ELECTIONS / SPENDING REPORTS : Candidate’s $4,000 Debt Overdue by 17 Months

Democratic congressional candidate Anita Perez Ferguson has failed to repay an illegal $4,000 campaign contribution, 17 months after federal election officials ordered her to return the donation, according to financial records released Wednesday.

The candidate’s campaign manager, Sam Rodriguez, said the matter “is being taken care of by our Federal Election Commission attorney. The only thing she has told us is that we are within the law. If it needs to be paid back immediately, it will be paid back immediately.”

But a spokesman for Kevin Sweeney, her opponent in the June 2 primary, said Perez Ferguson has failed to act after knowing about the violation for more than 18 months.

“The FEC said, ‘pay that money back,’ ” said Kevin Looper, Sweeney’s press secretary. “This is a very clear case of violation of the law. They need to pay that money back.”

The Federal Election Commission is a Washington-based agency that oversees federal campaign finance laws.

The $4,000 contribution appeared as a debt on Perez Ferguson’s federal campaign financial report, which must be filed today. The report covers a period from April 1 to May 13.

The $4,000 was part of a $5,000 contribution made to her in 1990 during her unsuccessful campaign to topple incumbent Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura). The contribution came from the 50th Anniversary Popular Democratic Party, a pro-business group in Puerto Rico.

Under federal campaign laws, the Puerto Rican group was only allowed to contribute a maximum of $1,000. In January, 1991, the commission wrote Perez Ferguson and called for “prompt action by you to refund” the $4,000. In May, 1991, Perez Ferguson wrote the commission and said she would repay the illegal contribution “as soon as possible.”

Perez Ferguson’s report also shows that her campaign owes the Federal Election Commission $900 of a $2,000 fine for failing to disclose more than $52,000 in loans and donations in a timely manner at the end of her 1990 campaign. Her campaign report shows that the fine is being paid in installments.

For the period April 1 to May 13, Perez Ferguson, 43, an education consultant who recently moved from Santa Barbara to Oxnard, raised $39,565, of which $26,750 was special interest cash generated by political action committees. For the year, she has raised $65,430. So far, she has spent $41,952 on her election effort, her report said.

Perez Ferguson’s campaign cash balance as of May 13 was $15,943.

Sweeney, 33, an environmental activist, raised $32,515 in the latest reporting period, almost entirely from individual contributors. So far this year, he has raised $68,668 and has a cash balance of $23,941.

Thus far, Sweeney has spent $45,129 on his campaign to win the Democratic nomination, his records showed.

Among Sweeney’s campaign contributors was actor Robert Redford, who gave $150 in the latest reporting period. Two years ago, Redford cut a radio spot for Perez Ferguson’s unsuccessful congressional campaign.

Perez Ferguson and Sweeney are running in the newly drawn 23rd Congressional District, which includes Carpinteria and all of Ventura County except Thousand Oaks.

The incumbent is Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), 48, who is seeking a fourth term in the House of Representatives. The conservative lawmaker has accumulated a fat campaign treasury over the past few years from political action committees and individuals.

For the April 1 to May 13 period, Gallegly’s campaign financial statement showed that he had raised $64,296, and $90,786 for the year.

In all, Gallegly reported a $348,387 cash balance for the period ending May 13. His campaign expenditures thus far total $100,754, his report said, reflecting campaign spending of about $62,000 in the last three months.

Daphne Becker, 50, of Ojai, a businesswoman who is one of Gallegly’s Republican primary challengers, is financing her campaign mostly from her own bank account.

Thus far, according to her latest report, she has loaned herself $59,000.

Becker reported $1,860 in outside contributions in her latest filing for a total of $2,160 for the year. In the latest reporting period, she spent $40,302, and, in all, has spent $52,000 on her campaign. Her cash balance as of May 13 was $9,207.

The report of the other Gallegly challenger, Dr. Robert Shakman, 48, of Ventura, was not immediately available.