Campaign Contribution

Glendale resident Gareth Neumann is hoping to change the state's political campaign and election process by getting a reform initiative he authored approved by voters next November. Neumann needs to gather nearly 400,000 signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. The initiative, titled "Candidates. Campaign Finances. Gifts," would amend a section of the California Political Reform Act by limiting campaign contributions from any source to $25.

Supporters of a Los Angeles city ballot measure that for the first time would limit political contributions to local candidates said last week that they stand ready to raise as much as $250,000 to ensure its passage. Kicking off their campaign at a City Hall news conference, Mayor Tom Bradley and council members Ernani Bernardi and Joy Picus joined representatives of Common Cause and the League of Women Voters in boosting the campaign limitation measure.

The Senate on Tuesday moved to check the growing power of special interest groups over federal elections as it endorsed a Democratic plan to cut the size and scope of contributions that candidates can accept from political action committees. The 69-30 vote for the proposal of Sen. David L. Boren (D-Okla.

The City Council approved two ordinances this week that will tighten controls on campaign contributions received by City Council candidates and on gifts received by council members, city employees and members of appointed boards. By a 4-1 vote Tuesday, with council member Mark Goodman dissenting, the council approved an ordinance limiting individual campaign contributions to $350. Council candidates will have to disclose the names of individuals contributing $50 or more to their campaigns.

A donor to the mayoral campaigns of City Controller Wendy Greuel and council members Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry was fined $170,000 on Thursday by the Los Angeles Ethics Commission for laundering dozens of campaign contributions. Peter Barker, president of Orange County-based Barker Management, admitted he had reimbursed employees or their spouses for 68 contributions given to an array of city campaigns over 12 years, including the mayoral bids of Greuel, Garcetti and Perry. The practice, known as campaign money laundering, enabled him to bypass city contribution limits.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday vehemently denied published allegations that he received illegal campaign contributions from the nation's richest woman, Liliane Bettencourt, just before his election in 2007. The accusation, if true, would mark the first time the French leader has been directly implicated in the unfolding scandal involving the L'Oreal heiress' billions. It also would be another blow to his conservative administration, which has been hit by allegations that led to the resignations of two ministers.

The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission is weighing a plan to increase limits on campaign contributions for the first time in 27 years, more than doubling the amount of money donors can give to candidates. The proposal, which the commission first discussed publicly on Thursday, would allow candidates for City Council to accept $1,100 per donor per election cycle, up from the current $500 limit. Candidates for mayor, city attorney and city controller would see the cap lifted to $2,200 from $1,000.

The amount of campaign contributions a county supervisor can receive and still vote for a matter affecting a major donor will be increased from $1,704 to $1,739 in a four-year period under legislation that won preliminary approval Tuesday. The county's TIN CUP (Time Is Now, Clean Up Politics) ordinance requires a supervisor to abstain from voting on, or influencing a decision on, matters affecting a "major campaign contributor."

Two indisputable facts: Trash hauling is a highly competitive big business in Orange County, and candidates need ever-increasing amounts of cash to run campaigns. Add these together and it should come as no surprise that the garbage industry is a consistent source of campaign contributions to city council and county supervisor candidates--especially incumbents.

In early 1986, a stocky, gregarious man with a deep Southern drawl arrived in the state Capitol on a mission. Calling himself Jack Gordon, he told legislators he needed a law passed to help his Alabama company get a special break on state-backed loans to finance a new shrimp-processing plant near Sacramento. Like many outsiders with a financial stake in legislation, he hired a lobbyist and began passing out thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.