In 1988, the Republican nominee from Pringle's Assembly district, freshman incumbent Dick Longshore, died the day after the June primary election, and, under Californian law, the Orange County Republican Central Committee members were charged with selecting a replacement nominee to run in the November general election, and out of the ten candidates, they chose Pringle.
[1] The Orange County Republican Party hired a security guard firm to protect against supposed unlawful voting by illegal aliens in Pringle's district.
The FBI investigated and no charges were filed against Pringle and the local GOP, however they agreed to pay $400,000 to settle the civil lawsuit out of court.
Mark Richard Denny, an aide to Pringle, admitted that he illegally circulated election nominating petitions for Campbell in order to split the Democratic vote.
Pringle, for example, issued committee assignments to both parties' members, controlled State Assembly funds, and had broad administrative authority.
Pringle won a multi-candidate race, with 36% of the vote, finishing 7% ahead of his nearest competitor, Anaheim city councilwoman Lucille King (29%).
During his tenure as mayor Pringle and the Anaheim City Council over which he presided enacted a number of reforms that the Orange County Register depicted as "freedom-friendly".
According to the Los Angeles Times, "Pringle has built such a strong reputation for his aggressive pro-business approach to governance (creative tax waivers, sweeping zone changes, market incentives to redevelop run-down parts of the city) that other local officials have coined a verb for his philosophy: 'to Pringle-ize.
'"[7] As an active mayor, governing with majority support on the city council, Pringle led the effort to transform the area surrounding Angel Stadium and Honda Center (formerly the Arrowhead Pond) into the Platinum Triangle, which is meant to be Orange County's "downtown".
Cal State Fullerton's Center for Oral and Public History recognized Pringle in its 2020 Celebrating Orange County's Political Legacy event.