Judge Peter Polos of the Orange County Superior Court has issued a tentative ruling that Congressman John Campbell’s District Director may not use the "false" name "Lou Penrose" alone in his race for the Dana Point City Council in this November’s municipal election. Instead, he must include his real name, and the ballot will state: "Lou Penrose, a/k/a Luigi Rossetti Jr." A final hearing will be held tomorrow afternoon where Rossetti may discuss his reaction to the tentative ruling, and the Court can receive any argument for changes. However, the County of Orange, the City of Dana Point, and the Plaintiff have all agreed to the tentative ruling.
Rossetti adopted the name "Lou Penrose" as a radio personality for a small radio station in Palm Springs, CA a number of years ago. Rossetti kept the name for political meetings, but refused to legally change his name and uses the name "Luigi Rossetti, Jr." on his drivers’ license, and for legal documents, such as ownership of his home in Dana Point. He is registered to vote as "Lou Penrose Rossetti, Jr."
Matt Cunningham at Red County got it wrong when he reported just a few minutes ago that the motivating factor for the lawsuit was legal fees to mess up Rossetti’s campaign. According to email traffic, he knew better. The Judge decided that awarding legal fees against the defendants was not appropriate in this case. The Plaintiff (and Plaintiff’s counsel) had already agreed to the tentative ruling that fees will be born by the individual parties, had said so to all parties, and had done so hours before Matt’s post. We can not explain Matt’s spin on the fee issue, but have a call into him at the Republican Convention to urge him to correct his post on Red County.
I represent the Plaintiff, who is the beneficiary of the tentative ruling, Denise Erkeneff. I will report on any updates as a result of tomorrow’s hearing on the tentative ruling. The overriding issue resolved in this case is that a candidate can’t just make up a name for the ballot.