Suit Challenges ‘Politics as Usual’ Attitude

The south Orange County state Senate campaign had the usual edge of a close Republican primary -- accusations of being soft on illegal immigration, too chummy with union bosses, too liberal.

But when midnight faxes were sent out in February by “Hard Hittin’ Harry” accusing a certain car-dealing assemblyman of having a relationship with a “Chelsea Clinton look-alike staffer,” Assemblyman John Campbell saw red.

“I’m not even huggy,” said Campbell, who once owned a Saab and Saturn dealership. “And I’m certainly not huggy with employees.”

Campbell, a Republican from Irvine, decided to sue the “unknown John Doe” who sent the incendiary, one-page memo. Then he obtained a subpoena to get the surveillance tape from the Kinko’s from where the memo was faxed.

To his surprise, the tape showed that the sender was the campaign manager for his opponent in the primary, Assemblyman Ken Maddox, the now-amended lawsuit says.

The former campaign manager, Tim Rosales, referred inquires to his attorney, who did not return phone calls.

Maddox, meanwhile, said he only vaguely recalled hearing about the memo and had no knowledge of who had sent it. Maddox said he considered the alleged offense “the equivalent of tearing down a campaign sign.”

Campbell sees it differently.

Campbell said he and his wife of 25 years, Catherine, decided to file the suit last spring even though it would be costly and could bring more attention to the allegation. He said he realized that Rosales, 28, wasn’t wealthy and probably couldn’t pay a sizable judgment. The libel suit seeks $4.25 million in damages.

“I wanted to encourage other people not to sit by and just let this kind of stuff go,” Campbell said.

According to the suit, the memo was faxed during the early hours of Feb. 13 by “Hard Hittin’ Harry,” who claimed to represent a group called the South County Conservative Coalition. It was faxed from a Kinko’s on Katella Avenue in Orange to several dozen Orange County political insiders.

At the time, Maddox, a Republican assemblyman from Garden Grove, was fighting Campbell for the right to be the Republican nominee to replace retiring state Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine). Campbell won the race.

The first item on the faxed memo read: “35th SD: A certain car dealing assemblyman and a Chelsea Clinton look alike staffer have been seen by some inside sources in an occasional intimate embrace

Insinuation and innuendo are common political tactics, particularly in hard-fought races, analysts said. But it is rare for the accuser to be pursued in court.

“I don’t blame him for suing,” said Scott Hart, a Republican political consultant and chairman of the Orange County chapter of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. The insinuation “crossed the line, and it’s garbage. He’s trying to make a point.”

Rosales initially denied being involved with the fax, Campbell said, and that piqued his anger.

In August, Rosales was called into a meeting in Sacramento with Campbell and Assembly Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield). Campbell said Rosales was shown the fax and insisted he knew nothing about it but admitted having sent it after being shown a copy of the Kinko’s surveillance tape that Campbell had loaded onto a laptop computer.

Campbell said the 27-minute tape clearly showed Rosales busy at the fax machine during the same times that the faxes were received.

Rosales left Maddox’s office shortly after the meeting on an unpaid leave of absence and now works for Johnson Clark Associates, Maddox’s campaign consultant in the primary.

Although Maddox said he understood Campbell’s annoyance, he said the fax was relatively harmless. “The impact on the race was zero,” Maddox said. “I think it was a case of kids sitting around having too many beers and thinking it would be funny. If Tim did it, I would hope that an apology would suffice.”

Campbell said he intended to start taking depositions from witnesses and wanted to find out who wrote the fax. Additional defendants could be added, he said, noting that the fax was reproduced electronically and forwarded by e-mails.

If successful, he said, he would donate to charity any amount awarded above the costs of the lawsuit.