NEWSMAKERS OF 2008

1. Debbie Cook

Former Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook had a busy year. Aside from leading the City Council, she also ran a high-profile campaign to unseat a 20-year incumbent, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher. From the start of the campaign, Cook acknowledged the uphill battle and said her goal was to foster a debate and force Rohrabacher to defend his seat. Cook ended up losing by almost 23,000 votes, and expressed regret that in a gerrymandered district, the issues were not debated as well as she would have liked. Still, she did not have regrets about how her campaign was run.

“I feel like we ran the best race we possibly could,” Cook said in November. “Nobody could have done a better job. I had a great group of volunteers, and I’m proud of the job we did.”

2. Rachael Mullenix

In the world according to Rachael Mullenix, she was a love-struck teen who was helpless when her then-boyfriend Ian Allen murdered her mother, and then kidnapped Rachael and forced her to help get rid of the body. The jury in her murder trial, however, decided Mullenix was the mastermind behind her mother’s gruesome death and convicted her of first-degree murder.

Her mother, Barbara Mullenix, was found wrapped in a bloody blanket with a butter knife stuck in her eye and floating in Newport Harbor in 2006. She had been stabbed more than 50 times by at least two different knives, officials said.

Rachael, 17 at the time of the murder, maintained her innocence, even up to the sentencing of 25 years to life. Allen, tried later, was also convicted of first-degree murder and received the same sentence in November.

3. Donna Prentice

The legal book was closed Dec. 15 on an almost 40-year-old murder mystery when a judge dismissed the case against Donna Prentice for the 1969 death of her then-3-year-old daughter.

In 2007, the first trial’s jury deadlocked 10-2 in making a conviction. This year, the jury deadlocked 11-1 in favor of acquittal, resulting in a second mistrial. Prosecutor Larry Yellin will be unable to prosecute the case any further, and what happened to Prentice’s daughter remains a mystery.

4. Dan Kalmick

After a failed attempt to run for Congress against Mayor Debbie Cook in the primaries, Dan Kalmick took a shot at running for City Council. The then-25-year-old said he hoped to represent a new perspective from a younger generation. Kalmick lost the third open seat by about 8,000 votes to Planning Commissioner Devin Dwyer.

5. James Campbell

James Campbell, accused of pretending to be a firefighter at major disasters around the country, pleaded guilty in May and was sentenced to 120 days of house arrest.

Campbell was barred from joining a fire department because of a felony credit card-related fraud conviction in Arizona in the 1980s. Campbell’s lawyer, Scott Well, said Campbell was a volunteer firefighter with real emergency training who has saved lives.