Hayden Charges Mayor Sidesteps Finance Rules

Shrugging off a poll that shows he lags far behind Richard Riordan in the mayoral race, state Sen. Tom Hayden continued his aggressive attacks on the mayor Tuesday, accusing him of “waltzing around” campaign finance limits to fund his reelection bid.

Hayden charged that Riordan’s effort to overhaul the city’s 72-year-old charter is actually a component of his reelection campaign and therefore should be restricted by the $1,000-per-donor contribution limit.

But with no contribution limits on ballot measures, Riordan and corporate leaders have given more than $1.3 million to the charter reform campaign, with donations averaging more than $25,000 each.

Standing before a phalanx of cameras, Hayden called the donations “a blatant violation of campaign finance laws” and demanded that the city’s Ethics Commission investigate his allegations.

“When the public learns about this, I will be the mayor of Los Angeles on April 9,” Hayden said, referring to the April 8 primaries.

But Bill Karrick, Riordan’s campaign consultant, called Hayden’s charges “preposterous,” saying the charter reform campaign is completely separate from the reelection bid.

In fact, he said, the charter reform campaign only complicates Riordan’s reelection efforts.

“The mayor would have an easier reelection campaign if he didn’t take on passing a charter reform measure on the ballot,” Karrick said.

Hayden’s charges came on the same day that a Times poll reported Riordan leading Hayden 54% to 26% among likely voters, with 20% undecided. Campaign statements released Friday also showed that Riordan has raised just over $2.4 million for his reelection bid compared to $22,016 by Hayden.

“I think he is an extremely desperate candidate,” Karrick said of Hayden. “It’s been nothing but attack-dog stunts from Hayden and they are becoming increasingly more preposterous.”

Since August, Riordan and his allies have created three committees: one to qualify a measure for the ballot asking voters to create a charter reform panel, a second to encourage voters to approve the measure, and a third to promote panel candidates Riordan endorsed.

So far, the three committees have raised $1.3 million, including $575,000 from Riordan’s own pocket. The contributions range from $100 to $100,0000.

City campaign laws limit contributions to no more than $1,000 to any candidate during a campaign or to a committee controlled by the candidate.

Riordan is listed as a controlling officer of the committee to qualify the reform measure.

Rebecca Avila, director of the city’s Ethics Commission, said she listened to Hayden’s allegations and accepted a letter that outlined the charges. The letter was drafted by Fred Woocher, an attorney working with Hayden.

But Avila declined to say whether she would investigate the allegations “because of the tendency for candidates to use these things for the campaign.”

To bolster his charges that charter reform is key to Riordan’s reelection campaign, Hayden said Karrick tried to discourage Hayden from running for mayor by telling him during a phone conversation last fall that Riordan planned to use charter reform as a reelection theme.

“He said, ‘Tom, we are going to steal your issue and we are going to reelect the mayor on charter reform,’ ” Hayden said during his news conference.

Karrick rejected Hayden’s charges, calling him “a liar.”

“I’ve never had a conversation with him about how the campaign was going to be conducted,” he said.