March 3, 2011, 12:07 AM
Once the grand jury got together, it didn't take long for Larry Minor to fold. Less than 24 hours after his indictment last month, the Southern California agribusiness mogul pleaded guilty to charges that he funneled money through friends and family to circumvent the state's campaign...
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June 2, 2010, 12:04 AM
It's still early, but according to last week's round of state campaign finance reports, dollars have already begun flowing by the thousands this year into county-level political parties around the state – organizations that, as we have discussed, are often used as conduits to...
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March 3, 2010, 12:05 AM
Observers of the daily campaign finance filings at the California Secretary of State's office might have noticed something interesting yesterday: Early fundraising reports for county political party committees are starting to roll in. (Note: If you haven't already checked it out, our...
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January 14, 2010, 12:02 AM
In addition to facing multiple state penalties for failing to properly disclose campaign contributions and expenses, Democratic and Republican central committees in California have been fined at least 18 times by federal regulators since 2000 for a variety of campaign finance violations, according...
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January 8, 2010, 5:53 AM
We’ve heard some fantastic feedback this week about our story on county parties being used as middlemen in high-dollar campaign finance transactions. In case you missed it, here’s what’s been going on:
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January 7, 2010, 12:01 AM
The California Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating whether Republican Assemblymen Bill and Tom Berryhill, sidestepped strict fundraising limits by filtering money through two GOP central committees in the 2008 general election, California Watch has learned. The FPPC is also...
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January 6, 2010, 5:25 AM
County-level political party committees have regularly failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign expenses and contributions, sometimes leaving voters in the dark about their finances until after Election Day, according to audits conducted by the California Fair Political...
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January 5, 2010, 12:00 PM
Donors and politicians using county political parties to route hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaigns may not be violating the letter of California’s campaign law, but they are violating its intent, the state’s top campaign enforcer says. “I’m all for strong...
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January 4, 2010, 9:23 AM
In our Sunday story, we outlined a system that allows savvy campaign donors to give candidates hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the law typically allows by routing the money through county party central committees – particularly late in an election cycle. The system was used to...
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January 2, 2010, 9:50 PM
Is it possible that politicians and their supporters have laundered donations to subvert campaign finance laws?
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January 2, 2010, 8:10 PM
County-level political parties around the state have raised more than $14 million since 2007, two-thirds of which came in donations of $10,000 or more. See who is contributing to your local party.
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