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Chump change for a billionaire, but embarrassing still. Uber wealthy New York investment czar George Soros has agreed to pay an $8,000 penalty to California's Fair Political Practices Commission for breaching the state's campaign finance rules five years ago. The payment is part of a proposed settlement between Soros and FPPC, whose members will either approve or reject the settlement at a May 21 public meeting. The FPPC says that in October 2004, Soros made a $350,000 late contribution to the Drug Policy Action Network. However, he failed to disclose it in a timely way by reporting it as required...

California politicians seeking and occupying seats in the Legislature and statewide office have raised more than $1 billion since 2000, despite a voter-imposed cap on campaign contributions, according to a critical new report by the state's campaign watchdog agency. "The $1,006,638,463 directly raised by officeholders and candidates works out to $344,503 per day or $14,354 per hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year," said Ross Johnson, chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, .. The FPPC's new report, entitled "The Billion Dollar Money Train," criticizes the vast sums of special interest money that has...

Charges of an ethics lapse by a stem cell scientist seeking a California research grant have been resolved with a "warning letter" from the state's Fair Political Practices Commission. The controversy arose more than a year ago when Dr. John Reed, chief executive officer of the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla (San Diego County), wrote a letter to the chief scientist of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine urging the agency to reverse its rejection of a $630,000 grant to one of the institute's scientists. Reed is a member of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, the state-sponsored...

State Sen. Carole Migden and California's political watchdog agency have settled their lawsuits against each other. The litigation was initiated in Sacramento federal court with a lot of huffing and puffing but bowed out with a whimper. Under terms filed Wednesday, Migden, a volatile San Francisco Democrat, will pay the Fair Political Practices Commission $40,000 to resolve allegations she violated a host of campaign finance regulations. Contrast that to the agency's countersuit, filed three weeks after Migden sued the FPPC for preventing her in this year's campaign from spending money she raised before being elected to the Senate. The FPPC...

SACRAMENTO -- -- The state's ethics agency announced fines Monday against former state Sen. Martha Escutia of Whittier for failing to properly disclose at least $340,000 in payments made by 17 special-interest firms and campaigns to her then-husband's political consulting firm. The state Fair Political Practices Commission also announced fines against former Gov. Gray Davis, related to the campaign fund he used to fight the 2003 recall that removed him from office. He failed to fully disclose $187,381 in unpaid expenses and a late contribution, and he did not keep some records required for donors who gave $5,000 or more,...

It seems like California’s official campaign finance watchdog is barking a little louder these days about the role of money in politics. And its top target: the murky world of interest groups who ostensibly operate independently of the campaigns run by candidates for office. The Fair Political Practices Commission recently began a new effort to shine light on the millions of dollars in “independent expenditures” spent in support or opposition of various candidates. IEs, as they’re known to politicos, gained special prominence after the passage of Proposition 34 in 2000. The ballot measure was marketed as a way to dampen...

Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, is facing two formidable challengers in the June primary, Assemblyman Mark Leno of San Francisco and former Assemblyman Joe Nation of Marin County. But long after the Democratic nomination for Senate District 3 is settled, the most significant legacy of this hotly contested primary may be what it does to some of the most well-established principles of California's campaign finance laws. If Migden prevails, she could have an extra $647,000 to pour into the homestretch of her race against Leno and Nation. But to do so, Migden and her attorneys will have to blow up...

SACRAMENTO - California's political watchdog agency has filed a $9 million lawsuit against state Senator Carole Migden, accusing the San Francisco Democrat of consistent and deliberate violations of the state's campaign finance laws. The federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday by the Fair Political Practices Commission in Sacramento. It is a response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Migden. In that action, Migden challenged the agency's refusal to let her use $647,000 that she raised while she was in the state Assembly. --snip--

SACRAMENTO -- State Sen. Carole Migden has been fined $350,000 by the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the largest penalty ever levied against a state office candidate, for dozens of violations including failing to disclose seven years' worth of political expenses that she paid with credit cards, the watchdog agency said today. The agency's investigation was prompted in part by a complaint filed last fall by fellow San Francisco Democrat Mark Leno, an Assembly member who is one of two Democrats trying to unseat Migden in the June primary. The agency's initial probe concerned $397,000 in credit card expenses from...

