FPPC Complaint Filed Against Carole Migden

Carole Migden is campaigning against Assemblyman Mark Leno and Joe Alioto Veronese. The voters deserve a fair campaign.

Carole Migden is notorious for her past FPPC fines, yet has a habit of behavior that suggests she would rather pay the fines than follow the law. Just this last week, Carole Migden came clean to San Francisco Bay Guardian executive editor Tim Redmond that her campaign was involved in the Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO) billboard scandal involving Michael Colbruno – despite her campaign manager Richie Ross denying all involvement when asked by San Francisco Chronicle reporters Phil Matier and Andy Ross (Matier and Ross).

Here is a summary of her violations:

Violation #1 (illegal transfer of $1 million in surplus campaign funds)

• State Senator Carole Migden on June 25, 2003 illegally transferred almost $1 million in surplus funds from her RE-ELECT ASSEMBLY WOMAN CAROLE MIGDEN campaign account (I.D. #962662) into her 2004 Senate Friends of Carole Migden account (I.D. #1231831).
• The California Political Reform Act prohibits an officeholder from transferring surplus campaign funds to a future election account.
• The $977,340.28 in funds officially became surplus on December 2, 2002 when Senator Carole Migden left her Assembly seat after being elected to the state Board of Equalization.

• State Senator Carole Migden illegally spent $250,000 in surplus campaign funds from her 2004 Senate Friends of Carole Midgen campaign account (I.D. #1231831).

• Senator Carole Migden violated California campaign finance law by failing to itemize almost $400,000 in political campaign expenses between the years 2000-2006.
• The California Political Reform Act requires that all campaign disbursements over $100 must be itemized in reports with the name, address and purpose of the disbursement.
• Four separate campaign committees controlled by Senator Carole Migden during the period from 2000-2006 failed to provide any itemization of credit card payments made by those committees.
• The total amount of the un-itemized payments was $381,404.65, an amount representing 25% of all expenditures from the four candidate committees Senator Carole Migden controlled.

• Senator Carole Migden illegally maintains a political committee — CAROLE MIGDEN LEADERSHIP COMMITTEE, (ID# 1231896) — from her 2001 campaign for a seat on the state Board of Equalization.
• Fair Political Practices Commission regulations require that a candidate-controlled committee be terminated no later than 24 months after the candidate leaves office. Senator Carole Migden resigned her seat on the Board of Equalization in December 2004.