ShareThisSAN FRANCISCO - California Attorney General Jerry Brown, a likely Democratic candidate for governor next year, faces political blowback no matter how he rules on the undercover videotaping by conservative filmmakers at offices of the community group ACORN in southern California.
Brown is investigating the filmmakers, who posed as a prostitute and a pimp, for possible violations of state privacy laws. He is also investigating the group for what is shown in the video: an employee of ACORN apparently advising the filmmakers how to smuggle Mexican girls across the border to work as prostitutes.
After the tapes were released, U.S. House Republicans used a series of similar videos to pass a resolution to cut all federal funding for ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The group sued the federal government Friday to restore funding, claiming Congress punitively targeted an individual organization.
Brown, the state's top law enforcement official, is stepping into that political quicksand in California.
If he charges the filmmakers, he'll be accused of hypocrisy because he chose not to bring charges against his own spokesman, who has admitted secretly recording journalists. If he doesn't bring charges against the filmmakers, he faces criticism from grassroots liberals and supporters of ACORN, which Republicans have also accused of voter fraud.
Brown's spokesman Scott Gerber admitted recording six interviews with five journalists, including a reporter for The Chronicle, without their consent. Officials in Brown's office said they had told him not to record the conversations without the reporters' consent, as required by state law.
Gerber resigned last week, and the attorney general's office said it had completed its investigation.
But the attorney general faces political problems in addition to legal questions surrounding the secret recordings by the filmmakers and his spokesman.
Last week, his GOP rivals for governor, as well as consumer advocates and newspaper editorial boards, blasted him for not ordering an independent investigation of Gerber's recordings.
"Jerry Brown has to know that without an independent probe, there will be a cloud over his office -- and his pending run for governor," editorialized the San Diego Union-Tribune.
While analysts say the story may seem minor to Brown's gubernatorial candidacy -- with the June primary months away and without a Democratic rival -- it raises troubling signs for Brown's exploratory campaign.
"It's giving a lot of Democrats reason to worry that he's not ready for prime time," said Democratic consultant Steve Maviglio, a top aide to former Gov. Gray Davis and other politicians.
The secret taping scandal should have been a one-day story, Maviglio said. Now, Republicans are tying it to his investigation of the ACORN filmmakers, raising questions about Brown's trust.
"Apparently, California's attorney general thinks that he and his cohorts can sidestep the very laws that they are using as justification for their investigations of ACORN filmmakers James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles," blogged California Republican Party chair Ron Nehring.
An online ad produced by the state GOP asked: "Really, Jerry? An unbiased investigation of yourself? What do you have to hide? We just can't trust you on this one."
Attempting to show Brown's bias in his investigation of ACORN, conservatives circulated audio clips of Dan Lagstein, ACORN's lead San Diego organizer, speaking at a Democratic Club meeting in El Cajon last month.
"The attorney general is a political animal as well," Lagstein said. "Every bit of communication we've had with (Brown's office) has suggested that fault will be found with the people that did the video and not with ACORN."
Lagstein, in an interview with The Chronicle, declined to discuss details of his contact with Brown's office but said he believes ACORN has done nothing illegal.
Christine Gasparac, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said the ACORN probe has not been prejudged.
"There is absolutely no truth to the assertion that this office has come to any conclusions in the ACORN matter, in a preliminary way or at all," she said.
E-mail Joe Garofoli at jgarofoli(at)sfchronicle.com.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit the San Francisco Chronicle
