Ex-Senator Fined for Spending Violations

Retired state Sen. Charles Calderon, a candidate for attorney general in 1998, was fined $18,000 Friday for violating political reform laws, including treating himself and his fiancee to a vacation at a Lake Tahoe resort casino and renting a limousine for the premier of “Liar, Liar.”

In a stipulated agreement with the Fair Political Practices Commission, the Democrat from Whittier acknowledged that he broke a batch of laws by spending campaign funds for personal purposes, failing to report contributions and taking other unlawful actions.

These included buying expensive clothes for a campaign commercial and handing former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson a gift of a handmade humidor and 10 cigars worth $480, exceeding the legal limit by $200. Consequently, Wilson had to pay the state a $200 penalty.

The fine against Calderon and two of his campaign committees came $2,000 short of the maximum that could have been levied for the 10 counts filed against him. It was the second time he has been charged and fined for breaking the same laws.

In 1995, Calderon, then a senator and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was fined $15,000 for spending political funds on personal purchases and failing to properly disclose campaign expenditures.

The watchdog state commission enforces a Watergate-era ballot initiative that requires prompt and full disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures. It also prohibits use of political funds for personal use, limits the value of gifts to officeholders and imposes barriers to conflicts of interest by officeholders.

In July 1996, Calderon, his fiancee, Lisa Rodriguez, and his two sons spent six days at the Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe resort casino and ran up a $3,533 bill. Calderon claimed the purpose of the trip was for him to attend a three-day conference, but the commission said Rodriguez and the boys did not accompany him to the conference. It found the expenditure from campaign funds “impermissible.”

The commission also ruled as improper $507 spent to rent a limousine for the 1997 premier of the comedy “Liar, Liar,” starring Jim Carrey as a lawyer who couldn’t quit telling the truth. Calderon was accompanied by his sons and new wife, Rodriguez.

In 1998, when he ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for attorney general, Calderon bought $2,632 worth of new suits and a “casual ensemble” for himself at Nordstrom along with a $470 skirt and sweater for his wife. The clothing was for use in a political television commercial, he said.

The gift to Wilson came the day after Christmas 1996. Calderon personally delivered the cigars and handcrafted humidor to the governor. And Wilson, an occasional cigar smoker, accepted the present, but in doing so broke the law against taking gifts worth more than $280. Wilson recently sent the state a check for $200, the commission said.

“Causing a fellow elected official to violate the annual gift limit is a very serious violation,” the commission said. It said Calderon “was intimately familiar with the gift limitation.”