VENTURA : O’Connell Says Staff Did Nothing Wrong

Appearing in Ventura on Wednesday to receive an award from a group of educators, Assemblyman Jack O’Connell (D-Carpinteria) denied that two staff members did anything wrong when they were found looking through a dumpster outside the office of a political rival last Friday.

O’Connell, who is locked in a tough battle with Republican candidate Steve MacElvaine for the state Senate seat in the 18th District, denied that aides Jerry Wooledge and Geoffrey A. Weg were looking for information when they were caught by an assistant to Republican congressional candidate Andrea Seastrand.

“They were looking for (Wooledge’s) checkbook because he had lost it earlier in the day,” O’Connell said. “It’s as simple as that. They weren’t doing anything wrong.”

O’Connell refused to comment on the propriety of two of his aides going through a dumpster late at night near the offices of his political opponent.

MacElvaine and Seastrand both occupy office space in a San Luis Obispo building along with a branch of the Bank of America. Ralph Wunder, an aide to Seastrand, said he observed two men with flashlights rummaging through the dumpster outside of the office shortly after 10:30 p.m. Friday.

Wunder said that after he startled the two men, they fled in a car and he gave chase in what turned out to be a short but high-speed pursuit. The chase ended when San Luis Obispo police intervened. Authorities have declined to file formal charges.

During a brief presentation Wednesday morning at Ventura College, O’Connell was named state legislator of the year by the Faculty Assn. of California Community Colleges, a group that represents 45,000 teachers based at community colleges across the state.