CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS/SECRETARY OF STATE : Flores Claims Eu Cut Fines for Campaign Violators

Running a distant second in the polls against one of California’s top vote-getters, Republican candidate for secretary of state Joan Milke Flores launched her campaign in earnest Monday, accusing incumbent March Fong Eu of going easy on violators of campaign disclosure laws.

At press conferences in Sacramento and Los Angeles, Flores said Eu has cheated Californians out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by reducing or waiving fines against candidates--including Eu herself--who have filed late campaign spending reports.

Among other duties, the secretary of state enforces filing deadlines for such reports and has the authority to fine violators $10 per day for late documents. The official also has the authority to reduce or waive the fees.

During the last statewide election campaign in 1985 and ‘86, Flores said, Eu’s office reduced 98% of the fines levied against candidates in legislative and statewide races, collecting $1,700 out of $108,713 in fines.

“In effect, March Fong Eu is allowing some politicians who break the law to plea-bargain their penalty down to peanuts,” Flores charged.

A spokesman for Eu acknowledged that the secretary of state’s office has reduced and waived fines, but said that the violations involved were inadvertent or were not the candidates’ fault. Campaign consultant Leo McElroy likened the seriousness of the fines to those imposed for late library books.

“I don’t think enforcement just for the sake of enforcement is the name of the ballgame,” McElroy said. “You don’t brand somebody as a wrongdoer who in fact has done nothing wrong.”

On five occasions last year, Flores said, the secretary of state’s office cut fines against Eu’s own campaign committees from a total of $26,200 to $650. The office also reduced a $14,350 fine against Nicholas Wang, one of Eu’s top contributors, to $50.

Flores, who provided documentation to support her claims, said Eu should have referred those cases to the Fair Political Practices Commission or the attorney general’s office to avoid any conflict of interest.

“It is like a traffic cop fixing his own ticket,” said Flores, a Los Angeles city councilwoman.

Anthony L. Miller, Eu’s chief deputy, who handles waiver requests for the office, said fines involving Eu’s campaign committees were referred to other staff members to avoid conflict of interest. Miller said Eu never gets involved in decisions about fines.

“March Fong Eu’s committees, or committees associated with her campaign, have been treated the same way as any other political filer in California,” Miller said. “We have practiced this since 1976, and we have not heard one word from the Fair Political Practices Commission indicating that there was a problem.”

Tom Houston, a lobbyist who served as FPPC chairman from 1979 to 1983, said the commission had “all sorts of difficulties” with Eu’s office when he served on the panel. Houston, who joined Flores at her press conferences Monday, said Eu “didn’t care” about enforcing the Political Reform Act, which established the campaign disclosure requirements in 1975, the year Eu took office.

“In 1980, we did an audit and found that no one was being fined by the secretary of state’s office,” said Houston, who dropped plans earlier this year to challenge Eu in the Democratic primary. “She didn’t care. She wasn’t enforcing the law. We put the pressure on her to come up with a system of assessing fines.”

Flores also attacked the four-term incumbent for violating separate campaign disclosure laws enforced by the FPPC. Eu was fined $8,000 by the commission in March for a series of violations involving the 1986 primary and general elections. Eu has described the violations as “inadvertent but not excusable” and has promised that they will not happen again.

“You can’t expect other people to follow the laws if the top cop in the state isn’t following the laws,” Flores said.