Tucker Agrees to $10,000 Fine for Campaign Fund Violation

Assemblyman Curtis Tucker Jr. (D-Inglewood) has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine for violating a ban on personal use of campaign funds, the state’s political watchdog agency said Monday.

The Fair Political Practices Commission’s staff said Tucker had signed a stipulated agreement to pay the penalty for using campaign money to rent a Sacramento residence.

Commissioners will consider whether to approve the agreement when they meet April 4.

Tucker, who is challenging Sen. Teresa Hughes (D-Inglewood) in today’s primary election, also was fined $10,000 in 1993 for the same offense, the agency said.

State laws bar candidates from spending campaign donations on themselves.

In another development, the agency said former state agriculture secretary Henry Voss could be fined $21,000 for failing to disclose income from his family farming business from 1989 to 1993.

Voss was accused last year of violating conflict-of-interest disclosure requirements. He later amended his financial disclosure statement to reveal more than $450,000 in income from packers and agriculture companies, including several that he regulated as head of the Department of Food and Agriculture.

The FPPC said Voss had signed a stipulated agreement acknowledging the violations.

Commissioners will consider a staff recommendation to fine Voss $21,000 at their April 4 meeting.