Dornan, Ferguson to Detail Spending in Irvine Election

Saying that they did not mean to violate state election laws and will make amends, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) and Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach) promised Wednesday to give a detailed accounting of money they spent on the Irvine City Council race last June.

Meanwhile, Irvine City Atty. Roger Grable said he will ask the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission and the Orange County district attorney’s office to investigate whether state laws were violated.

On Tuesday, Irvine Mayor Larry Agran accused Ferguson and Dornan of violating state statutes by failing to report to the city clerk how much they had spent on campaign mailers in Irvine last year.

The Times erroneously reported Wednesday that the Irvine council had decided to conduct an inquiry to determine whether the mailings violated state election laws. In fact, the council took no action Wednesday, although Agran requested that the city attorney investigate.

Dornan spent about $4,000 on a mailer opposing council candidate Ed Dornan, who is not related to the congressman. And, a Ferguson political action committee spent about $5,000 opposing Agran and Ed Dornan.

Rep. Dornan and Assemblyman Ferguson contended Wednesday that they already had fully reported their expenditures--Dornan in a report to the Federal Elections Commission and Ferguson in reports to the secretary of state.

But Agran said Wednesday that the state law requiring an additional report to his city is “absolutely explicit. . . . People have the right to know who is trying to influence the outcome of their election,” he said.

While cautioning that she could not comment on this case, state Fair Political Practices Commission spokeswoman Jeanette Turvell said Wednesday that officeholders who make independent contributions to a candidate are required to file a separate report in the candidate’s community.

Those who fail to do so can receive administrative sanctions of $2,000 each or civil penalties of up to three times the amount of the campaign expenditure, she said.

Independent Report

Turvell said it is unclear whether a congressman must file a supplemental report on independent campaign expenses to a community like Irvine. She said she knows of no other case in which a congressman had been asked to file an independent expenditure report.

Both Ferguson and Dornan said Wednesday night that they will send Irvine a report.

Dornan, calling the issue “a tempest in a teapot,” said: “Many months after the fact they (Irvine leaders who made the complaint) are just looking for a little political fun.”

And Ferguson said he resented being painted as a wrongdoer. “If a city wants me to file with them, all they have to do is ask me,” he said. “Nobody ever asked me to do that. Now I’m being accused . . . of purposefully trying to evade a report that nobody ever asked me to write. But I’ll amend our state report immediately and file with them (Irvine).”

As chairman of the 7-year-old, anti-Socialist Freemarket Political Action Committee, Ferguson financed a mailer to Irvine voters in last June’s council races. The mailer urged the defeat of Agran and his running mate, Ed Dornan.

Similarly, Dornan sent a one-page letter to 18,000 voters in the same June election. He declared that council candidate Dornan, a liberal Democrat, is not related to him either by blood or philosophy, and urged his defeat.

Ferguson on Wednesday initially denied that he had violated any state law and accused Irvine officials of being “involved in their own political high jinks.” He said all expenses from the mailer had been “scrupulously” reported as the law requires: to the secretary of state’s office in Sacramento.

But later, after a section of the elections code was read to him, he said he will send a separate accounting on the mailer to Irvine. Irvine’s clerk had never requested the report, Ferguson said, and his PAC lawyers never told him it was needed.

Meanwhile, Dornan also said he was not sure that any report was required beyond the reports he routinely files with the Federal Elections Commission. He said that an aide had called the Irvine clerk’s office Wednesday but that “nobody called us back. But we’ll do whatever the state requires.”

‘Not Covered’

Earlier, Dornan aide Brian O’Leary Bennett said he doubts that a separate report is needed because “this was a federal campaign expense made by us. We’re not covered by most state reporting laws.”

Dornan’s mailing expenses were reported to the Federal Elections Commission in a June 30, 1986, accounting as part of Dornan’s printing and billing expenses in that period, Bennett said.

Ferguson said he reported the PAC-financed mailer in the Irvine race as part of his regular campaign reports for the committee. In his report for the May 18-June 30 filing period, the PAC reported $2,326 for mail service, $1,010 for printing and $839 to a firm called Computer Caging. In a report for the period from July 1 to Sept. 30, a $372.95 expenditure to American Envelope was listed as another mailer expense, Ferguson aide Beverly Evans said.

But Evans conceded that it would be difficult to pick out expenses for the Irvine mailer just by looking at the overall PAC report. “I don’t think there’s anything on the report that (says these expenses were) . . . for the mailer,” she said.

The state statute in question refers to “Independent Expenditure Reports.” It says that if a candidate or committee has made expenditures of $500 or more in a calendar year “to support or oppose a candidate, a measure or a qualification of a measure, it shall file independent reports at the same time, covering the same periods and in the places where the candidate or committee would be required to file campaign statements under this article.”