Assemblyman Battin to Pay $14,000 Campaign Finance Fine

The Fair Political Practices Commission voted 4 to 1 Thursday to accept a staff recommendation calling for Assemblyman Jim Battin (R-La Quinta) to pay a $14,000 fine for violating campaign finance laws in 1995.

Battin, who was not at the hearing, has conceded that he accepted a suit of clothes valued at $509 on the corporate credit card of a friend, Mark Abrams, and $2,863 in hotel bills paid by Los Angeles businessman Stephen Tobia, co-founder of Pacific West Communications, a public relations firm.

The expenses were paid for Battin in Sacramento shortly after he won election to the Assembly in 1994.

He was charged with accepting gifts exceeding the legal maximum of $280 and failing to disclose receipt of a gift on his required statement of economic interest.

The commission’s staff and Battin in December had agreed to an $8,000 fine to settle the case. But the FPPC rejected that and ordered its staff to reopen the investigation.

At the time, FPPC Chairman James Hall said he had a “credibility problem” with Battin’s explanation.

Battin has said he intended to repay Abrams for the suit. He said he believed the hotel payment was due him because other housing arrangements that had been promised to him by Tobia did not materialize.

Battin has said he agreed to pay the fine to end the matter.

“I’m glad it’s behind me. It was an honest mistake,” he said, noting that the commission report stipulated that he had intended no wrongdoing.