Court Candidate Loan Didn’t Violate Law, State Panel Says

A Ventura County candidate for Superior Court judge did nothing wrong when she accepted a $2,500 campaign loan from her son, state election officials said Thursday.

Declaring that the June 7 judicial contest is not a special election--and thus not subject to limits on campaign contributions--the California Fair Political Practices Commission concluded that Assistant Dist. Atty. Colleen Toy White did not violate the law.

“This is not a special election,” said Jeanette Turvill, a spokeswoman for the commission. “This is in fact the regularly scheduled primary for the judges’ election.”

White’s opponent, defense attorney James M. Farley, raised the issue Wednesday when he accused White of exceeding the state’s $1,000 limit on personal contributions. But that restriction applies only in certain circumstances and this is not one of them, the state commission decided.

White’s supporters trumpeted the decision as an embarrassment for her foe in the county’s only contested judgeship race.

“Mr. Farley has always been a sloppy lawyer,” said White’s boss, Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury. “This is just another example of that sloppiness. There is nothing anyone can do about that. The voters of this county can, however, make sure he does not become a sloppy judge.”

“Bradbury’s got a sloppy mouth,” Farley retorted. “What is he doing running the campaign of and supporting a person for the bench in a county where he brings his cases before the bench?”

Farley still believes the race is a special election, since it is being held to fill the post vacated when Superior Court Judge Edwin M. Osborne retired from the bench.