Founder of controversial PAC resigned from Monterey County Dems just before election.

Just about a week before the June 3 primary, Chris Marohn resigned from his post on the Monterey County Central Democratic Committee. He also served on the executive committee as secretary. 

Marohn helped create Californians for Law and Order, a mysterious PAC supporters say was originally created with the intention of messaging on the judicial race between Andrew Liu and Steve Somers. But the only reported expenditures out of the PAC were for a last-minute negative campaign against Sheriff Scott Miller. 

Campaign managers confirm Marohn was working for both the Somers and Liu campaigns, managing get-out-the-vote efforts. Neither campaign was aware. Marohn has not responded to a request for comment on working for opposing campaigns. 

The Central Democratic Committee stayed out of the Liu/Somers race, between two Democrats, and was generally very quiet this election. The committee's only endorsements were for Ed Mitchell for county supervisor (Mitchell is a Central Committee member) and Luma Serrano Williams for judge in a race against Heidi Whilden. 

Fellow Democrats became concerned when Marohn starting working for Williams' opponent, Whilden, who is also a Democrat. 

What was more alarming to fellow party members was that he also had plans to work for Republican Steve Bernal's sheriff's race, and members of the committee asked Marohn to resign even before revelations of the PAC emerged. 

Central Committee Chair Vinz Koller says he will look at committee member Omar Perez' relationship to the PAC; Perez' name appeared on the PAC paperwork, though he told the Weekly he knew little about the group. 

"There are two things we’ll look at: One is a conflict-of-interest disclosure, which is that we ask all of our members to state who they work for or with," Koller says. 

"The other question is, if there’s work on another campaign—whether we knew about it or didn’t—is it work that is not within our guidelines?  

"We have standards in place because voters don’t want dirty campaigning," Koller adds. "I have never found dirty campaigning to work. I think maybe it works in big races when you can spend millions of dollars, I don’t think it works in local campaigns. That’s not the only reason to do it, but it’s one reason not to do it."

Miller received 41 percent of the vote, leading among the four candidates, but far short of the 50 percent needed to win the election outright. He'll go to a runoff in November against Bernal.

Marohn was expected to begin working on the Bernal campaign, after managing Mike Richards' campaign in the primary. 

The Central Committee plans to vote on a replacement secretary when it next meets on June 24. A replacement to his elected seat for District 5 will be appointed.