Complaint challenges group’s contributions to Newport council candidate Lee Lowrey
Newport Beach City Council candidate Jeff Herdman’s treasurer is asking the city attorney and the Orange County district attorney’s office to investigate a group’s campaign contributions to rival candidate Lee Lowrey.
In a complaint filed last week, attorney Mark Rosen — on behalf of the treasurer, Dick Weaver — asked that a special prosecutor investigate $1,250 in contributions to Lowrey’s campaign from the Southern California Coalition of Businesses and Taxpayers. The contributions, the complaint alleges, exceed the $1,100 a candidate can legally accept from a person or group during an election under the city’s municipal code.
City Attorney Aaron Harp did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday.
Lowrey denied the allegation, saying it was simply an accounting error by his campaign treasurer, Lysa Ray.
He said Ray refunded the excess $150 about two weeks ago when she caught the error.
“I’m not worried about it at all,” Lowrey said. “They wanted to make a big deal out of this, but it’s not. I understand people are grasping at straws toward the end of the campaign season.”
Ray did not return a call seeking comment.
Herdman, Lowrey and Mike Glenn are vying for the District 5 seat on the City Council in the Nov. 8 election. The district includes Balboa Island and the Fashion Island area. Councilman Ed Selich, who currently occupies the seat, is termed out.
Lowrey’s campaign disclosure forms show that on June 30 he received a $250 contribution from an entity listed as SCCBT. On Sept. 13 he received a $1,000 contribution from the same group, this time listed as the Southern California Coalition of Businesses and Taxpayers.
“Mr. Lowrey tried to cover up this amount on the Sept. 13 contribution by listing a cumulative total of $1,000, ignoring the first contribution of $250,” Rosen wrote in his complaint. “He also spelled out SCCBT’s full name on the Sept. 13 contribution but only identified it by its initials in the June 30 contribution.”
The Southern California Coalition of Businesses and Taxpayers has made contributions to several Orange County campaigns this election season, according to filings with the California secretary of state’s office.
The group has contributed money to county supervisors Todd Spitzer and Andrew Do, county prosecutor Mike Murray and county judge Scott Steiner, who was reelected in June after being censured two years ago for having sex with two of his former law students in his chambers.
In past years, the group has contributed money to council candidates in other Orange County cities. It did not contribute to individual candidates in the 2014 Newport Beach council election.
During that election cycle, the coalition donated $17,000 to Residents for Reform, a group led by Balboa Island resident Bob McCaffrey that took issue with the city’s $142-million Civic Center project and what it believes are excessive taxes on residents. Residents for Reform supported the “Team Newport” council candidates — Diane Dixon, Kevin Muldoon, Marshall “Duffy” Duffield and Scott Peotter — all of whom were elected.
It’s not clear who created the Coalition of Businesses and Taxpayers. Calls to a phone number listed on the group’s filings with the secretary of state’s office go to Ray’s voicemail. Ray is listed as the treasurer for Lowrey and fellow council candidates Will O’Neill, who is running for the District 7 seat, and Brad Avery, who is running in District 2.
Lowrey said Tuesday that he’s unfamiliar with the coalition.
Dave Ellis, campaign consultant for Lowrey, O’Neill and Avery, said Ray “has hundreds of clients, and this is just another client.”
“I have no idea who it is,” Ellis said.
Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
