Ex-County Aide Larson to Head Fair Politics Unit

Gov. George Deukmejian on Thursday appointed former Los Angeles County Counsel John H. Larson of Long Beach as chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission, the state’s watchdog over election campaign and lobbying activities.

A Republican, Larson, 61, replaced Daniel Stanford, who resigned in December to run for the Republican nomination for state controller. The commission post pays $74,757 a year.

Larson is an attorney with the Los Angeles law firm of Musick, Peeler & Garrett, specializing in government law. He will start his new job March 1. His term ends next Jan. 31.

In an interview, Larson said he wanted to wait for a while before committing himself on the sticky issue of campaign finance reform now before the Legislature.

“My mind is open,” he said. “I’m not starting off against anything, but I’m not too convinced that public financing (of election campaigns) is the way to go.”

Larson said he wants to see what the commission staff has under way on campaign finance reform, review bills pending in the Legislature “and start from there.”

The new chairman said he did not think that he had contributed to Deukmejian’s first gubernatorial campaign and did not consider himself to be politically active.

“I’m just a Republican,” Larson said. “I’ve never gone to a national convention.”

Since the 1986 legislative session convened last month, several proposals have been advanced to change the way that legislative campaigns are financed.

Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) has introduced a plan that would limit contributions and expenditures, ban donations during non-election years, prohibit the transfer of political money from one legislator to another and implement partial public financing. The governor vetoed a similar bill in 1984.

The California Commission on Campaign Financing has also launched a drive to place most of the contents of Brown’s bill on the November ballot. The voters rejected campaign finance reform at the polls two years ago.

The commission recently also refused to approve its own staff proposal to implement campaign finance reform. The plan is being rewritten.