SACRAMENTO - One of the most extensive campaign finance studies in California history showed today that when voters restricted direct contributions to candidates in 2001, donations from special interests flowed around that curb and swelled into an $88 million torrent. The study compiled by the state Fair Political Practices Commission, shows indirect contributions to legislative candidates from special interests surged more than 6,000 percent - from $376,000 to $23.5 million. Indirect donations from wealthy groups to statewide candidates surged more than 5,000 percent to $29.5 million. "The astounding increase in independent expenditures benefiting candidates for state office is clearly thwarting...

With political reform high on his list of second-term priorities, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of James “Ross” Johnson as chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, an agency meant to provide fair, impartial interpretation and enforcement of political campaign, lobbying and conflict of interest laws. Johnson, 67, whom the governor called “a great advocate of political reform,” represented Orange County in the state Legislature for 26 years — in the Assembly from 1978 to 1995, and in the state Senate from 1995 to 2004 — and was the first person to serve as a party leader in...

SACRAMENTO Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking advantage of legislation he signed in September that will allow him to raise up to $200,000 a year from private donors to cover expenses associated with holding public office. The Republican governor filed papers with the secretary of state's office on Nov. 9 forming the Gov. Schwarzenegger Officeholder Committee. Under the law, which took effect immediately, the committee can collect up to $200,000 a year in donations of as much as $20,000 to pay "expenses associated with holding ... office." The legislation, by Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Culver City, allows smaller donations to similar accounts...

The California Republican Party filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission on Tuesday charging that the state Democratic Party has violated campaign spending laws by running issue advocacy ads against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger within 45 days of the election. The complaint charged that the Democrats have relied on "unlimited" contribution funds to pay for the issue ads that purport to link Schwarzenegger with President Bush. Such spending is barred in the final 45 days of a campaign under Proposition 34 campaign financing limits, the Republican complaint said. According to the complaint, those ads had to cease running by...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger got off to a fast start in his annual September Veto Parade yesterday by saying he would reject state Sen. Sheila Kuehl's nonsensical, poorly drafted bill mandating that California adopt socialized medicine. It is a sad commentary on the Legislature that Kuehl's bill made it this far. Perhaps the governor next can tackle measures that are, respectively, anti-consumer, anti-common sense and pro-corruption. AB 2592, by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would allow car-rental companies to omit the cost of airport fees when advertising rental rates. How does Leno – who sees himself as a classic liberal do-gooder...

With about a month to go before the October special election, the California Democrat's campaign received an injection of more than $150,000 in cash from three prominent New Mexicans or companies with which they are affiliated. Questions were raised about Bustamante's campaign finances after he lost the election.The California Fair Political Practices Commission, which enforces the state's campaign finance laws, sued Bustamante in 2004 for accepting contributions over the allowable limit of $21,200.

As the weather heats up in Sacramento, so does the legislating. This month dozens of bills are moving from committees to the floor, across the rotunda and back again. This week Capitol Weekly is taking a look at some of the less-noticed measures up for consideration. And we start with everyone's favorites: sex, drugs and alcohol. Newly elected Assembly Republican leader George Plescia, R-San Diego, is pushing a measure to take popular erectile-dysfunction (ED) drugs like Viagra off the list of medications covered by state's Medi-Cal laws. The bill, A.B. 2885, would make it so Medi-Cal can only cover those...

