Allert Failed to Report Some Expenditures, Boland Says

Republican Assembly candidate Paula Boland charged Wednesday that her Democratic opponent, Irene Allert, failed to report expenditures for a phone bank operation, office rent and a fax machine on state-required campaign forms.

Allert responded that her campaign finance reports are in order and charged that Boland was trying to generate anti-Allert headlines because her campaign “thought they had this election all sewed up, but they don’t.”

Boland and Allert are competing for the 38th Assembly District seat being vacated by Assemblywoman Marian La Follette (R-Northridge), who is retiring after a decade in the Legislature. Boland, a real estate broker who lives in Porter Ranch, is considered the front-runner since Republicans outnumber Democrats 83,000 to 72,000 in the district.

In a complaint filed Wednesday with the state Fair Political Practices Commission, Boland charged that Allert failed to report spending for a phone-bank operation in July that should have cost $7,000 to $10,000.

Boland said that Allert did not fully report the rent she is paying on a Granada Hills campaign office whose owners were paid $2,400 for two months use. Allert also failed to report an expenditure for a campaign fax machine, Boland said.

Allert angrily said that Boland’s FPPC complaint was a political stunt designed to let Boland “duck the issues and still stay in the headlines.”

Allert, an educational consultant from Kagel Canyon, said her campaign operated two or three phone lines in July and that she listed a $634 telephone payment on her campaign finance report covering that period.

Boland said that was the only phone payment Allert reported between July 1 and Oct. 20. In fact, Allert made a second payment of $308, her campaign reports show.

Allert said that her Granada Hills office was rented by the 38th Assembly Democratic Committee and that she shares the small storefront office with campaigners for several other Democratic candidates.

She said the committee gave her the space for free and that she properly listed a $300 donation on her campaign statement.

Allert said she moved into the office Oct. 1 from a Panorama City office operated by the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley. She said that space also was donated and properly reported.

Allert said she paid $254 to rent a fax machine from a Panorama City firm, Computer Condiments, and that payment is listed in her campaign reports.

Noting that Boland recently reported a campaign debt of more than $50,000, Allert said that if her campaign expenses are lower than Boland thinks they should be, it’s an indication that “I’m a better fiscal manager than she is.”

“She doesn’t have time to debate me, yet she has time to do this,” Allert said. “She’s desperate, she’s desperate.”