Imposing an $800,000 Fine Was Justified : Pro-gun lobby group broke rules, wasted taxpayers’ money in anti-Roberti recall attempt

Slightly more than $800,000.

That was the estimated amount that cash-strapped Los Angeles County had to ante up in April, 1994, to conduct one of the most ludicrous recall elections in recent memory. The absurd goal: kick then-state Sen. David A. Roberti out of office . . . a mere eight weeks before the June primary election that was set to select Roberti’s eventual successor.

That amount also represents the record-breaking fine that has been levied against the folks who ran the Roberti recall effort . . . for willfully violating state financial disclosure laws 404 times during its campaign.

The fine was set by the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Roberti was about to leave office because of state term limits, but the pro-gun lobby group Californians Against Corruption that has now been fined wanted to punish him anyway for his stance against assault-style weapons.

That’s why we had a flawed and pathetically unsuccessful recall campaign, replete with a group of wanna-be anti-Roberti candidates.

We suppose that $800,000 in county election costs might not seem like a lot of money these days. Well, guess again. It would pay the salaries of 20 new county sheriff’s deputies for a year, or 27 new schoolteachers. It would buy 40 new patrol cars, or more than 300 new Pentium computers for local law enforcement.

But somehow it’s the folks at Californians Against Corruption who feel slighted.

“In my view, this is tantamount to harassment,” said one member of the group. Another said that the disclosure requirements of the state Fair Political Practices Commission “are so onerous as to constitute an infringement on the rights of citizen-activists to participate in the political process.”

The disclosure requirements are a necessary form of protection against those who would seek to bend, break or ignore the rules of the political process. And that process, by the way, is best exemplified by those who dutifully travel to the polls for regularly scheduled primary and general elections. It is meant for those who select candidates based on their stances on a variety of issues.

Recall elections are designed to remove those who are no longer fit for office because of physical or mental incapacitation, or clearly unethical behavior.

The Fair Political Practices Commission was only doing its job. Californians Against Corruption was breaking rules, and wasting the taxpayers’ time and money.