This whole Lou Penrose/Luigi Rossetti situation is a bona fide mess. I was out of town when Martin Wisckol first reported on it, and didn't find out about until Jim Lacy posted on the Flashreport.org that he had found someone to sue Lou over the legal name discrepancy, and would be representing the plaintiff, Denise Erkeneff, in her suit.

Lacy writes in his post:

Erkeneff argues that an entirely fictitious name on the ballot, such as "Lou Penrose," is not a nickname, rather, it is an error that does not fully inform the voters and can mislead them as to the true identity of their candidates on the ballot.  For example, if such a precedent were to be established, what would stop an individual with a negative history on the Yahoo and Google search engines from simply assuming a fictitious name before an election to intentionally deceive voters as to his or her true identify and history? A hearing will be held on the Petition, probably in the next week.

Lacy wants the Superior Court to either remove Penrose as a candidate for Dana Point Council, or else change his name on the ballot to Luigi Rossetti, Jr. or "Lou P" (whaaaa...?).

It's hard to argue with Lacy's point about a theoretical candidate running for office using a fictitious name in order to avoid negative baggage that would come up in the course of opposition research or even a Google search.

But I don't think that's case with Lou Penrose. Lou didn't simply concoct the name a few weeks ago in order to run for office. It's what people know him as, martin pointed out in his column:

In fact, Rossetti had been using the name almost exclusively in public since 1993, when he was a radio talk show host in Palm Springs.

"No program director is going to let you go on the air as Luigi Rossetti, Jr.," Rossetti/Penrose told me.

Lou didn't try to conceal his situation from the OC Registrar of Voters, but obtained official clearance to run as Lou Penrose.

While I understand Lou's desire to retain Luigi Rossetti. Jr. as his legal name out of respect for his father, this kerfuffle constitutes a crossroads. He should decide whether he's going to be Lou Penrose or Luigi Rossetti, Jr. If it is the former, my advice is to cross the Rubicon and settle the issue henceforth by legally changing his name to Lou Penrose.

I think it is also important to note that this lawsuit is driven by Jim Lacy's deep animosity toward Dana Point Councilwoman Diane Harkey, the presumptive Assemblywoman for AD73. I'm hard-pressed to believe this lawsuit would have been filed if it weren't for Harkey's support for Lou Penrose's candidacy.