Election Laws

Finding that both the Clinton and Dole campaigns broke laws and misused federal funds during their 1996 bids for the presidency, Federal Election Commission staffers recommended Tuesday that the Clinton campaign repay $7 million and that the Bob Dole campaign repay $17.7 million to public coffers. The announcement came as Congress sought to broaden its impeachment inquiry of the president to include allegations of campaign finance abuse and as Atty. Gen.

A businessman who controlled much of the northern San Diego County trash business has admitted to making illegal campaign donations. James Mashburn will pay $249,500 to the state for making 133 illegal contributions to City Council candidates countywide. Mashburn, 57, said he personally reimbursed employees, their spouses and a relative for campaign contributions totaling $21,400 between 1992 and 1995. The fine was announced Monday by the Fair Political Practices Commission.

After crusading for campaign finance reform for 25 years, Tony Miller knows how to follow the political money. Now he's getting some of it back. In recent months, Miller, the former acting secretary of state, has lodged more than a dozen lawsuits against large political donors to state campaigns, alleging that they have failed to follow California's Political Reform Act. That's just the start.

The Federal Election Commission unanimously decided against ordering the campaigns of President Clinton and Republican challenger Bob Dole to repay millions of federal dollars for violating spending limits. The commission rejected its auditors' argument that millions of dollars worth of TV ads run by the Democratic and Republican parties should count against spending limits agreed to by Clinton and Dole in exchange for receiving federal campaign funds.

The Federal Election Commission signaled Wednesday that it will overrule most, if not all, of its own staff's recommendations that the Bill Clinton and Bob Dole presidential campaigns repay millions of dollars that they allegedly overspent in the 1996 battle for the White House. Following two days of debate, Scott E. Thomas, the commission's acting chairman, said: "The chances are pretty darn slim there will be any repayment."

Citing ambiguities in U.S. campaign finance law, a federal judge has dismissed 13 felony charges filed against two top executives of the Cabazon band of Mission Indians near Indio. The executives, Mark Nichols and Greg Cervantes, were indicted this year on charges of using conduit donors to funnel thousands of dollars in illegal donations to six Democratic candidates, including President Clinton and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

In the coming weeks, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and her top advisors will be weighing a strong new recommendation from the former head of the illegal donations inquiry that she turn over the controversial probe to an independent counsel. In a report summarizing his analysis of the law and facts he gathered as lead prosecutor in the investigation, Charles G.

Miami business executive Howard Glicken, a veteran Democratic fund-raiser and friend of Vice President Al Gore, pleaded guilty to soliciting a $20,000 foreign contribution in 1993 for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Glicken is one of eight people charged by a Justice Department task force. He admitted requesting the $20,000 from a foreign national--who cannot donate to U.S. campaigns--then suggesting that the donation be made in the name of a legal donor.

Fueling an already heated debate over gambling, the Legislature's legal advisor has issued an opinion warning that lawmakers could face federal criminal sanctions if they accept campaign donations from Indian gambling operations deemed to be illegal. The opinion, obtained Thursday, comes as Native Americans battling to operate casinos on reservations emerge as a major political force in the capital.

The Los Angeles City Council and the city attorney called Tuesday for an investigation into allegations that city police and security officials illegally barred petitioners from collecting signatures at the Van Nuys Airport. Volunteers with Valley VOTE, a group collecting signatures for a San Fernando Valley secession study, told the council they were escorted off the airport and threatened with arrest during an air show last weekend.