By JB Powell
Word has just come down from the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) that State Sen. Carole Migden and her campaign have agreed to pay $350,000 in fines for 89 different campaign finance violations.
Many the violations have to do with failures to itemize credit-card expenditures. Last July, Assemblymember Mark Leno, who is running against Migden, lodged a formal complaint about that spending.
But it appears that FPPC investigators found numerous other violations, above and beyond Leno’s allegations – including several improper transfers from old committees. Exhibit 2, posted on the commission’s website, states that Migden, her campaign aide Eric Potashner, and her volunteer treasurer, Roger Sanders, twice “failed to timely report receipt” of transfers from Migden’s now defunct Leadership Committee.
The violations relating to fund transfers are especially significant because Migden is currently suing the FPPC to free up nearly $1 million in cash the commission says she improperly transferred from an old campaign account. As we report in the upcoming issue, (“Migden sues the FPPC”) commissioners barred Migden from spending that cash last October. In a public statement issued just after Migden filed her suit in federal court, commission chair Ross Johnson asserted that Migden had already spent “nearly $400,000” of that money. That could mean even more penalties for the embattled senator, as the current settlement announced today does not pertain to the cash in question.
In addition to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on campaign credit cards without itemizing the expenditures, Counts 57-65 of Exhibit 2 show that her campaign has now admitted to failing to account adequately for more than $300,000 spent between 2005 and 2007.
Counts 81-88 might be the most eye-raising – they detail how Migden and her aide Potashner spent large sums of campaign money for “Personal Use.” From the settlement: “Respondents admit, and corresponding records indicate, that expenditures by the 2008 Senate Committee totaling $16,317.91 were neither reasonably nor directly related to a political, legislative, or governmental purpose. Instead, these expenditures conferred a substantial personal benefit on Respondents Migden and Potashner.”
Neither Migden nor her attorney could immediately be reached for comment.
FPPC commissioners will meet Thursday, March 20, in an emergency session to vote on whether to approve the settlement agreement. As for Migden’s lawsuit, a hearing is scheduled for April 1st in the US District Court.
UPDATE: Reached for comment later, Migden’s attorney, James Harrison, told us that “in several instances [Migden and Potashner] took out the wrong credit card” when making personal purchases. He said they both reimbursed the campaign for the misused funds.
Harrison also pointed to passages in the settlement documents that show that Migden herself, not Leno, brought these matters to the attention of regulators last year. Leno has been taking credit in recent weeks for exposing Migden’s credit card violations in a complaint he filed last August. But in the conclusion to Exhibit 2, FPPC staff state that Migden “self-reported” her problems after previous FPPC fines prompted her to conduct an audit of her books.
“This is a textbook example of how we want a public official to act.” Harrison argued. “Sen. Migden identified a problem and she worked diligently with the FPPC to resolve it … She’s standing up and taking responsibility.”