Lawyer sues congressional candidate Cook again

Republican lawyer Mike Schroeder has refiled a lawsuit against Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook in a Sacramento court, following an appeals court ruling that struck down his original suit.

Schroeder said Thursday that he is again challenging Cook’s use of her mayoral title in her ballot description as a congressional candidate, also suing the California secretary of state for approving her use of the title.

An appeals court threw out the previous suit against Cook and the county registrar of voters Wednesday, also requiring plaintiff Keith Carlson, treasurer of the California Republican Party, to pay Cook’s legal fees. The opinion said he sued the wrong person in the wrong place — it was the secretary of state in Sacramento, not the registrar, who had final authority over Cook’s ballot credentials.

County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said his office had just received the certified list of candidates and had begun the long process of preparing ballots to print. But Schroeder dismissed the possibility that it might be too late to change a name on the ballot.

A Sacramento County Superior Court judge was scheduled to hold a hearing on the case at 1:30 p.m. today, Schroeder said.

— Michael Alexander