SACRAMENTO — With only days left before the November election, state Republicans solicited nearly $1 million from a Los Angeles insurance company and channeled it to key races around California in a way that hid the source of the contributions.
On Oct. 21, Woodland Hills-based 21st Century Insurance Group wrote checks ranging from $25,000 to $200,000 to the California Republican Party and GOP committees in 15 mostly rural counties.
The money was given one business day after the deadline for public disclosure and moved around the state in circuitous routes that circumvented campaign contribution limits.
The county committees made substantial donations to one or more of six Republican legislative candidates, all of whom were in tight races they subsequently won. Most of the committees gave money to candidates in districts outside their counties.
Some committee chairmen said they were even unaware that donations had been made in their names.
"It comes as news to me that money was funneled through my county," said San Joaquin County GOP Chairman Rick Veldstra, adding that he was "speechless" to learn that $23,500 went to help a candidate about 450 miles away. "We're not used to dealing with numbers like this."
The money enabled the candidates, most running neck and neck in the polls, to pay for last-minute phone banks, mass mailings and television advertisements. All six won in November, giving Republicans two additional seats in the Assembly and one in the Senate -- their first gain since 1994 -- and preventing Democrats from winning the two-thirds majority that would have allowed them to pass budget bills without Republican support.
Had 21st Century made its donations only one business day earlier, the contributions would have been publicly disclosed under the business' name before election day. Instead, the insurance company did not have to report its contributions until Jan. 31.
The company, still smarting from Democratic legislation two years earlier that cost the insurance giant more than $50 million in Northridge earthquake claims, said its goal had been to help Republicans, and it relied on the party to recommend when and where to place its money. "The CRP [California Republican Party] said, 'Would you please give political funding here,' '' said company spokeswoman Fiona Hutton.
The strategy for Republicans, said a party spokesman, was to keep the last-minute infusion of $950,000 secret from the Democrats, who would have fought back by putting more money into their legislative candidates.