Sacramento -- The state's political watchdog agency has one-third fewer employees today than it did in 1990 to carry out its mandate of regulating and prosecuting scofflaws. Budget cuts in recent years have hit the Fair Political Practices Commission so hard that it has been forced to cut staff and limit its activities. Things got so bad last fall that the agency was forced to prematurely drop 225 investigations of alleged ethics violations. Still, lawmakers don't seem to be in any rush to revitalize the commission and restore its budget. A bill that would add $2 million to the commission's...

Teachers union official has just been renamed to Board of Education. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's reappointment of a political rival to the State Board of Education didn't buy him much love in the enemy camp. On Wednesday, the governor gave another term on the board to Joe Nuñez, a longtime teachers union activist and chairman of the organization that battled Schwarzenegger in last year's special election. On Thursday, Nuñez, in his role as the Alliance for a Better California board chairman, filed a five-page complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission against Schwarzenegger and the governor's old campaign vehicle, the California...

A state appeals court says a campaign committee controlled by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger broke state law by not promptly reporting millions of dollars in expenditures promoting four measures on last November's special election ballot. The 3rd District Court of Appeal, in a decision issued Wednesday, said Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team should have reported the expenditures within 24 hours after they were made during the 90 days leading up to the Nov. 8 election but failed to do so. "CRT ignores that the (Political Reform Act) requires reporting of independent expenditures on a 24-hour basis during an election cycle," a three...

The Legislature's years-long record of woefully underfunding the state's chief political watchdog agency is a shameful act of negligence that few people have noticed. Not anymore. State Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, has introduced legislation (SB 1120) that would give the Fair Political Practices Commission the $9 million annual budget it has long requested. A self-interested Legislature, wary of healthy scrutiny, has starved the agency of funds, forking over just $6 million annually in the past several years. Forced to cut costs, the FPPC has slashed the staff that keeps an eye on California's 15,000 elected officials from 91 in 1990...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's campaign watchdog agency approved a four-year operations plan Thursday that hopes for a significant increase in funding but prepares for continued tight budgets. A declining budget forced the California Fair Political Practices Commission to drop 225 enforcement cases this year. "It's really an effort to kind of wave the flag a little bit to say we really need more resources to do what we do," said Liane Randolph, chairwoman of the five-member commission. Commission officials said in October that they had to drop the cases because of budget cuts that have cost the agency about a...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state's political watchdog agency has closed an ethics complaint into Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's magazine consulting contract without conducting any investigation into whether the agreement violated conflict of interest laws, according to documents released Friday. The Fair Political Practices Commission concluded that there is no provision in state law that allows the agency to sanction a statewide elected official - such as the governor or the Attorney General - for conflict of interest. Therefore, they reasoned, the agency had no reason to carry out a probe into the question, documents obtained by The Associated Press under the...

California's political watchdog agency has closed 225 cases since May without finishing the investigations, a victim of a nagging backlog and budget crunch that led the agency's chairwoman last week to cry uncle. "We can't handle our caseload," Liane Randolph, chairwoman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, told the panel at its monthly meeting in Sacramento. "We're going hat in hand to the governor and the Legislature saying we need more resources to do our job," she said in a later interview. "It's a job the voters asked to be done, but our funding level just hasn't kept pace with...

Lawyers for Redistrict California, the committee controlled by Steve Poizner to pass Proposition 77, say they have returned $1.75 million in campaign contributions to Gov. Schwarzenegger and the California Recovery Team, after Democrats threatened legal action against the committee. Democrats say they are waiting to make sure the committee returns the money, and remain ready to file a complaint against Gov. Schwarzenegger and the redistricting committee controlled by Poizner for breaking the same state financing laws Speaker Fabian Nuñez's initiative committee may have broken. Last week, Nunez returned $140,000 in donations after Capitol Weekly reported those contributions may have been...

SACRAMENTO - Hamstrung by funding and staff shortages, California's political watchdog agency is dropping about 225 cases and instead is sending warning or advisory letters to some candidates or officials accused of violating election or ethics laws. "We have to prioritize cases," John Appelbaum, head of the Fair Political Practices Commission's enforcement division, said Tuesday. "If we don't have the resources, they may get closed." The enforcement division currently has 23 members, down from a high of nearly 33 in 1997. Overall, the FPPC has lost about 30 staff positions - a third of its work force - since 1991....

