Assembly candidate Carl DeMaio is facing new accusations that he misused campaign funds and violated campaign finance laws. This time, the complaint is coming from the largest police advocacy group in California.
In a complaint filed to the Fair Political Practices Commission, or FPPC, the group alleges that DeMaio, a Republican who is running for the 75th Assembly District, violated campaign contribution limits, misused funds from his Reform California Ballot Measure Committee, failed to properly report certain expenses and improperly used funds from the Reform California Voter Guide to help with his campaign costs.
Brian Marvel, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, or PORAC, submitted the 13-page complaint on Aug. 28 to the FPPC, which is the state agency in charge of enforcing campaign finance, lobbying and conflict-of-interest laws.
According to its website, PORAC represents more than 80,000 public safety members and over 950 associations, making it the largest law enforcement organization in California and the largest statewide association in the United States.
“I feel that with our complaint, we found there was a blurring of the lines between the Reform California organization and [DeMaio’s] campaign for the Assembly District 75,” Marvel told Voice of San Diego. “Hopefully the FPPC comes to the same conclusion that that we did and whatever their decision is, it can be implemented swiftly and before the election.”
A spokesperson for the FPPC told Voice via email that the complaint is currently under review. All complaints received by the FPPC are taken under review to determine whether there is enough information and evidence to warrant opening an investigation.
DeMaio has long had political tension with groups who represent police. PORAC donated $40,000 in February of this year to oppose DeMaio’s run for Assembly.
Jen Jacobs, a spokesperson for DeMaio, denied the allegations made in the complaint in an email.
“The political establishment doesn’t like that Carl DeMaio fights them and has exposed their corruption, so they have filed blatantly false and frivolous complaints against our campaigns for years,” Jacobs said. “It won’t distract or intimidate Carl DeMaio into backing down from fighting them and reforming our broken state.”
Violation of Campaign Contribution Limits and Misuse of Ballot Measure Committee Funds
The first piece of PORAC’s complaint against DeMaio takes aim at DeMaio’s Reform California Ballot Measure Committee.
Reform California is a political action committee chaired by DeMaio. DeMaio and Reform California control the Reform California Ballot Measure Committee, which focuses specifically on ballot initiatives.
Before DeMaio announced his campaign for the 75th Assembly District – the Reform California website had the following disclaimer: “Ad paid for by Reform California. Advertisement was not authorized by a candidate or a committee controlled by a candidate.”
Since DeMaio announced his candidacy, the Reform California website now says, “Ad paid for by Carl DeMaio for State Assembly 2024.”
State law allows a candidate to control a ballot measure committee, and that committee can receive contributions above the limit allowed for the candidate’s own campaign for office. But there’s a catch: using contributions from that ballot measure committee to support the candidate’s own campaign for office is a big no-no.
In the complaint, PORAC alleges DeMaio did just that — transferring the Reform California website, which includes the Reform California Ballot Measure Committee, and its massive database of tens of thousands of voters’ contact data to DeMaio’s campaign. PORAC claims that was a non-monetary, or in-kind, contribution from the Reform California Ballot Measure Committee to DeMaio’s Assembly campaign.
PORAC also takes issue with a statement on Reform California’s website that says: “Reform California can run local campaigns through its ballot measure committee thus eliminating the overhead costs of setting up a campaign from scratch.”
“By transitioning the extensive infrastructure of Reform California directly into the hands of DeMaio for Assembly, without the appropriate disclosure or reporting of this as an in-kind contribution, a significant legal and ethical boundary has been crossed,” the complaint says. “This action not only raises questions about the legality of such a transfer, given the explicit restrictions on contributions from ballot measure committees to candidate-controlled committees, but also about the transparency and integrity of DeMaio’s campaign financing.”
PORAC also raises the question of whether DeMaio’s ballot measure committee is genuinely using its funds to qualify and support ballot measures, referencing a previous Voice article that raises that same question.
