The Use of County Party Committees to Launder Campaign Contributions - An Interactive California Report

Worth taking a look at is the work of California Watch in disclosing the use of county party committees to launder campaign contributions far over the legal limits.

The nonpartisan good government organization presents the data in three different forms:

Contributors to county committees - Two-thirds of the $14.5 million donated to county parties across the state between January 2007 and November 2009 came in checks of $10,000 or more

Recipients of county committee contributions

Two interactive examples of using county committees to get around campaign contribution limits - a $45,000 contribution from a state assemblyman to his brother, filtered through three county committees, and a one-day $300,000 union local contribution split among ten county committees, and then spread around to tight elections

There are two good articles on the California Watch program in the Ventura County Star, one focused on Ventura County, the other a summary of what California Watch found throughout the state.

According to the second of these articles, this method of laundering contributions "drew attention recently when the California Fair Political Practices Commission levied a combined $49,000 in fines against Assemblyman Joel Anderson ... and the Fresno County Republican Central Committee, after an unusual pattern of donations was brought to light in October." According to an article in the East County Magazine, Anderson had already refunded approximately $150,000 in donations made by non-local county committees that funneled money received from major local donors.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

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