Judge Voids Campaign Spending Regulation

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Wednesday struck down a regulation by the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission that allowed political candidates to spend campaign money raised before Jan. 1, thus conflicting with a provision of Proposition 73, adopted by the voters last June.

Judge Kurt J. Lewin told the FPPC to rewrite the regulation to make clear that no such money could be used on political campaigns after the effective date of the initiative, but he left it up to the commission to decide whether that effective date was June 8, the day the measure was passed, or Jan. 1.

Millions of dollars of campaign funds held by scores of politicians is at stake in the suit brought by Common Cause against the FPPC regulation. If the money cannot be used, it would have to be refunded to the original donors, and some leading political figures with large campaign war chests would have to raise their funds all over again.

City Candidates

Lewin exempted Los Angeles city candidates from his ruling, accepting arguments by lawyers for Mayor Tom Bradley that Los Angeles has a more restrictive campaign funding law than Proposition 73, and therefore it does not apply in the city.

A spokeswoman for the FPPC said no decision has yet been made on whether Lewin’s ruling will be appealed.

Although Proposition 73 had clearly stipulated that no political funds could be carried over to future campaigns after the measure’s effective date, the five-member FPPC decided to allow politicians to use contributions that did not exceed $1,000 each. Under this rule, if a contribution of $2,000 had been received from an individual, a politician could use $1,000 while returning the rest.

California Common Cause Executive Director Walter Zelman, hailing Lewin’s decision, declared Wednesday that pending further FPPC action, “Candidates shouldn’t use the money in question for any kind of electoral purpose.”

Common Cause attorney Josephine Powe noted that the judge’s ruling is effective immediately and constitutes a blanket prohibition against spending the campaign funds raised before whatever the FPPC rules is the effective date. Since this could be Jan. 1 instead of June 8, she said all funds raised before Jan. 1 ought to be sequestered pending a new FPPC regulation.

A challenge of the constitutionality of certain other provisions of Proposition 73, particularly its ban on free mailings by elected officials, is scheduled to be heard in another Los Angeles Superior Court today.