Hahn Urges Financial Disclosure

Calling for full disclosure of fund-raising and spending by the two major political parties, mayoral candidate James K. Hahn warned Tuesday that Los Angeles faces “an election being tainted by a loophole” unless changes are made to the city’s reporting laws.

“We can’t allow the political process in this city to be bought and paid for by secret contributions,” Hahn told the city Ethics Commission. The city attorney urged the commission to do whatever it can immediately to protect the integrity of the campaign process.

Hahn acknowledged later that he is at a disadvantage in the mayor’s race because of the Democratic Party’s financial support for rival Antonio Villaraigosa.

The ethics panel will hold another meeting today to try to draft new regulations to force more timely disclosure of how much the state Democratic and Republican parties are spending to influence city elections. Without action by the panel, that information will not be known until after voters go to the polls to elect the city’s next mayor.

But getting the City Council to adopt emergency rules that apply to the June 5 runoff is considered a longshot. Former Councilman Marvin Braude, representing a League of Women Voters’ committee, said winning council approval is “problematical at best.”

Stephen Kaufman, an attorney for the Villaraigosa campaign, suggested that the disclosure requirement should be broader than just the two parties and should apply to all groups communicating with their members--a proposal that could generate more controversy and delay adoption.

At issue is the Ethics Commission’s response to a provision in Proposition 34 passed by the state’s voters last November that says payments for mailers and other communications with members of an organization that support or oppose a candidate or ballot measure are not considered independent expenditures. As a consequence, they do not have to be disclosed immediately.

The state Democratic Party raised and spent an unknown amount of money promoting Villaraigosa’s candidacy and the state Republican Party did the same for commercial real estate broker Steve Soboroff, who failed to make the runoff. Neither party disclosed the identity of those contributing, or how much was given or spent to influence the outcome of the April 10 election.

In the case of the Democrats, the figures will not be known until a month after the new mayor takes office. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor also used the member communications’ provision to mount an extensive phone, mail and ground campaign to union members on Villaraigosa’s behalf. So did a number of other unions backing Hahn.

Kaufman suggested to reporters outside the meeting that Hahn’s complaints were largely sour grapes for not winning valuable endorsements. “He fought just as hard as we did for the support of the Democratic Party, as he did labor.”

The Villaraigosa campaign’s attorney said whatever disclosure requirements the Ethics Commission recommends should be applied across the board.

But Hahn told the panel that there has to be an end to the secret contributions and spending by the parties. “Let’s have some daylight on the process,” he said.

He and other speakers raised concern about the impact of partisan political activity on the city’s long tradition of nonpartisan elections.

Hahn observed that the city’s entire system of limiting political contributions to candidates and providing public matching money is geared toward reducing the influence of large contributors. Allowing the parties to get involved in an unregulated way could “open the doors and the floodgates to unlimited amounts of money,” he said.

The city attorney has reason to be concerned. Under the city’s campaign finance law, he and Villaraigosa face a $1.76-million spending limit for the runoff. But the state party and the labor federation can make unlimited expenditures for Villaraigosa. And their independent efforts do not lift the city’s $1,000 limit on direct contributions to candidates.

Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies, said the public needs to know who is giving money to the parties before the next election.

Commission President Miriam Krinsky suggested that the panel call on the political parties and unions to voluntarily disclose their donors and spending immediately. She said the panel should also draft an ordinance for council consideration to require disclosure of what has been done up to now.

No one from either the Democratic nor Republican Party spoke at the commission meeting and officials of both parties have not been willing to disclose their donors or spending ahead of their post-election reporting schedule.

Art Torres, state Democratic Party chairman, said last week that the party plans an aggressive push to capture the mayor’s office for Villaraigosa. He refused to say how much will be devoted to the effort.