Attorneys say fast action is needed to address campaign ethics complaints

SACRAMENTO — Reporting one’s political opponent for an alleged ethical violation has become an increasingly common tactic in political campaigns, according to a panel of attorneys gathered for the American Association of Political Consultants regional conference on Monday.

The Fair Political Practices Commission, the state’s main political watchdog, investigates alleged campaign ethics violations in real time, said panelists at the “Avoiding Legal Missteps” session. The commission and local political agencies have also made it easier than ever to file a complaint over campaign wrongdoing.

The combination of these factors has made alleging campaign finance improprieties another option in the political toolbox, said Elli Abdoli, a partner with Nielsen Merksamer in San Rafael.

“The easier it has become to file these complaints online, I think the more we’re seeing them be used in that way,” Abdoli said.

She added that complaints show up on an agency’s website so quickly that, “I’ve gotten a call from a reporter before I’ve heard from the FPPC.”

The panel highlighted the growing need for political attorneys as state and local government make compliance more demanding.

Of course, the advice to “call your attorney early,” as panelists repeatedly warned, can be seen as self-serving. But the consequences for some candidates for not having good political attorneys can be serious.

The panelists agreed the implications can be worse for lesser-known candidates in local races but said any distraction in a campaign is unwelcome. One violation can also provide a “toehold” for the commission to come in and look at the candidate’s books.

“What the FPPC does and what they say publicly about what they are doing can have a real impact on elections,” said Lacey E. Keys, a partner with Olson Hagel & Fishburn LLP in Sacramento. “It sucks time and resources away from the campaign.”

It can also cost real money, at least for the worst offenders. The commission cited 1,477 violations last year, prosecuted 340 of those cases, and issued $1.1 million in fines. This makes California one of the toughest venues in terms in state-level enforcement.

“The FPPC has a reputation for being a bulldog compared to some other enforcement agencies,” said panel moderator Darrin Lim, co-founder and partner at Politicom Law LLP in Sausalito.

But a growing number of local jurisdictions have their own campaign finance watchdogs. The most famous and feared may be the San Francisco Ethics Commission. But San Diego and other municipalities are catching up, and they can all operate under different local rules.

“They can have shorter timelines,” Keys said. “Working with the local commissions can be more demanding.”

These agencies aren’t just smaller clones of the state commission, said Leilani R. Beaver, an associate at Kaufman Legal Group Los Angeles. She said it pays to know each one’s focus.

“Every jurisdiction has their own set of priorities,” Beaver said. “Whereas one jurisdiction focuses on coordination, another focuses on disclosure.”

Coordination has become an increasingly problematic arena due to the growing importance of independent expenditure committees, or “IEs,” in the parlance of the political world.

During the question and answer period, a political consultant in the audience described how one of her clients was hit with a deceptive “push poll” — that is, the poll sought to manipulate voters with misleading information contained in the questions. It turned out to be the work not of the candidate’s opponent but a big money group from outside the district.

The panelist also noted they can help with things that may not appear at first to be legal matters.

Take AB 249, a new law passed last year requiring campaigns to list their three biggest donors in advertisements and mailers. Beaver noted the bill requires the list to be regularly updated. So if a candidate has a mailer from weeks earlier and then prints it exactly the same way, even though the top donors have changed, a candidate just committed a campaign finance violation.

Abdoli also noted campaigns can have buyer’s remorse, in that the name of a particular large donor can follow a campaign around for months. The time to return the money from an unwanted donor is sooner, not later, she said.

“If you bring us in too late, we can’t unwind things,” she said.