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The Assembly passed legislation Thursday that would curb Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's fundraising by putting a $5,600 limit on donations to ballot measure committees controlled by candidates or officeholders. The bill was designed to close a loophole in a voter-approved campaign finance law that Schwarzenegger has used to raise tens of millions of dollars to support his agenda at the ballot box. "This loophole is bad public policy. It undermines public trust," said Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, sponsor of the bill. Wolk's bill deals with contributions made to committees such as Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team, which don't face...

SACRAMENTO - California's capital is packed with more than 1,000 lobbyists, but when people want to make something happen in Sacramento, they often turn instead to Bob White, a genial Republican maestro who helped elect Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. White has an advantage lobbyists don't. While registered influence peddlers must reveal whom they work for, White calls himself a strategist who doesn't directly push for changes in state policy. That legal distinction allows White to conceal who his corporate clients are, even though he and members of his consulting firm, California Strategies, go to bat for them by exploiting a loophole...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The state's political watchdog agency overstepped its authority by limiting donations to campaign committees controlled by elected officials and candidates, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge ruled Wednesday, a decision that could blow the amount of money spent in an upcoming special election wide open. Judge Shelleyanne Chang's preliminary ruling said a committee raising money for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed initiatives for an expected special election this fall may raise unlimited amount of money from individual donors. If Chang, who will hear oral arguments in the case Thursday, maintains her ruling, political committees controlled by the governor...

SACRAMENTO - Even as big money begins to roll into a campaign fund supporting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot measures, a superior court judge delayed a ruling Friday in a lawsuit that could limit the governor's role in raising money for the special election later this year. Attorneys representing Schwarzenegger and a political committee organized by Schwarzenegger allies had asked Judge Michael Virga to exclude a consumer group from helping to defend a state rule that caps donations to candidate-controlled committees. The California Public Interest Research Group, CalPIRG, wants court approval to join a lawsuit brought by the governor and the...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Attorneys representing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some of his closest political allies are putting up an aggressive challenge to stop a consumer group from helping to defend a state limit on campaign contributions. The California Public Interest Research Group, CalPIRG, has filed a request in Sacramento Superior Court to intervene in support of a state rule that limits how much money donors can give to a candidate-controlled committee. With a hearing on the issue set for Friday, attorneys representing the governor and the Citizens to Save California, a political action committee organized by Schwarzenegger supporters, have filed...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's elections cop sued a Democratic Party campaign committee Friday for failing to disclose more than $1.2 million in contributions before the 2000 general election. Going to court allows the Fair Political Practices Commission to seek higher penalties for the committee, called the Democratic National Committee, Non-federal - Corporate, than the $4,000 fine the commission could impose itself. The court could fine the committee as much as the size of the undisclosed contributions. The FPPC said the DNC committee made just over $1.2 million in contributions to California's Democratic State Central Committee between Oct. 1 and Oct....

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A week after announcing his resignation, embattled Secretary of State Kevin Shelley quietly named a Sacramento area attorney to a four-year term on the state board that regulates California's political campaigns. Shelley appointed A. Eugene Huguenin, a former staff lawyer for the California Teachers Association, to succeed Thomas Knox on the Fair Political Practices Commission. Knox's term expired Jan. 31. Shelley, facing allegations that he mishandled federal election funds, accepted tainted campaign contributions and sexually harassed employees, announced Feb. 4 that he would leave office March 1. According to news reports, the FPPC is one of the...

