Mojonnier Pressed for Documents in State Probe of Campaign Fund : Government: Reports that assemblywoman double-billed state and her campaign spurred inquiry.

An attorney general’s investigation into whether Assemblywoman Sunny Mojonnier (R-Encinitas) diverted campaign funds to personal use should be completed by the end of January, a spokesman said this week.

Assistant Atty. Gen. Eugene Hill, in charge of the governmental law section, said his office has asked Mojonnier’s campaign, through her Sacramento attorney Michael Rothschild, to supply documentation for some 1988 and 1989 expenditures that may have violated state law requiring that political donations be used in relation to “governmental, political and legislative purposes.”

The attorney general’s office began the investigation after press reports last summer that Mojonnier had apparently double-billed her campaign and the state in 1988 for $1,115 in travel and eating expenses, as well as $6,649 for a trip to Spain. She also spent $1,229 in campaign funds to pay for two outfits for the centennial celebration of the Hotel del Coronado.

In addition, The Times reported that Mojonnier billed her campaign for $885 in beauty make-overs and fashion advice given to her female staff members during the first half of 1989.

Mojonnier said at the time of the news stories that, if there were double billings, they were an oversight and she would fully reimburse her campaign.

Hill said this week that the attorney general requested the financial documentation from Mojonnier as a “reaction” to the newspaper stories.

“We’re looking at her campaign expenditures and the documentation involved in those,” he said. “We have agreed with her attorney that certain records will be provided to us, we’ll review them and be back in touch with her attorney.

“We hope to clean it up by the end of the month,” Hill said. “It is a matter that will take that much time to finish.”

Hill also said the attorney general’s office will stay in charge of the Mojonnier case, despite a new state law that transfers campaign fund investigations to the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission on Jan. 1.

Rothschild said Thursday that he believes the attorney general’s investigation will show nothing improper in Mojonnier’s campaign finances.

“I don’t think anything will come of it, but, in fairness to Mr. Hill, I don’t want to say anything else,” he said.

Mojonnier declined comment.

State law allows the use of campaign funds--political donations that are distinct from public money that legislators receive to run their offices--for anything that is “substantially related” to an officeholder’s job or political campaign. The expenditure must have more than a “negligible political, legislative or governmental purpose” to be allowable under the law.

The legal guidelines are vague, however, and have yielded a patchwork of decisions by the attorney general’s office on what is permissible, including buying clothing and installing a home security system to protect public documents.

Hill said the civil penalty for the personal use of campaign funds is either a fine of $500 or twice the amount of the improper expenditures, whichever is greater.