Mehta Probe’s Pull on O.C. Race Decried by Critics

Sometimes the most significant factor in a political race is who makes it to the starting gate. Which is why talk these days is not about who is running for the county supervisor’s seat William G. Steiner is leaving, but who is not. And why.

When Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly said last week he would pass on the race after a year of planning a run, friends of the man considered the county’s premier rising Democrat cried foul. They said Daly had been forced out by machinations in Anaheim, where a Republican councilman running for Steiner’s seat and another with his eyes on the mayor’s chair launched an investigation in October into allegations of campaign abuses by Daly and others.

Responding to that investigation has cost him so much time and money, Daly said, that he has little left of either to run for a top county office.

With Daly out of the running, and questions arising about the probe’s cost, the investigation is losing its sheen--particularly for Anaheim Councilman Lou Lopez, the man left standing in the supervisor’s race.

Lopez has asked the City Council to vote tonight on a proposal to fire special prosecutor Ravi Mehta, who has been charging the city $250 an hour, as well as expenses for flights from his Sacramento home and rental cars. The council vote would put the investigation in the hands of a local attorney.

“I was optimistic it would be a short investigation with minimal cost, minimal time and that everyone would be exonerated,” Lopez said. “Since I did everything correctly [in filing campaign reports], I assumed everyone else did everything correctly.

“But as the months went by and the costs mounted, I started to wonder.”

Mehta, former chair of the state Fair Political Practices Commission, has charged the city $113,687 in fees and $4,360 in expenses through December for leading the probe into relatively minor violations. Bills for the last three months are not in. Mehta defends the investigation as simply upholding the law. But critics and some observers call it politically motivated overkill.

“It seemed politically inspired, the kind of hardball meant to scare Daly off,” said Fred Smoller, an associate professor of political science at Chapman University.

“I don’t know enough about Daly to decide if he would make a good supervisor, but there is no question this is a case of a high-profile person turning their back on higher office because of what it takes to get there.”

Lopez and Councilman Bob Zemel have defended the probe, saying they are seeking to abide by the law. The two were threatened with recall last month by a group angry about the cost of the investigation.

“I think it’s an obstruction of justice to vote to remove a prosecutor in the middle of a case,” Zemel said. “I think that the threat of a recall should not discourage an elected official in upholding the principles that they stand for.”

The probe has focused mainly on alleged violations such as filing campaign reports late and neglecting to fill in names or addresses of individual donors. It is the first time a city or county in California has hired a special prosecutor to investigate campaign-finance violations. Such violations are routinely handled through complaints to the FPPC. The Mehta probe is setting a precedent for handling such violations that some public interest groups find troubling.

Since the investigation began, a city councilwoman, a former city councilman, a firefighters union political committee and Anaheim lobbyist Steve Sheldon have settled out of court with Mehta for fees the special prosecutor set himself. All faced criminal charges if they did not.

But Daly, who could have settled the matter in November, chose not to, saying he had done nothing wrong. He has spent more than $20,000 defending himself since, and the case has yet to go to trial.

The criminal charges filed against Daly include that he violated the city’s campaign finance ordinance by soliciting $7,000 from another Anaheim politician and a firefighters union to finance a phone bank for two City Council candidates Daly supported.

Mehta says the funds were contributions and were illegal under Anaheim’s campaign reform law. City Atty. Jack L. White, who investigated the allegations before Mehta was brought it, declined to file charges, saying the funds in question were expenditures, not contributions. Expenditures are not covered under the local ordinance.

Daly has denied the charges.

Daly had been the most widely recognized would-be candidate in the race for Steiner’s 4th District seat. The district encompasses all of Anaheim and a few smaller central and North County cities, and has most often been led by politicians with deep ties to Anaheim.

Left in the race are Lopez; Anaheim businesswoman Cynthia P. Coad; county Board of Education member Eric Woolery, an accountant; La Palma Councilman Paul F. Walker; and Steve White, an Anaheim real estate broker.

Daly’s decision was so sudden it surprised many of his supporters. Last month, the Business Industry Assn., a lobbying group Daly once worked for, raised $10,000 for him. Daly had scheduled three more fund-raisers, including one Monday night at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim.

That fund-raiser was not canceled. But in a sign of the times, it became an event to raise money for Daly’s legal defense fund.

“A lot of people within county government felt that Tom Daly was the heir apparent to the 4th District seat,” Steiner said. “But in a really contested political race, there’s just a barrage of hit pieces that can really hurt you, and whether or not they are true, that can really take the wind out of your sails.

“And Tom Daly may just be thinking, who needs that publicity?”

Esther Schrader can be reached at (714) 654-1050 or esther.schrader@latimes.com