ORANGE COUNTY Six-term incumbent Republican Stan Nielsohn has defeated local businessman Max Dorling in a hotly contested race for the 53rd Congressional district (Orange County). Nielsohn won 52% of the vote to Dorling's 46%, despite election-eve accusations that the Congressman was a member of the Caul, a secret organization advocating forced sterilization for those with genetic defects.

  The accusations were made on Sunday at a masquerade ball for the Henry O. Tarkington Advanced Institute for Research by Venice-based private detective Mace Broade. Broade displayed mug shots of Nielsohn, allegedly obtained from local police records, of a 1962 arrest in Oberlin, Ohio, as well as a photo from the Oberlin paper of Nielsohn wearing a sweatshirt with MENDEL written on it. A subsequent investigation by The Chronicle confirmed that the actual pictures in the Oberlin police department's on-line archives are not of Nielsohn. However, Broade claims that someone had digitally tampered with the archives to conceal the suspects' true identity, and that the archive pictures, when analyzed by a data recovery expert, clearly show the Congressman's face.

  MENDEL is the code name of the Caul leader mentioned in a recently-discovered transcript of a secret meeting of the organization's executive board. The transcript reveals details of an ill-conceived but nefarious plot to sterilize Americans who have genetic defects through the use of a newly-developed serum embedded on sweepstakes award stamps. Reportedly, the Caul planned to send the sweepstakes solicitation to a mailing list stolen from the National Organized Trust for the Physically Challenged (NOTPC). Mr. Broade is the source of the Caul board meeting transcript.

  The allegations against Nielsohn were supported by Hammoun "Mike" Harmia, the former CEO of Fun Toy Corporation, and a founder of NOTPC. Harmia’s own involvement with the Caul is currently under investigation. One of the other mug shots allegedly recovered from the on-line archive was of Mr. Harmia. The former toy executive appeared unexpectedly at Sunday's fund-raiser hurling accusations at Nielsohn.

  Nielsohn admitted at a news conference Monday that he was a participant in the 1962 melee but denied that the skirmish had anything to do with the Caul.

  The Congressman vehemently denied any involvement with the Caul, and blamed the whole incident on his opponent, Democrat Max Dorling. "In no way have I had any associations with the Caul in the past or the present. This whole business is pure hogwash, cooked up by Dorling to embarrass me. I think if you investigate, you'll find that Broade has been a paid member of Dorling's staff."

  The Dorling campaign acknowledges that Broade worked for them at one time on a contract basis.

  Nielsohn, campaigning before Tuesday's election, also dismissed Harmia's charges. "His allegations toward me are one hundred percent spite. He's fallen, and he's trying to bring me down with him. I wouldn't be surprised if he were supported by the Dorling campaign. There's no telling what dirty tricks they will play in order to win this election. But Stan Nielsohn will prevail."

  Max Dorling's campaign manager, Frank Allers, read a prepared statement after the election: "We congratulate Stan Nielsohn on his victory, but we hope that the media continues its investigations of the Congressman. We suspect that they will discover that the recent allegations against him are true. His close association with Mike Harmia itself suggests Nielsohn’s culpability. In any case, Nielsohn's record and his questionable morality look particularly weak when compared to the unimpeachable reputation of Max Dorling."

  According to polling organizations, the Caul scandal broke too late to effect voters' decisions. But the accusations seemed to reflect negatively on both candidates. Rachel Gewarter, stopped on the street in Irvine summed it up. "I wish both sides in this campaign had just focused on the issues and what's wrong with our country. A war of accusations and allegations made me not want to vote for either of them."