Local News in Brief : Politics : Assemblymen to Debate Campaign Financing

Campaign financing will be the topic of a debate Wednesday between two state Assembly members in the third and final Walter B. Gerken Regents Professor Lecture Series sponsored by the UC Irvine Graduate School of Management.

“There is increasing public concern that state legislators may be influenced too heavily by those who make large contributions to their campaigns, serving special interests at the expense of their constituents,” said Gerken, the retired chairman of Pacific Mutual and a Regents professor at the Graduate School of Management this past year. Gerken is the sponsor of an initiative on the June 7 primary ballot that would strictly limit campaign contributions in legislative races.

Debate participants will be John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), chairman of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, and Ross Johnson (R-Fullerton), vice chairman of the Assembly Finance and Insurance Committee. Johnson is sponsoring another initiative on the June ballot that would limit campaign contributions in legislative races.

The event, which is co-sponsored by the Orange County Forum of the Town Hall of California, will be at 11:30 a.m. at the Irvine Hilton. The cost is $25.

For more information, call Vicky Lester at (714) 856-7311.