Election Laws

A political ally of the candidate who lost an Orange County supervisorial race to Janet Nguyen filed a criminal complaint Monday asserting she broke state and local campaign finance laws by secretly directing donors to pay her legal bills. An official with the district attorney's office said the complaint was being forwarded to the state attorney general's office.

Charges will not be filed against a former Orange County congressional candidate whose campaign mailed letters warning immigrants against voting, the state attorney general's office said Wednesday. "We looked closely at voter intimidation statutes but couldn't find any criminal intent," Gareth Lacy, a spokesman for the office, said of the letters sent by Republican Tan Nguyen's staff three weeks before November's election, in which he failed to unseat Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Santa Ana).

A Pakistani businessman accused of illegally funneling tens of thousands of dollars to the political campaigns of U.S. Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) surrendered to the FBI on a year-old indictment Tuesday, then collapsed in Los Angeles federal court. Looking tired and disoriented, Abdul Rehman Jinnah, 56, complained of chest pains and began shaking an hour into a contentious bond hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Patrick J. Walsh.

The Supreme Court heads into the final month of its term next week, and is expected to deliver major decisions on the future of school integration, the role of corporate money in political campaign ads and a taxpayer challenge to President Bush's faith-based initiative. There will probably be more 5-4 rulings and sharply worded dissents as the justices hand down rulings in the 26 remaining cases by the end of June and then leave town for the summer. If new Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

Former Mayor James K. Hahn has agreed to pay $5,450 in fines to settle allegations by the executive director of the city Ethics Commission that he violated campaign finance rules in his unsuccessful reelection campaign. Hahn, who lost the 2005 election to Antonio Villaraigosa, conceded that he exceeded the $1,000 limit on individual contributions in seven cases between June 12, 2003, and Nov. 30, 2004, including $2,000 in checks from Crown Realty and Development Inc. and owner Robert A. Flaxman.

A developer, a lobbyist and a company that does business with the county gave undisclosed donations above the legal contribution limit to newly elected Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen earlier this year, her campaign disclosed Thursday. The developer of Rancho Mission Viejo, a planned community in southern Orange County, and lobbyist Chris Townsend, whose firm represents four county agencies, gave $5,000 each. Parking Concepts Inc.

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission approved $11,450 in fines Tuesday against City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo for 30 counts of violating campaign finance laws. The panel concluded that Delgadillo's political officeholder account failed to provide a detailed itemization of how $394 spent on meals and more than $1,200 on flowers, candy and other gifts were related to his conduct of official business. Those represent 25 administrative counts.

When Southern California businessman Ray Jinnah surfaced after more than a year as a fugitive to face charges of arranging illegal campaign contributions, he appeared weak and lost, collapsing during a brief federal court hearing last month. His transformation was stunning to those who knew him in 2000, when Jinnah brashly, if briefly, marketed himself as a political player with clout to arrange access to the Democratic Party's elite.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa agreed Thursday to pay a $5,200 fine for violating multiple campaign finance laws stemming from his 2003 race for the City Council. Villaraigosa accepted four contributions from individuals in excess of a $500-per-person limit. His campaign also failed to file copies of 23 pieces of campaign literature with the city Ethics Commission and to send the panel scripts or recordings for a radio ad and two prerecorded phone calls.

SACRAMENTO -- California lawmakers are proposing a trio of bills they say would update the state's campaign finance laws and better recognize free speech rights, but several open-government groups are fighting the measures, fearing they would allow special interests to overwhelm elections.