Whoa! There is no more important campaign finance lawyer for San Diego conservatives than Jim Sutton. And look at what he told This Just In about that bomb the U-T dropped on the city attorney today.
That’s not all. The news guys turned up another little gem here as well. Aguirre may have taken campaign contributions from his staff but so did a few others.
And finally, reader RD chimes in with some excellent perspective:
My, My, never a dull moment. As you know I’m no fan of Aguirre, but Pam and Jim are right. The Charter prohibits only “City Officials” from engaging in certain conduct, which means that while you are working and carrying out your duties as a “City Official” you cannot accept gifts from subordinates. The FPPC, the Charter and the Ethics Ordinance recognizes that while an incumbent is campaigning, he or she is not acting as a City Official. It works both ways. While you can engage in political activity “off time” you cannot engage in political activity while in the workplace. Gwinn and others might have solicited contributions from deputies before the new ethics ordinance came into effect thereafter making something that “looks bad” illegal, but the envelopes were always mailed by the campaign and sent to deputy’s home addresses.
The Republicans may have wanted to check with their guy before doing this.
This thing is exploding in their faces.
How ironic that Aguirre is on the receiving end of a damning accusation that seems to be falling apart.