SACRAMENTO - State Sen. Jim Battin, R-La Quinta, said Tuesday that he is being investigated by the state Fair Political Practices Commission in connection with donations to his campaign committees. In a statement, Battin said he was cooperating with commission officials. He blamed the inquiry on "bogus complaints" filed by a Democratic colleague. Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, was angry at GOP criticism of Machado's fund-raising practices during a tough re-election fight, Battin said. Machado withdrew the complaint last July, Battin said. But that didn't stop the commission's investigation. "I did not attempt to conceal the source of any campaign funds....

SACRAMENTO -- State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, already linked to a corruption probe, and Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin, refused on Tuesday to drop a bill that could weaken campaign-finance probes against lawmakers. One probe that could be affected is apparently one involving Sen. Jim Battin, R-Palm Desert, who lashed out Tuesday at a state agency he accused of improperly revealing its inquiry. "It is disturbing the Fair Political Practices Commission has apparently chosen to violate their own rules prohibiting them from discussing an ongoing investigation and make comments to the press," Battin wrote in a...

http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~21481~2713534,00.html Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Article Published: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 - 8:28:22 PM PST 'Save Our License' may face state probe By SARA A. CARTER, STAFF WRITER The Secretary of State's Political Reform Division has ordered Save Our License, a group opposed to driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, to refile all its committee documents and submit all its campaign finance data. Meanwhile, a group representing Latino and church groups across the nation this week filed a formal complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission, saying Save Our License willfully violated campaign finance laws. The state order and FPPC...

Sacramento -- State Senate Democratic leader Don Perata and his Republican counterpart are quietly and urgently pushing a bill that critics say would torpedo a major investigation by election regulators into at least one sitting legislator's campaign finances. The bill, SB25, would make it harder for investigators to prove that a politician may have manipulated contributions to avoid new campaign donation limits. It would lessen the Fair Political Practices Commission's ability to use as evidence letters from political donors to candidates that accompany contribution checks. The so-called "transmittal letters" are said to make up a significant portion of the evidence...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Two Democratic lawmakers urged California's campaign cop Thursday to put a limit on fund-raising by a business group that is trying to raise $50 million to back a series of potential ballot measures proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Assembly members Gene Mullin of South San Francisco and Loni Hancock of Berkeley said the group, Citizens to Save California, is a "thinly veiled" committee that is really run by the Republican governor and should be covered by donation limits imposed last year. "There is very little difference in a state official calling up a contributor and asking for...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A business group raising money to back Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's package of constitutional amendments for an upcoming special election has sued to overturn a cap on contributions to committees controlled by elected officials. The suit, served Wednesday on the California Fair Political Practices Commission, targets a regulation that officials from the Citizens to Save California and the governor's office have said does not apply to them because Schwarzenegger does not play a controlling role in the group. Critics have charged that Citizens to Save California is violating the regulation by raising unlimited amounts of money for campaign...

The fund-raising engine Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used so successfully in his first year to promote issues and consolidate power is grinding to a halt, thanks to state regulators. A state Fair Political Practices Commission ruling that took effect the day after the Nov. 2 election says Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team and other candidate-controlled issues committees are now subject to the same finance limits as traditional candidate committees. That imposes limits of $21,200 per donor on a committee that until now was taking in about $1.5 million a month, often in installments of $100,000 or $250,000 from wealthy individuals and corporations....

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A Fresno assemblywoman, her campaign committee and campaign treasurer were fined $23,000 Thursday by the state's elections watchdog for violating contribution disclosure requirements. The Fair Political Practices Commission said Assemblywoman Sarah Reyes, her Friends of Sarah Reyes campaign committee and campaign treasurer Gustavo Corona failed to properly disclose $80,000 in donations made to other Democrats and $105,000 in late contributions received by the campaign in 2000. Reyes acknowledged the violations in a stipulation that she signed on July 12. --- On the Net: www.fppc.ca.gov/agendas

