Legislators have no fundraising limit for ballot measure accounts

'Naked without it'

With so much policy decided at the ballot box in recent years, ambitious lawmakers need such accounts for leverage in Capitol negotiations, said Joe Mathews, a fellow at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank.

"Having one of these committees is an act not just of politics but of governance," Mathews said. "You are naked without it."

Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate, who opened a ballot account this year, said he learned that lesson last year, when he tried and failed to craft a legislative compromise on eminent domain, the controversial power of government to seize private property.

"It was so clear to me that they (eminent domain opponents) fully intended to go to the ballot with their measure and were not negotiating in good faith here," De La Torre said. "I wanted to make sure that I would be able to engage on those kinds of issues."

The FPPC tried to cap ballot account contributions, but the courts, in a 2005 case filed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, ruled the watchdog agency lacked the authority to do so.

Schwarzenegger went on to raise an eye-popping $43.25 million that year, spending much of it on television ads prominently featuring himself promoting four special election ballot measures.

He continues to raise ballot funds. The night after Bass' April fundraiser, Schwarzenegger presided at an event at Spataro that promised major donors the chance to chomp cigars and pour port with the governor.

The two Democratic legislative leaders, Núñez and Perata, have raised more than $15 million between them in ballot committees. The biggest donations include $1.2 million from the California Teachers Association to Núñez and $1 million from the California Building Industry Association to Perata.

Non-leadership lawmakers who control such committees include Assemblymen Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge; Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia; De La Torre; De León; and Todd Spitzer, R-Orange; and Sens. George Runner, R-Lancaster; Mark Wyland, R-Del Mar; and Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles.

Some legislators, such as Runner and Spitzer, have opened accounts to push specific ballot measures in 2008. Others created the accounts more generally.

"Certainly the holes in the Swiss cheese are getting bigger and bigger," said Bob Stern, president of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies, of the state's campaign finance laws.

FPPC exec concerned

The loose regulations worry Johnson, the FPPC chairman, who said his agency is considering altering reporting requirements for the accounts.

"You control it," said Johnson. "And you can turn around and spend that $1 million (donation) on advertising in your legislative district, featuring you, just so you don't use these magic words of 'Vote for (me).' "

Some past candidate-controlled ballot measure activity has appeared to go beyond ballot campaigning and benefit the politician controlling the account.

Perata spent more than $300,000 from his ballot fund in 2007 to air ads – featuring himself – touting his health care proposal. A year earlier, he paid more than $750,000 for TV ads touting the "Perata plan" for rebuilding the state's sagging infrastructure. In 2006, the same week Perata scuttled an eight-bill flood-protection package, his account received $500,000 from the building industry, one of the package's opponents. Both sides denied any connection.

Núñez transferred more than $1.4 million from his ballot account to fund Proposition 93, the February ballot measure that would have extended term limits for sitting lawmakers, including Núñez. The measure lost.

In 2006, Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, opened a ballot measure account to push an anti-sludge effort in Kern County, raising more than $200,000. Much of the money came from gambling interests Florez oversees as chair of the Senate Governmental Organization Committee.

Florez passed the sludge measure but used the leftover campaign funds to pay for a 2006 Christmas card.

Among those pictured: Florez, a 2010 candidate for lieutenant governor, and his mother, Fran Florez, the mayor of Shafter and a 2008 candidate for the Assembly.

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• Call Shane Goldmacher, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 326-5544.