Trial of GOP Aide to Look at Role of Party Leaders, Prosecutors Say

SANTA ANA — When the trial of GOP aide Rhonda Carmony gets underway this week for her alleged role in fielding a decoy Democrat to splinter the vote and boost Republican chances in a key 1995 election, the actions of some Orange County Republican leaders will be at issue as well.

Prosecutors say their case will not be limited to the issue of whether the 27-year-old chief campaign aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) helped a few other GOP political activists file falsified campaign documents on behalf of the spoiler candidate, Laurie Campbell.

Legal briefs and statements by prosecutors in court last week reveal that the district attorney will offer testimony to show that Carmony was doing the spade work of the California Independent Business PAC. The powerful conservative political organization worked to seize control of the state Assembly from the Democrats and thus elevate Assemblyman Curt Pringle of Garden Grove to the speakership in 1996.

Jury selection is set to begin Thursday in the case, which is expected to be watched carefully in Sacramento as well as in Orange County. It will draw the particular attention of the Assembly’s Republican caucus, where last week Pringle beat back a challenge to his leadership from GOP Assemblyman Tom J. Bordonaro Jr. of Paso Robles.

There are other statewide political implications as well.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi is planning a run for state attorney general. His prosecutions of Assemblyman Scott R. Baugh (R-Huntington Beach), Carmony and other GOP aides--all growing out of the pivotal 67th District recall election in 1995--has placed Capizzi squarely at odds with conservative GOP elements in the county.

The broad-spectrum trial strategy of Capizzi’s prosecutors could boost his candidacy by showing that these same conservative firebrands tried to manipulate the voters two years ago, political observers say.

“This will help Capizzi’s statewide effort--absolutely--because in an open primary he will be able to appeal to reform-minded Republicans and Democrats,” Orange County political consultant Dan Wooldridge said.

There could be other fallout for Pringle. His chief lieutenant, Jeff Flint, has been named in court documents as an unindicted co-conspirator in the case, though Flint says he did nothing illegal.

Two junior aides to Pringle and one to Rohrabacher pleaded guilty last year for illegal actions they took to place Campbell on the ballot in the special election to recall and replace maverick GOP Assemblywoman Doris Allen of Cypress.

Defense attorney Creighton Laz won’t say whether Carmony will take the stand and tell what, if anything, she knows about the effort to tamper with the election ballot.

However, in court papers filed Tuesday, Carmony asserted that Pringle “had the most to gain or lose” and added that “the effort to place Campbell on the ballot was run either out of Curt Pringle’s office or by individuals associated with Pringle,” including Flint.

Laz says Carmony is a scapegoat. “The prosecution has taken the position that Rhonda Carmony was calling the shots,” he said. “That is absolutely not true. Evidence will be clear that Rhonda did not have a direct interest in what happened that day. That was somebody else’s concern and somebody else’s business.”

Pringle and Rohrabacher have said they had no role in planting a Democrat on the ballot to siphon votes from the leading Democratic challenger, Linda Moulton-Patterson. Both men declined to comment for this story.

Charles Spagnola, Flint’s attorney, said Carmony’s defense is not believable. “There are two opposing factions in the party and the people pointing the finger at Flint are going to say whatever it is that benefits their bosses,” he said.

Carmony, who is Rohrabacher’s campaign director and fiancee, is charged with three felonies: falsely making a nominating petition, falsely filing a nominating petition and conspiracy to falsely file a nominating petition. Prosecutors allege that she persuaded others to gather voters’ signatures on Campbell’s nominating petitions, knowing that the candidate would be called upon to swear to election officials that she collected the signatures herself.

While it is not against the law to recruit a decoy candidate, it is illegal to help file falsified nominating petitions.

Prosecutors allege that the crime was committed to hide the GOP’s role in the candidacy.

Campbell, who has been cooperating with prosecutors, is expected to testify.

So is Catherine Rayner, a former political lieutenant at the California Independent Business PAC, whose members and former associates have contributed more than $8.6 million since 1992 to conservative candidates and causes.

Rayner this week dismissed her attorney, who had been paid by the PAC. She met twice with prosecutors, sharing with them a small number of PAC documents and calendars from 1995, she said.

One of the documents, which was obtained by The Times, identifies Flint as having a key role in drafting Campbell. The one-page memorandum, prepared for distribution to the four wealthy Southern California couples who made up the political group, says that Flint was “in charge of filing” for the Campbell candidacy.

In an interview, Rayner expressed surprise that the GOP staffers messed up the effort to put a spoiler Democrat on the ballot.

“I had no idea they would go out and actually collect signatures for her. That was beyond the pale,” she said. “When we would do it, we would do it far enough ahead, so we could check with our candidates and make sure they were working on” gathering the signatures themselves.

Rayner, who performed a variety of tasks for the political group and wrote most of its internal reports, said it wasn’t unusual for the GOP to recruit Democratic, Green Party or Peace and Freedom candidates to dilute the opposition vote.

Sometimes, Rayner said, she pretended to be a Democrat and work for a day on a particular campaign simply to gather opposition information.

“The things we did weren’t illegal, but they definitely weren’t moral,” she said.