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The state Fair Political Practices Commission on Tuesday accused a prominent lawyer of laundering contributions to the election campaign of Mayor James Hahn. Pierce O'Donnell allegedly arranged maximum donations from law firm employees and others, and then reimbursed them. He made 26 illegal contributions totaling $25,500, according to the accusation filed in Sacramento. The panel charged with enforcing California's campaign laws requested that O'Donnell be fined at least $94,000. If the case is not settled, an administrative hearing will be scheduled in coming months, said Steven Russo, head of enforcement for the commission. O'Donnell, 57, said...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's campaign watchdog voted Friday to limit the size of donations to candidate-controlled ballot measure committees, closing a loophole that's enabled Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to raise millions of dollars in six-figure contributions. The Fair Political Practices Commission voted 4-1 to adopt a regulation that will put the same limits on donations to ballot measure committees run by candidates and officeholders as voter-approved Proposition 34 imposes on contributions made directly to candidates. But the change won't take effect until the day after the Nov. 2 election, which will allow Schwarzenegger and others to continue to raise vast sums...

FPPC: Governor's attorney opposes blanket change The watchdog group will target cases where politicians also run a ballot-measure committee. The state's political watchdog agency on Thursday began an effort that could change California's campaign finance regulations to prevent candidates from raising limitless funds to oppose or support ballot measures. The Fair Political Practices Commission said it would consider several options to prevent fund-raising practices that prompted complaints during the gubernatorial recall election last fall. Changing the rules also could halt Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's practice of raising millions of dollars into his California Recovery Team, a committee that raises money for...

<p>Sacramento -- A developer and longtime ally of state Sen. Don Perata opened a political committee last year to raise money for Democrats across the state. The fund quickly collected $135,000 from four corporations -- all of which have donated generously to the Oakland lawmaker as well.</p>

SACRAMENTO – In a pair of searing rulings issued over the past four months, a Sacramento judge has suggested that the state's political watchdog has been behaving more like a lapdog. In both cases – one involving Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and one involving Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante – Superior Court Judge Loren McMaster said the Fair Political Practices Commission overlooked clear language and voters' intent to punch loopholes in a political reform measure approved four years ago. The commission already rewrote one regulation to reflect McMaster's opinion, and it is scheduled to review the other one he rejected. Critics say...

<p>SACRAMENTO - California campaign regulators Wednesday closed a loophole that had allowed politicians to avoid voter-approved contribution caps, but not before the state Senate's top Democrat took steps to ensure large contributions that he has taken won't have to be returned.</p>

<p>The state's top political oversight agency Wednesday sued Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, alleging that during last year's recall campaign the Democrat illegally used a re-election committee to skirt the state's fund-raising limits.</p> <p>During the recall campaign, Bustamante used his 2002 re-election committee to collect millions of dollars in individual contributions -- each one far in excess of the $21,200 per donation allowed under the state's political finance restrictions.</p>

<p>The agency that polices campaign finance activity in California sued Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante on Wednesday, accusing him of deliberately evading campaign donation limits and illegally collecting $3.8 million during his failed gubernatorial bid in the recent recall election.</p> <p>Bustamante faces up to $9 million in penalties in the complaint filed after a months-long probe by the Fair Political Practices Commission.</p>

<p>In the first test of California's most restrictive political contribution limits to date, six- and seven-figure donations have continued to pour into campaign accounts, with the total approaching $70 million.</p> <p>Despite limits in Proposition 34 that curtail the maximum donation to $21, 200 per donor to a campaign, candidates have been using a range of methods to get around the controls -- primarily through the use of ballot measure committees, which are not subject to contribution limits that exist for individual candidates.</p>

SACRAMENTO — The California Fair Political Practices Commission told a judge Tuesday that it's unclear whether Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante's campaign spending strategy violates state law. The commission filed a 12-page letter as part of a lawsuit filed by state Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine), an author of Proposition 34, the voter-approved initiative that regulates political fund-raising and spending. The commission is charged with enforcing that law. Johnson's suit alleges that Bustamante violated campaign contribution limits by accepting single donations as high as $1.5 million into an old account not covered by the new law, and using the money to wage...