Perez Ferguson Violated Federal Campaign Laws : Elections: Former Democratic congressional candidate accepted illegal $4,000 contribution but did not pay it back until a complaint was filed.

Former congressional candidate Anita Perez Ferguson violated federal campaign laws by knowingly accepting an illegal contribution of $4,000 and then failing to pay it back in a timely manner, a federal watchdog agency has found.

The Democratic candidate agreed to pay a $1,000 fine to the Federal Election Commission in a settlement of the complaint against her campaign by then-rival Kevin Sweeney.

Perez Ferguson defeated Sweeney in the 1992 Democratic primary and then, as the Democratic nominee, lost her bid to unseat Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) in a congressional district that covers all of Ventura County except for most of Thousand Oaks.

Perez Ferguson, who has recently been working at the Democratic National Committee tutoring other candidates seeking political office, could not be reached for comment Monday.

In the documents announcing the settlement, the commission noted that Ferguson violated a variety of federal campaign laws during her two bids for Congress in 1990 and 1992.

In the 1992 violation, Perez Ferguson’s campaign was cited for not paying back $4,000 that she illegally accepted from a Puerto Rican political group during her unsuccessful 1990 campaign. The group had made a $5,000 contribution when the top amount allowed by federal law was $1,000.

A Jan. 2, 1991, letter from the commission put Perez Ferguson on notice that she needed to refund the $4,000 within 60 days of receipt of the contribution. Four months later, in a letter to the commission, Perez Ferguson said her campaign was “attempting to raise the money” to refund it “as soon as possible.”

But the $4,000 was not refunded until 18 months after it was received and only after Sweeney’s complaint was filed, according to commission documents. In addition, while Perez Ferguson’s campaign committee reported the refund to the commission, it failed to properly itemize the refund as a disbursement, another violation.

According to the federal documents, Perez Ferguson also failed to declare herself a candidate and to establish on time an official campaign committee to manage her political contributions.

The law requires an individual running for federal office to officially declare themselves a candidate and to establish within 15 days a campaign committee once the candidate has received contributions or has made expenditures of more than $5,000.

Perez Ferguson received more than $5,000 in contributions toward her 1992 candidacy on Feb. 5, 1992. However, she did not submit a letter declaring herself a candidate and designating her campaign committee until April 16, 71 days later, according to the commission documents.

Sweeney, now communications director at the U.S. Department of the Interior, said he was frustrated that the commission took so long to confirm his complaint. But he said he did not think it would have made any difference in his campaign against Ferguson.

“I did not lose for this reason,” he said. “I’m not going to blame the FEC on why I lost. I was more than able to lose on my own. We tried hard and we lost. There’s nothing more I could have asked of myself or my friends.”

Still, Sweeney said he was somewhat disturbed by the criticism he received for running what some perceived as a negative campaign.

He pointed out that it was well known that Perez Ferguson had paid a $2,000 fine for failing to disclose more than $52,000 in loans and donations in a timely manner during her unsuccessful 1990 campaign.

“It was an obvious complaint,” he said of his contacting the Federal Election Commission. “We did not lie. This was someone who had trouble complying with the law” the first time she ran for congressional office.

Moreover, Sweeney said he did not want Perez Ferguson to use the $4,000 in illegal contributions she received against him. He said this was a significant amount of money in a relatively low-budget campaign.

Sweeney said he is happy in his current job and has no regrets about his unsuccessful congressional bid.

“I’m probably having a greater impact on public policy here than I would have on Capitol Hill,” he said of his job at the Interior Department.