(09-26) 17:38 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Until this week, Missouri attorney Charles "Chep" Hurth III was best known for a headline-grabbing incident a decade ago in which he bit a young female law student on the butt in a bar. Now Hurth, the city attorney for New Haven, Mo. (population 1,800), is the agent for a deep-pocketed group that donated $175,000 to fund a Republican-backed effort that would reshape the landscape of presidential politics in California.
Hurth has emerged as an unlikely lead player in connection with the ballot measure that seeks to change the way California allocates its Electoral College votes in the presidential election. His actions on behalf of the group Take Initiative America are being examined by the state's Fair Political Practices Commission after accusations from Democrats that the group is hiding the source of its money.
It's not the first time Hurth has been part of an effort that Democrats say has been aimed at changing the outcome of a presidential election. In 2004, he was the legal agent behind a GOP-funded group called Choices for America, which solicited donations from Republicans for another controversial signature drive - to help independent candidate Ralph Nader get on the presidential election ballot in key states, documents show.
Hurth didn't answer repeated phone calls seeking comment this week. But those who know him say they're mystified at his connections to such a high-profile issue that would shape politics half way across the country.
"To my knowledge, he's not involved in local politics to any degree," says Steve Roth, city administrator in tiny New Haven, which is 50 miles from St. Louis. He says Hurth has been on retainer as city attorney since 2004, billing $100 an hour in his work for the town, and "he's a nice guy."
But Hurth is the registered agent for Take Initiative America, a tax-exempt group formed Sept. 10, 2007, according to the organization's incorporation documents. A day later, the group made its hefty donation to fund petition-gathering that would get the so-called Presidential Election Reform Act on the June ballot.
The donation was the only reported contribution to the ballot-measure campaign, according to financial documents released earlier this week.
The proposed ballot measure would change the winner-take-all election rules for the 55 electoral votes in Democratic-leaning California. It would allocate the electoral votes based on the popular vote winner in each individual congressional district - providing an unexpected windfall for Republicans.
Leading Democratic presidential candidates and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean have charged that the effort is a Republican dirty trick to change the election rules in the middle of the 2008 presidential campaign.
But Hurth's utter lack of connections to politics in California has raised cries of foul play and suggestions that a major GOP presidential candidate could be behind the matter.
Democrats say Hurth violated the spirit if not the letter of California campaign finance laws because he would not disclose the source of his group's funding.
"Under the law, you're prohibited from making a contribution through an intermediary without disclosing the true donor," said San Francisco attorney James Harrison, representing Californians for Fair Elections, a Democratic group opposing the measure. "That's considered money laundering."
Jonathan Wilcox, the spokesman for the Missouri-based Take Initiative America group, said Hurth's organization is a nonpartisan, grassroots effort working for election reform. But he insisted, "We have a national network of donors ... and we will comply with all disclosure laws."
Roman Porter, spokesman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission, when asked Wednesday about the Democrats' charges, said. "We're aware of the concern regarding this situation, and we're reviewing it."
Hurth also chaired First Class Funding, a 2005 educational reform campaign supported by conservatives and another big political donor, Patrick Byrne, the chief executive officer of the Internet shopping site http://Overstock.com based in Salt Lake City. Byrne has donated to candidates of both parties as well as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth effort against 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.
But Byrne, reached Wednesday, said he has no connection to Hurth's current group or the California Electoral College measure.
"I have not put any money into it, nor have I been asked to donate money," Byrne said in a telephone interview.
The proposed ballot measure, written by Sacramento attorney Thomas Hiltachk - who has represented the state GOP and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - has the potential of shaking up the presidential race.
Under its proposed district-by-district system, Kerry - who won California's popular vote in 2004 - would have received just 33 electoral votes, and Republican President Bush would have earned 22 votes - more than the number awarded in Illinois (21), Pennsylvania (21) or Ohio (20).
Supporters are using paid signature-gatherers to collect roughly 434,000 signatures needed by the end of November to qualify the measure for the June ballot. They said 40,000 have been gathered to date.
But Democrats said the effort is less about reform and more about changing the outcome of the 2008 race. They suggested it's not hard to connect the dots between Hurth and conservative causes, including the presidential campaign of GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani.
Hurth donated $2,000 in March to the Giuliani campaign, and his fundraising associate in Choices for America, Nevada-based conservative strategist Steve Wark, has been a major donor and fundraiser for Giuliani.
Hiltachk's partner Charles Bell, a deputy treasurer for the proposed initiative, has given $1,300 to Giuliani, and another Hiltachk law firm partner, Charlotte McAndrews, has donated $2,300 to the former New York mayor's campaign.
Wilcox, the spokesman for the Hurth group, was previously a spokesman for Bill Simon - the former California GOP candidate for governor who is Giuliani's campaign co-chair and chief policy adviser.
Kevin Eckery, the spokesman for the proposed ballot measure, said "whether it's a front for presidential candidates - even if it was, what's the big deal?"
"We've said all along that some of the people we would approach for fundraising are contributors to various presidential candidates," he said. "If somebody wants to support us because we're trying to create a voting system that's fairer ... what's the problem?"
But Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for Giuliani, strongly denied any connection to the California electoral ballot measure campaign.
"We are absolutely not involved in that effort. We'll play by whatever the rules that Californians decide are in their best interest," he said.
Asked if Hurth has been involved with Giuliani in any capacity, Agen said that he has donated but "he is not involved in the campaign strategy."
This week's media scrutiny for Hurth marks a decided shift from 1990 when he became the focus of national news coverage over an unusual lawsuit.
Hurth, then a third-year law student at St. Louis University, was taken to court by a young woman who said he grabbed her in a bar and bit her on the buttocks so hard she required medical attention - then laughed and high-fived his friends.
Hurth testified that he had told her she should take it as a compliment.
The female attorney sued him and took something else instead - a jury's award of $27,500 for damages.