State legislators warned by ethics agency on campaign violations

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Two current state lawmakers and one former legislator have been found to have violated campaign finance rules, according to the state ethics agency, but they were let off with warning letters because the offenses involved relatively small amounts of money.

The warning letters went out in the last two months to Assemblyman Isadore Hall (D-Compton),state Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello), and former Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) following routine audits conducted for the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

Kuehl, who left the Legislature in 2008, was found to have failed to file four campaign finance reports that year after her committee made reportable contributions, according to a May 14 letter by Gary Winuk, the chief of enforcement for the state commission.

Calderon also failed to file two campaign finance reports for his committee in 2008 that would have disclosed $4,000 in contributions it made.

‘Failure to file the statements was a violation of the [Political Reform] Act,’ Winuk wrote in a warning letter, adding that the dollar amounts were small and the contributions were reported by committees that received the money. ‘Therefore we have decided to close this case with a warning letter,’ Winuk wrote.

A similar letter went to Hall after a routine audit found he failed to properly report $10,000 in late contributions from unions in 2009, as well as several required online campaign finance reports disclosing $15,700 in contributions.

ALSO:

Ethics panel investigates state Sen. Mimi Walters

Campaign treasurer Durkee admits $7 million theft

Campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee to have sentencing delayed

--Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento