State Labor Union Gives $700,000 to Bustamante

A state labor union has donated $700,000 to Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante’s effort to replace Gov. Gray Davis, while money from Indians with casinos has begun flowing to Republican Sen. Tom McClintock’s gubernatorial campaign, according to campaign reports filed with the state Thursday.

The Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Indians donated $21,200 to McClintock, the maximum donation to statewide candidates allowed under voter-approved contribution limits.

Bustamante, by contrast, took $300,000 from the Sycuan tribe this week -- after accepting $300,000 from the same tribe last week -- into an old campaign account not subject to those limits. Additionally, on Thursday he reported receiving $1.5 million in that account from the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, which promised Tuesday to spend $2 million on his campaign.

The lieutenant governor’s plans to use the money from the old account in his current campaign has stirred controversy, and is the subject of a lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court on Thursday.

The Sycuan band also gave $250,000 to one of Davis’ committees established to defeat the recall, according to the campaign reports. The check was the first tribal donation aimed at beating the recall effort.

The anti-recall campaign received another boost when it received $50,000 Thursday from one of Schwarzenegger’s economic advisors.

San Francisco financier Warren Hellman, a member of Schwarzenegger’s economic advisory council, made the donation Wednesday to Californians Against the Costly Recall of the Governor. Hellman is an outspoken businessman who called on President Bush in late June to urge California Republicans to abandon the recall drive.

But in August, he joined Schwarzenegger’s economic team, including billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett and former secretary of state George P. Shultz. Hellman said then that he still opposed the recall, but joined the team because of his personal respect for Schwarzenegger.

The donation to McClintock could prove most significant if, as several sources believe, it is a prelude to much more money from the wealthy tribes. Several tribal representatives have said they’ve been offended by McClintock’s main rival, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, and want to help McClintock draw votes from the movie star. The actor, running in his first political campaign, has described tribes with casinos as special interests and has not met with them.

Along with Bustamante and Davis, McClintock, whose district stretches from Thousand Oaks to Santa Barbara, appeared before a convention of tribes with casinos last week. For his part, McClintock, a 20-year veteran of the Legislature, reiterated his long-standing support for the right of tribes to manage their own affairs, calling tribal lands “islands of freedom.”

Several tribal representatives left his talk saying they were impressed by McClintock’s support of their sovereignty. A lobbyist representing one tribe that owns a major casino sent an e-mail providing the address for McClintock’s campaign office.

“He is such a reliable vote” for tribes in the Legislature, said John Feliz, McClintock’s campaign strategist, “that they forgot he’s there.”

Polls show McClintock trailing Schwarzenegger and Bustamante. He also is the least well-funded of the top candidates in the recall campaign. His campaign reported that, as of Thursday, he had raised $1.1 million. The cost of airing television ads statewide is about $2 million a week.

Bustamante, meanwhile, is the target of a lawsuit filed by state Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine), who hopes to bar him from using funds from his old committee in his gubernatorial campaign. Johnson accused Bustamante of believing “he is above the law.”

Johnson is a co-author of Proposition 34, the 2000 ballot measure that voters passed, limiting donations to political candidates. He described Bustamante’s receipt of six- and seven-figure sums while running for governor as “the greatest violation of campaign finance laws in California history.”

Johnson and others have urged the Fair Political Practices Commission, which is responsible for enforcing campaign finance laws, to stop Bustamante from raising money in excess of the state limits.

Commission officials are not saying whether they will act.

But on Thursday, the commission announced plans to convene a closed special session next week to discuss pending litigation.

A commission spokeswoman, Sigrid Bathen, declined to say whether Bustamante’s actions would be among the subjects of the meeting.

Spokesmen for Bustamante could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Bustamante accepted the $700,000 gift to his old account Thursday from Professional Engineers in California Government, a 13,000-member union that represents engineers, architects, surveyors and others, most of whom work for the Department of Transportation.

Bruce Blanning, a Sacramento consultant who represents the engineers union, explained the donation by saying: “Cruz Bustamante has been very supportive of infrastructure.”

Blanning said the donation was not meant as a criticism of Davis. He noted that the union had called on its members to vote against the Davis recall on Oct. 7.

The engineers have donated no money to the anti-recall effort, although the union did give Davis $15,000 in June, before the recall measure qualified for the ballot.

The union was among Davis’ larger donors in his first term, giving him $337,500, including $120,000 three weeks before his reelection last November.

This year, Davis’ relationship with at least some state employee unions has soured.

The governor, trying to solve the state’s budget woes, has called on the engineers, along with most other state workers, to accept 5% pay cuts.

Like most state employees, the engineers have balked; they have gone at least two years without a pay increase.

Davis administration officials and negotiators for the engineers met on Wednesday, the day the union sent the $700,000 to Bustamante.

According to Department of Personnel Administration spokeswoman Lynelle Jolley, union representatives reiterated their plea that engineers be granted pay parity with peers who work for cities and counties.

Jolley said the union had told administration negotiators that “until you’re ready to pay us what the locals get, we don’t have anything further to discuss.”

“We don’t have the money to be able to do what they would like,” Jolley said. “We’re sorry about that.”

Blanning disputed Jolley’s characterization. “Bargaining is going on,” Blanning said.