Orange County Assembly candidates say rival entered decoy contender to siphon GOP votes

Two Orange County GOP political hopefuls who recently failed to make the general election for a coastal Assembly seat want Orange County prosecutors to investigate whether a rival placed a decoy candidate in the contest to shape the results to his advantage.

Greg Haskin and Long Pham, the third and fourth place finishers in the June 5 primary to represent the 72nd Assembly District, allege that the race’s top Republican vote-getter, Westminster City Councilman Tyler Diep, conspired to enter a stealth candidate solely to siphon votes from GOP competitors.

Diep’s campaign on Friday dismissed the accusations as sour grapes from defeated foes.

The allegations focus on the last-place finisher in the primary, Richard Laird – a largely-unknown, first-time candidate who raised no money, didn’t campaign and failed to cast a vote in the election.

Richard Laird is the son of Diep’s campaign co-chair, Ed Laird. Public records reviewed by the Southern California News Group show that Ed Laird personally gathered some of the signatures that allowed his son to enter the race only three days before the filing deadline.

Beyond the father-son connection, there are other links between the two campaigns. Steve Pham, a paid campaign staffer for Diep, served as a second signature gatherer on behalf of Richard Laird. And Kimberly Ho, who serves with Diep on the Westminster council, signed Laird’s nominating papers despite endorsing Diep in the contest.

On Aug. 6, Haskin and Pham submitted a complaint to the Orange County District Attorney’s office. They want investigators to see if Diep conspired to place the younger Laird on the ballot and if such a move violates California election law. A spokeswoman said the DA’s office is reviewing the complaint, which was first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Haskin said he initially paid little attention to Richard Laird’s late entry into the race but was alerted to the candidate’s connections to Diep after the June 5 primary.

“If everything that appears to be true is true, then Diep should have to answer for it,” said Haskin, a former executive director of the Orange County Republican Party. “It’s disappointing they felt the need to go out and play these kinds of cheap tricks on voters.”

The younger Laird received 4,555 votes, or 4.9 percent of the total, not enough to change the outcome of the primary.

Reached by phone, Ed Laird called the allegations “nonsense.”

“Haskin’s just a sore loser,” Ed Laird said. “There’s not a story.”

Asked if he knew why his son entered the race, Ed Laird said, “I can’t discuss it,” before hanging up abruptly.

Diep’s campaign strategist, Stephen Puetz, also dismissed the allegations.

“This is a disappointing political ploy by two primary election opponents who are clearly still bitter and only interested in hurting Tyler’s general election campaign,” Puetz said.

Richard Laird did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The 72nd Assembly District, a seat soon to be vacated by Assembly Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach), historically has been a GOP stronghold, and Republicans currently hold a 5 point registration advantage. Despite that, the four Republican candidates split the primary vote, and the lone Democrat in the race, Josh Lowenthal, finished first. Lowenthal and Diep will face off in November.

Diep and Haskin ran hard-fought campaigns against each other as the two most prominent Republicans in the contest, each believing they were likely battling for the second runoff spot. The campaign was heated enough that the Republican Party of Orange County censured Haskin and admonished Diep for making misleading or false statements.