Local News

SACRAMENTO (AP) ― California's political watchdog agency filed a $9 million lawsuit Tuesday against state Sen. Carole Migden, accusing the San Francisco Democrat of consistent and deliberate violations of the state's campaign finance laws.

"For years, Senator Migden has been deceiving the voters of California by filing inaccurate campaign statements, fabricating the elimination of committees and concealing campaign funds," Ross Johnson, chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, said in a statement.

"The sophisticated and pervasive pattern of deception by her various controlled committees has been ongoing for more than five years."

Commission officials said they had not been able to determine whether it was the largest fine ever sought by the agency.

Migden's campaign consultant, Richie Ross, called the commission's action a "Nixonian tirade" instigated by Johnson in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Migden. The senator's lawsuit challenges the commission's refusal to let Migden use $647,000 in an old campaign account for her Senate re-election campaign this year.

"He's a hothead," Ross said of Johnson, a former Republican state senator who served for years with Migden in the Legislature. "He's stamping his foot, and he is in one of his (expletive) tirades. This is punishment because she is filing suit on First Amendment rights."

A spokesman for the commission, Roman Porter, did not respond directly to Ross' comments but said the counter lawsuit was supported by the entire commission.

The commission's lawsuit comes a little more than a week after Migden admitted making a separate series of campaign violations and agreed to pay a record $350,000 fine.

The action was filed in federal court in Sacramento in response to a lawsuit Migden filed earlier this month over whether she could tap the $647,000 left over from her campaigns when she was in the state Assembly.

She is facing a tough primary challenge for re-election to the Senate from two fellow Democrats—Assemblyman Mark Leno of San Francisco and former Assemblyman Joe Nation of San Rafael. She wanted to use the money from her Assembly account for the primary race in advance of the June 3 election.

Migden contends that she should be allowed to tap the Assembly money even though she failed to meet a deadline to use it for other campaigns.

The deadline requires elected officials to transfer surplus campaign money to another political committee before they leave office if they plan to use it for a future campaign.

The commission says the requirement is needed to keep former officials from tapping surplus campaign money for "personal enrichment" after they leave office.

Migden's lawsuit contends the commission is being unfair because it allowed another senator, Ellen Corbett, to transfer money after she missed the deadline in 2006.

Commission spokesman Roman Porter said there is a distinct difference between the two cases.

Corbett, a San Leandro Democrat, said the failure to properly transfer her surplus campaign money was an error and asked the commission's permission before using it, Porter said.

"Migden, for the last five years, has illegally used surplus campaign funds without notifying anyone," Porter said.

The commission's countersuit goes beyond the debate over use of the $647,000. It also accuses Migden of "massive instances of misreporting information and movement of money," Porter said.

"Certain movements of money were reported as transfers but didn't happen," he said. "Others were moved but never disclosed."

He said Migden's failure to accurately report transfers could have scared away potential challengers by misleading them into believing that she had more money than she actually had.

Porter said the potential penalty comes to $9 million because the FPPC lawsuit asks for the maximum allowed for each violation. Some of those carry potential fines equal to triple the amount of money involved.

James Harrison, a San Leandro attorney representing Migden, criticized the commission's counter lawsuit.

"When we attempted to negotiate a resolution with the FPPC, we had a disagreement over the legal question of whether these funds were surplus because Senator Migden missed a technical deadline by which these funds needed to be transferred," he said.

"For them to respond to our challenge to the statute by counterclaiming for $9 million is simply outrageous."

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)