Voice previously reported that DeMaio and his ballot measure committee have raised millions of dollars and collected tens of thousands of online signatures for five separate ballot measures since 2015, but DeMaio did not submit any physical signatures to the Secretary of State’s office for any of the five ballot measures, automatically disqualifying them from election ballots.
Failure to Accrue Expenses on Campaign Reports
PORAC alleges that DeMaio failed to report a TV ad that his campaign bought for $260,000, a move that it says may have been a tactic by DeMaio to make his campaign’s financial situation look better than it actually was.
On Dec. 18, 2023, DeMaio’s Assembly campaign announced a big TV ad purchase worth $260,000 in a press release, a purchase that should have been disclosed in campaign finance reports by the end of 2023, PORAC says in the complaint.
However, TV ad buys weren’t reported until two months after DeMaio’s campaign announced the ad purchase, the complaint says.
“It seems the expense was not properly accrued to inflate the candidate’s cash on hand to mislead the media and the public,” the complaint says.
Reform California Voter Guide Is Actually a Campaign Committee Controlled by DeMaio
There is another arm of Reform California called Reform California Voter Guide that lists DeMaio as its chairman. It’s officially registered as a slate mailer organization, but PORAC’s complaint suggests it might be acting as a committee controlled by DeMaio, receiving contributions like a typical campaign committee, also known as a recipient committee.
A slate mailer organization sends out mailers that look like voter guides listing candidates or ballot measures with recommendations on how to vote. Candidates or groups pay to be included in these mailers.
A recipient committee, on the other hand, is a political group that collects $2,000 or more in a year to support or oppose candidates. If a slate mailer organization receives over $2,000 and the funds aren’t for including candidates in the mailer but instead are contributions to a campaign, it qualifies as a recipient committee.
According to PORAC’s complaint, the Reform California Voter Guide received $461,819.10 this year, with $200,426.10 (43 percent) coming from DeMaio’s Assembly committee. However, many of the voter guide’s mailers focus almost entirely on promoting DeMaio or opposing his opponent, Andrew Hayes. PORAC alleges that payments to the voter guide may have essentially been used to fund pro-DeMaio ads, turning the organization into a recipient committee.
And if that’s not the case, and those candidates or groups paid the voter guide to be on the mailer and didn’t get what they paid for, then that’s also a potential violation, the complaint says.
If the Reform California Voter Guide is acting as a recipient committee rather than a slate mailer organization, that violates the “one bank account rule” under the Political Reform Act, according to the complaint. This rule requires that all campaign-related funds for a candidate must be managed through a single bank account for both receiving and spending money.
“We want to create greater transparency and accountability for campaign operations,” Marvel told Voice. “I think it’s critical to show that somebody that utilizes what claims to be an independent organization to bolster his campaign gives an unfair advantage to him in his race for the Assembly District 75.”
DeMaio has been the subject of at least four FPPC complaints since 2016, according to the agency’s website. Voice previously reported about two recent FPPC complaints filed against DeMaio earlier this year for alleged campaign finance violations. Those complaints are currently under investigation, according to the FPPC website.
The 75th Assembly District encompasses a vast portion of northern and eastern San Diego County. DeMaio and his opponent, Republican Andrew Hayes, were the top two vote-getters in the March Primary, though DeMaio came out on top. DeMaio previously served one term on the San Diego City Council in 2008, then lost races for mayor in 2012 and for Congress in 2014 and 2020.
This is just voting season mud throwing. I give donate to Carl DeMaio and Reform California, and I’ll continue to do so.
I’ve seen his campaign up close and it’s efficiently and effectively run, unlike our Democrat controlled state government, that could use Carl’s leadership to save it from financial destruction.
Corrected-
This is just voting season mud throwing. I donate to Carl DeMaio and Reform California, and I’ll continue to do so.
I’ve seen his campaign up close and it’s efficiently and effectively run, unlike our Democrat controlled state government, that could use Carl’s leadership to save it from financial destruction.