The Use of County Party Committees to Launder Campaign Contributions - An Interactive California Report

Worth taking a look at is the work of <a href="http://californiawatch.org/&quot; target="”_blank”">California Watch</a> in disclosing
the use of county party committees to launder campaign contributions
far over the legal limits.<br>
<br>
The nonpartisan good government organization presents the data in three
different forms:<br>
<br>

<ul><a href="http://californiawatch.org/data/large-donors-fuel-county-party-giving&q…; target="”_blank”">Contributors
to county committees</a> - Two-thirds of the $14.5 million donated to
county parties across the
state between January 2007 and November 2009 came in checks of $10,000
or more<br>
<br>
<a href="http://californiawatch.org/data/county-parties-route-millions-candidate…; target="”_blank”">Recipients
of county committee contributions</a><br>
<br>
<a href="http://californiawatch.org/money-and-politics/interactive-committees-sp…; target="”_blank”">Two
interactive examples of using county committees</a> to get around
campaign contribution limits - a $45,000 contribution from a state
assemblyman to his brother, filtered through three county committees,
and a one-day $300,000 union local contribution split among ten county
committees, and then spread around to tight elections</ul><br>
There are two good articles on the California Watch program in the
Ventura County <i>Star</i>, one <a href="http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/jan/02/local-gop-committee-aided-outsid…; target="”_blank”">focused
on Ventura County</a>, the other <a href="http://www.vcstar.com/news/2010/jan/02/politicians-rely-on-county-parti…; target="”_blank”">a
summary</a> of what California Watch found throughout the state.<br>
<br>
According to the second of these articles, this method of laundering contributions "drew attention recently when the California Fair Political
Practices
Commission levied <a href="http://www.fppc.ca.gov/releasespdf/Enforcementrelease121009.pdf&quot; target="”_blank”">a combined $49,000 in fines</a> against Assemblyman Joel
Anderson ... and the Fresno County Republican Central Committee,
after an unusual pattern of donations was brought to light in October." According to <a href="http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/taxonomy/term/2252&quot; target="”_blank”">an article in the <i>East County Magazine</i></a>, Anderson had already refunded approximately $150,000 in donations made by non-local county committees that funneled money received from major local donors.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
---