said he has no intention of keeping a scorecard on who gave money to his campaign.

“Everybody is entitled to their opinion concerning politics, and they can vote the way they want to vote,” he said. “We’re not going to show favoritism.”

Assistant Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade, the other candidate for the job, said he told office employees in August that he wouldn’t seek or accept contributions from them. “It poses real potential for people to be intimidated,” Wade said.

Rackauckas, as of Jan. 31, had raised about $150,000 and had $108,000 in cash available, about five times the amount Wade reported.