TV Ads Put Focus on Reiner

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Reiner and Behr said they have taken pains to avoid conflicts. Behr said he would not work on the June initiative.

"While it is true that First 5 cannot and should not advocate on behalf of the potential initiative," GMMB wrote in a document submitted to the commission last year, "it is equally certain that the goals of the Preschool for All campaign can only be achieved through legislative or electoral action."

Others affiliated with GMMB and the First 5 commission are involved in the campaign for Proposition 82, which would raise income taxes by $2.4 billion a year on wealthy Californians.

Austin -- the former deputy mayor -- worked for GMMB on First 5-related matters in 2002 and 2003, then moved to Reiner's political team, then returned to consulting for GMMB and received bimonthly First 5 commission checks.

During an 11-month period ending in April 2005, GMMB billed First 5 California $206,000 to pay Austin and two other aides. Austin's share was $111,000, invoices show. All three returned to the Reiner campaign payroll in June.

Proposition 82's office is at the same Beverly Hills address Austin gave when he was consulting for GMMB and the state.

Austin and the other aides did not have contracts with First 5. Austin said his duties were outlined in multiple conversations with the commission's staff and Reiner. His work was part-time, and he said he had no involvement in the First 5 ads.

"Literally the only thing we have been motivated by," Austin said in his office last week, "is preschool for kids."

Meanwhile, William Deaver, a former member of the Fair Political Practices Commission, which enforces campaign laws, has asked his former agency to investigate whether the juxtaposition of the preschool ads and the Proposition 82 initiative effort violated the law.

An FPPC spokesman declined to comment.

Deaver, a Republican who served on the FPPC from 1999 to 2003, said the promotion of preschool is "admirable" but added: "I don't think you can use public money to support a ballot measure. I don't care what it is."