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Assemblywoman Diane Harkey, the Dana Point Republican whose district includes Camp Pendleton and nearly all of Oceanside, finds herself in a mess that may or may not be a real scandal.

Her husband, Dan Harkey, runs Point Center Financial, an Aliso Viejo company that lends investors' money to land developers. It is the target of a Securities and Exchange Commission probe. It is also facing a lawsuit from 53 investors who say Dan Harkey used their money for dubious loans – and to fund his wife's rapid rise in Orange County politics. Campaign disclosure firms show Diane Harkey has spent $2.1 million in personal funds since 2004.

However, the suit presents no evidence for the alleged diversion of money. An aide to Diane Harkey told The Orange County Register last month that the campaign funds came entirely from the wealth she had accumulated in a 30-year banking career. Both Harkeys said she had never worked for Point Center.

If all this were true, then, yes, Diane Harkey would be on solid ground with her assertion that the allegations were trumped up.

But a follow-up Register report said Diane Harkey had been listed as a Point Center official in state documents and in campaign disclosure forms for two political donations to other GOP candidates. Harkey's own “statement of economic interests” said she received more than $100,000 in annual income from a rental property that happens to be Point Center's headquarters. She also appears to be backing away from her claim that she didn't use her husband's money for political purposes.

Plainly, this matter deserves coverage. Yet in a phone interview, Harkey told us our questions amounted to “slander”; that news accounts of the mess were all “libel” written by journalists determined to “massacre” her family; and that she was the victim of a sexist double-standard.

Given the holes in her initial story, this is a startling approach for Harkey to take. It is also completely counterproductive. If she wants to clear her name, step one is to get out of the denial stage of her grief.

Step two is fully responding to tough questions – something she has yet to do.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/mar/22/z1ed22bottom213927-union-tribune-editorial/?uniontrib