Common Cause Admits Wrongly Accusing Davis

California Common Cause, responding to a retraction demand by Gov. Gray Davis’ top political aide, acknowledged Wednesday that it wrongly accused the governor of failing to disclose nearly $170,000 in donations from gambling interests in 1998.

Common Cause Executive Director Jim Knox said the organization will issue a correction, post it on its Web site, and issue statements to the public.

“We were wrong and we’re going to fix it to the extent that we can,” Knox said.

In a report released Monday documenting the sharp rise in political donations by gambling sources, Common Cause said it found more than 300 violations of the Fair Political Practices Act’s disclosure provisions by gambling interests, and political candidates who accepted their donations.

Among the allegations, Common Cause said Davis failed to properly disclose nearly $170,000 in donations, primarily from Indian tribes that operate casinos. The Times reported the allegations, along with denials by Davis’ chief campaign consultant, Garry South.

In a letter to Knox on Wednesday, South pointed out that Davis in fact had properly disclosed the donations, and enclosed documents issued in 1998 announcing the contributions.

The money did not go to his campaign committee. Instead, the tribes gave the money to the governor’s inaugural committee, a nonprofit organization. Davis followed the disclosure requirements for nonprofit groups by filing statements with the Internal Revenue Service and the state attorney general.

“This charge is absolutely, categorically false, and you should be ashamed of yourself for making such a serious allegation,” South wrote, demanding that Common Cause issue a retraction.

South, told of Knox’s promise to issue a correction, declined to say whether the Common Cause statement would end the matter.

“We’ll have to see what they say,” South said. “The damage is done. We’ve had headlines saying we violated the law.”

Knox said that other politicians also have contacted Common Cause pointing out errors, and that the organization will correct at least two and possibly three other statements that appeared in the report.

In each instance, Knox said, there were discrepancies between campaign finance reports filed with the secretary of state by candidates and by donors.

“It’s not like we made this stuff up,” Knox said. “At the very least, they were reporting errors, if not violations. They were all discrepancies.”