Big Expenditures By Independent Expenditure Committees

The Fair Political Practices Commission wants more disclosure of donors to independent expenditure committees, which have spent $88 million on legislative and statewide candidates since 2000. 

Use of the committees has sharply proliferated since voters enacted Proposition 34, a campaign finance initiative that imposed contribution limits on legislative and statewide candidates. 

At an informational hearing Thursday (Feb. 14), the commission reviewed contributions made by various committees all with innocuous sounding names that tell little about where the committee’s cash actually comes from. 

Californians for a Better Government – A Coalition of Firefighters, Police, Deputy Sheriffs, Teachers, Home Builders and Developers – was the biggest spending independent expenditure committee at $9.8 million, principally in support of Phil Angelides, the Democratic candidate for governor in 2006. 

While the California Teachers Association and various law enforcement groups contributed to the committee, $8.7 million came from Sacramento area developer Angelo Tsakopoulos and his daughter, Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis. 

“It’s a way to get around the contribution limits. What the commission is looking is how can we increase disclosure and shine more light on this spending,” said Roman Porter, a spokesman for the commission. 

Independent expenditure committees are entities unfettered by Proposition 34’s contribution limits. The committees can spend, again without limit, in support or against candidates with the caveat the committee not work in concert with the candidate’s campaign. 

During 2001 and 2002, the commission found independent expenditure committees spent $8.4 million on legislative races. Proposition 34’s contribution limits, which currently cap contributions to lawmakers from trade associations and unions at $3,600, were imposed on legislative races in January 2001. Statewide candidates became subject to higher limits starting in November 2002. 

Independent expenditure committees spent $10.6 million on gubernatorial candidates in the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis. More than $16 million was spent on legislative races during 2003 and 2004. 

 But independent expenditure committee spending in 2005 and 2006 eclipsed the totals of the previous four years. Spending on legislative races was $23.5 million. Spending on statewide candidates was nearly $29.5 million, more than $22 million in the governor’s race. 

Over the six-year period, 10 independent expenditure committees spent $42.2 million – nearly half the total spending by such committees.

Second behind Californians for a Better Government was the Alliance for a Better California, Educators, Firefighters, School Employees, Health Care Givers and Labor Organizations with $5.2 million in spending, the vast majority of it opposing four Schwarzenegger-backed ballot measures in the November 2005 special election. 

Third was First Americans for a Better California at $4.3 million — $400,000 more than was spent by JOBS Pac, the long-standing independent expenditure committee operated by the California Chamber of Commerce. 

As its name implies, First Americans for a Better California was funded by Indian tribes with gambling operations, mainly the Pechanga Band of Mission Indians plus a $400,000 contribution from the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation. 

First Americans supported Cruz Bustamante in his failed bid for governor in the 2003 recall and Proposition 53, an initiative on the same 2003 ballot, which failed passage. 

The politically powerful prison guards union rounds out the top five spenders at $3.5 million. 

Independent expenditure committee spending can have a huge impact, particularly in legislative races. In his unsuccessful 2006 bid to unseat Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, GOP candidate Danny Gilmore raised $918,000 and received $17,755 from independent expenditure committees. 

Independent expenditure committees lavished $1.3 million on Parra  – 70 times more spending than on Gilmore. 

In the same general election, Democrat Steve Clute tried to unseat GOP Assemblywoman bonnie Garcia. Clute out-raised Garcia, $1.8 million to $1.4 million. But Garcia’s campaign benefited from $711,586 in spending by independent expenditure committees. 

Compared to Clute’s $1,331 from Garcia’s level of support from independent expenditure committees was 530 times greater than Clute who lost with 48.4 percent to Garcia’s 51.6 percent. 

The commission hopes to find authority under existing law to require more disclosure from independent expenditure committees so voters are better aware of the source of a committee’s funding. 

A list of the Top Ten givers to the 10 biggest-spending independent expenditure committees from 2001 through 2006 follows. Combined, these 10 givers contributed just over $33 million of the more than $42 million spent by those 10 committees.

 

1. Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians…………………………..$6,182,000
2. Angelo K. Tsakopoulos………………………………………..$6,130,000
3. California Teachers Association………………………………$3,925,000
4. California Correctional Peace Officers…………………………$3,536,000
5. Morongo Band of Mission Indians……………………………..$3,378,000
6. California State Council of Service Employees……………….$2,655,000
7. Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis………………………………..$2,570,000
8. Service Employees International Union Local 1000………….$1,940,000
9. California State Council of Service Employees, Small Contributor Committee………………………………..…………………………………….$1,577,000
10. Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation…………………………$1,200,000

 

 Source: Fair Political Practices Commission 

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