Countywide : Gallegly Fires 1st Salvo at Opponent

In his first salvo of the general election campaign, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) criticized Democratic challenger Anita Perez Ferguson for keeping a “$4,000 illegal contribution that she has refused to repay for two years.”

“She obviously has the money available to repay the illegal contribution,” Gallegly said in a statement. He said she has raised more than $70,000 so far this year, including $5,000 that she raised Saturday in New York before the opening of the Democratic National Convention.

Gallegly and Perez Ferguson are competing in the 23rd Congressional District, which encompasses all of Ventura County except most of Thousand Oaks.

Informed of Gallegly’s barb, Sam Rodriguez, Perez Ferguson’s campaign manager, said the $4,000 was repaid on May 28, days before the June 2 primary election. “A letter was sent to the Federal Election Commission along with a copy of the check,” he said.

But Gallegly’s campaign manager, Chuck Jelloian, said he checked with the commission Tuesday and was told that the issue of the $4,000 contribution “is still an open case.”

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

Under federal campaign laws, the Puerto Rican group was 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.

The $4,000 had not been repaid as of May 13, according to Perez Ferguson’s latest campaign finance statement.

During the Democratic primary campaign, her opponent, Kevin Sweeney, filed a complaint with the commission concerning her failure to return the illegal contribution.