Assembly candidate Carl DeMaio is facing investigations for alleged campaign finance violations, in the most recent brawl of the raucous 75th Assembly race.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating complaints filed by an attorney representing DeMaio’s opponent, fellow Republican Andrew Hayes, claiming that DeMaio accepted campaign contributions over legal limits, and blew past a voluntary spending cap by nearly $300,000.
Documents provided by the FPPC show two complaints submitted by Alex Tomescu, an election attorney with the law firm Wewer & Lacy, based in Laguna Niguel. He alleges that DeMaio received multiple donations from individual donors that exceeded the $5,500 ceiling for total donations per person.
In a letter to DeMaio, the FPPC details a complaint that one donor contributed a total of $7,000, or $1,500 over the legal limit.
In the second case, the complaint alleges that DeMaio’s campaign received a total of $7,200 in contributions from a single donor. It eventually returned $850 of that, but still kept more than it was allowed.
The FPPC website also listed an investigation into DeMaio’s compliance with campaign voluntary expenditure limits. That refers to state election rules that give candidates certain perks if they agree to keep campaign spending below a certain amount. Those who accept the limit are designated on the sample ballot, and can buy space for a candidate statement. For assembly primary races the cap is $727,000.
DeMaio is listed on the primary voter guide and on the Secretary of State website as accepting the voluntary limits. However, his campaign finance filing from Feb. 17, showed his total primary spending at $1,025,673. The FPPC did not release documents related to that investigation, but Tomescu said DeMaio’s own disclosure form shows that he spent well over the limit.
“It’s very clear that he’s exceeded it by quite a large amount,” Tomescu said.
That means DeMaio reaped the benefits of the voluntary cap, without actually limiting campaign spending, he said.
“Violating that expenditure ceiling is a serious violation,” Tomescu said. “When a candidate accepts that limit, he gets a special designation on the voter guide. If you are exceeding it while accepting that spending limit, I think it’s a deception of the public.”
DeMaio didn’t respond to questions about the investigation, but his campaign spokesperson Jen Jacobs sent a statement characterizing the complaints as cheap shots by his opponent.
“The political establishment doesn’t like that Carl DeMaio fights them and has exposed their corruption, so they have filed frivolous complaints against our campaigns for years,” Jacobs wrote. “It won’t distract or intimidate Carl DeMaio into backing down from fighting them and reforming our broken state.”
Of course, Hayes has reason to take aim at DeMaio. Part of DeMaio’s ample primary spending went not to his own campaign, but to prop up a Democratic contender, Kevin Juza.
If Juza had come in second, DeMaio would have likely made a clean sweep of the red district in the November general election.
It almost worked; early election returns showed DeMaio with a strong lead and Juza in the number two slot. By the final count, however, Hayes surpassed Juza to make the run-off with DeMaio. That leaves the two Republicans to battle it out, now with some bad blood between them.
CalMatters Idea Fest Floats Solutions to California’s Problems
CalMatters hosted its first Ideas Festival, which brought together lawmakers and other newsmakers to discuss big issues facing California.
A panel on workforce pathways considered how new workers can get good jobs in high demand fields. It’s not working as it should, panelists acknowledged.
“We’re seeing a huge disconnect between labor supply and labor demand: even more for disadvantaged communities,” said Megan Nazareno, a manager with the Construction Trades Workforce Initiative. “Job seekers can’t access stable careers. And we’re seeing employers in trades who can’t find qualified or eligible candidates.”
Many students don’t enter or finish college because they can’t afford to not work, said Adele Burnes, Deputy Chief of the California Division of Apprenticeship Standards.
Apprenticeships for skilled trades pay workers to earn while they learn, she noted. For service workers like teachers and nurses, not so much.
“In our society we’ve figured out how to pay electricians and plumbers while they’re learning, but somehow we ask teachers and nurses to work for free,” she said.
Homelessness experts agreed that the problem is complicated by mental illness, addiction and other problems, but in the end, it boils down to lack of housing.
“What determines whether a region has a lot of homelessness or a little bit of homelessness is completely traceable to the mismatch between housing and income,” said panelist Margot Kushel, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco.
That means California communities need to build lots of homes, fast, state Sen. Scott Wiener said.
“We need to be crystal clear that we need every kind of housing: low, extremely low, moderate and market rate housing,” he said. “We’re not going to solve this problem exclusively through subsidies.”
Last Minute Bills Address Psilocybin Therapy and Poop Pollution
As the legislature session finishes up before summer recess, local lawmakers are pitching some final bills.
On Thursday Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-San Diego, announced Senate Bill 803 to authorize use of psilocybin, the chemical found in psychedelic mushrooms, to treat depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder in veterans and first responders.
The legislation, co-authored with Senator Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, would launch pilot programs in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and San Diego Counties. Those would allow doctors to administer the drug in trial mental health programs, but wouldn’t legalize the substance for general use.
On Tuesday state Sen. Steve Padilla, D-San Diego, introduced Senate Joint Resolution 18. urging the Center for Disease Control to investigate health impacts of pollution from the Tijuana River.
The decades-long problem has resulted in trash, wastewater and raw sewage washing across the border into San Diego County, causing illness and contamination at San Diego beaches.
Padilla’s earlier senate bills, 1178 and 1208, to tackle waste discharge and halt a landfill near the Tijuana River watershed, recently passed the state Senate.
The Sacramento Report runs every Friday and is part of a partnership with CalMatters. Do you have tips, ideas or questions? Send them to me at deborah@voiceofsandiego.org.
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