Calabasas Election Funds Linked to Soka Lobbyist

A committee that supported three candidates in the Calabasas city election was based in the Anaheim office of a Soka University lobbyist who repeatedly denied any involvement in the election, campaign finance reports reveal.

Campaign reports filed at the end of July show that a previously unknown group, called the Calabasas Taxpayers Committee, spent $7,600 on behalf of three candidates. The committee’s address and that of its treasurer were the offices of Mike Lewis, a former Los Angeles County planning deputy who represents Soka in its bid to obtain county permits to expand from 150 to 4,400 students.

Lewis, during heated election debate last spring, insisted that he had no connection to Calabasas politics.

Lewis’ former partner and business associate, conservative political consultant Tim Carey, was listed as the sole financial backer of the committee. Soka opponents said they suspected the Tokyo-based school was the true source of the money.

“Lewis and Carey charge big fees, but I don’t think they have $7,600 to throw around,” said Marc Litchman, a consultant working for the Mountains Conservancy Foundation, which is assisting an effort by state and federal parks authorities to acquire Soka’s campus for a park headquarters.

“There’s just no way in this world that this came from anybody but Soka University.”

Lewis and Carey did not return telephone calls Friday afternoon.

Carey is well-known for his attack mailers on behalf of pro-growth candidates and issues in local races through a group he headed for several years, the Southern California Caucus, which campaign finance reports showed was heavily funded by developers. The Caucus also was backed by former county Supervisor Pete Schabarum, Lewis’ former boss.

Soka representatives could not be reached for comment. But in a letter of apology to one of the candidates who complained, Soka Vice President Mitoki Ogawa denied any knowledge of the Taxpayers Committee, but appeared to confirm that Lewis was involved.

“We certainly regret any anxiety Mr. Lewis’ activities may have caused during the recent election,” Ogawa wrote to Mayor Pro Tem Marvin Lopata on April 28. “We have asked that in the future Mr. Lewis refrain from any activities he may wish to undertake in the Calabasas community on behalf of Soka University and to advise us in advance of any such activities on behalf of any other clients he has in the area.”

The Calabasas council officially voted against the project last September, but council members have said the school has attempted to persuade them to reconsider. The university is in unincorporated county territory west of the Calabasas city limits, but the city government’s position on the proposed expansion is expected to carry some weight with county officials.

In addition to a $5,200 mailing for three candidates, the campaign finance reports show that the Taxpayers Committee paid $2,500 for the services of a Reno phone bank, which made calls to voters.

The mailer, received by voters just days before the April election, advised residents to vote for incumbent Lopata and newcomers Keith Ward--whose wife helped organize a Soka support group--and Barry Sullivan, a real estate attorney.

During the campaign, Ward and Sullivan took a softer line against development than the slow-growth council incumbents.

The letter does not mention Soka or any other development, but does say voters should consider “how much you’re willing to pay to maintain the quality of life in your neighborhood.”

Of the three candidates mentioned in the mailer, only Lopata--who joined the council’s 1991 vote against Soka--was elected. He said he had never been contacted by the committee and speculated that he might have been included on the slate because of his popularity, in an effort to give the other two candidates more legitimacy.

Sullivan withdrew from the campaign just before the election when rumors persisted in the tightknit community that Lewis was soliciting developers for campaign donations to support him and Ward.

At a candidate forum on April 2, Lopata charged that he had heard of the solicitation directly from angry developers and at that time he said he believed Lewis was acting on Soka’s behalf.

Soka denied any involvement in the campaign. Lewis said that he had no interest in Calabasas politics and didn’t “even know any of the people” who live there.

Lopata said he was shocked when he subsequently received the Taxpayers Committee mailer at home and frustrated when he could not trace it. The return address on Agoura Road, “Suite 561,” was actually a box at a private mail service, he said, and the committee had not yet filed its campaign expenditure report showing Lewis’ address.

“I was very concerned about it because it appeared I was running on a slate with these other two people that I was not involved with,” Lopata said.

The mailing also violated state Fair Political Practice Commission regulations because it used a different name on the inside of the envelope--the Calabasas Taxpayers Assn.--than on the outside. But FPPC spokeswoman Carol Thorp said the error was minor.

“It should match, but nobody would come down on them for that,” she said.