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LOCAL ELECTIONS L.A. MAYOR : Ethics Panel Draws Line at Art Given to Wachs

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Joel Wachs’ novel use of donated artwork to raise funds suffered an apparent setback Friday--at the hands of a rival, Michael Woo.

Without commenting specifically on Wachs’ activities, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission said that contributions of artwork to city campaigns must be valued at fair market price. The opinion was requested by the Woo campaign, which also has filed an official complaint against the city councilman.

The opinion could put a crimp in Wachs’ unusual fund-raising gimmick of offering contributors limited edition, signed copies of donated works by artists such as David Hockney.

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Some art experts have said that the artworks donated to Wachs would fetch much more on the open market than $1,000--the maximum an individual could legally contribute to a mayoral candidate at the time Wachs launched the fund-raising effort. (That cap has since been raised to $7,000.)

One gallery owner said that to commission a limited edition lithograph from Hockney or pop artist Roy Lichtenstein--who both donated designs to Wachs--would cost “many, many tens of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Wachs did not return calls seeking comment. But an aide said the councilman plans to meet with the Ethics Commission staff next week.

“He doesn’t believe there is going to be a problem,” said Greg Nelson. “He thinks this money being raised is the cleanest money in the world. Better to be getting money from artists than all these special interests that do business with the city.”

Nelson could not specify what argument Wachs planned to use to challenge the Ethics Commission opinion.

Wachs, an art lover who has cultivated a large fund-raising base among artists and collectors nationwide, has insisted that his fund-raising efforts are legal.

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He has said “you can’t place a value” on the creations artists donated to his campaign. He also said similar fund-raising programs have been used in federal campaigns by candidates such as former New York Democratic Rep. Geraldine Ferraro.

Wachs has raised at least $180,000 by trading the prints for individual contributions.

“He has clearly based his entire fund-raising strategy on a blatantly illegal mechanism while he goes on criticizing other candidates for little inadvertent errors,” said Woo campaign manager Vicky Rideout.

Wachs has been critical of front-runner Woo, who early in the campaign hastily returned $9,000 in contributions after disclosures that he accepted improper cash contributions at fund-raisers. The Woo campaign said it also will return $2,780 in apparent improper contributions from foreign-owned corporations.

Despite Rideout’s comments, Rebecca Avila, assistant director of the Ethics Commission, said the opinion did not represent a finding on the legality of Wachs’ effort.

In its opinion, the Ethics Commission said: “All non-monetary contributions, including works of art, are subject to contribution limitations. . . . The value of such a contribution shall be determined to be the difference between the amount paid by the campaign . . . and what a person would have paid for such a work of art on the open market.”

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