Lawmaker’s camp breaks rule he wrote
State senator’s campaign committee accepted a donation in the final month of the legislative session.
SACRAMENTO — A campaign committee for state Sen. Kevin de León (DLos Angeles) has violated a house rule he wrote barring political contributions from groups that lobby the Legislature in August, the last month of the session.
The senator acknowledged that one of his campaign committees accepted a $25,000 donation this month from the advocacy group EdVoice.
De León said a political staff member mistakenly deposited the check, but it was refunded Thursday and the senator notified the Senate Rules Committee on Friday.
In a letter to Senate Secretary Gregory Schmidt, De León wrote Friday: “I did not learn of this error until the campaign finance report became public yesterday.”
The letter went on to say: “Nothing is more important to me than protecting the integrity of and public confidence in this Senate…. Moving forward, I strongly believe as we continue our outreach and education efforts that there will be improved compliance with our new Senate Rule.”
It was after two senators were charged with public corruption crimes that De León, who is set to become the leader of the Senate in October, offered the rule creating the blackout period for accepting interest groups’ money.
De León said the rule, which does not apply to the Assembly, was needed to ensure that senators “focused exclusively on legislative business at these crucial times in the legislative calendar.”
During the final month of the session, lawmakers act on hundreds of bills affecting special interests. Traditionally, the period has also been one of frenzied fundraising by lawmakers. The rule says the Senate may discipline violators by “reprimand, censure, suspension, or expulsion.”
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (DSacramento) indicated he would not seek disciplinary action against De León.
“New rules will inevitably result in initial administrative errors,” Steinberg said in a statement. “The key thing is that the moment the senator found out about it, he returned the check. End of story.”
De León controls a ballot-measure committee called “Believing in a Better California.” On Thursday, it reported receiving the $25,000 contribution from EdVoice on Aug. 1. The donor has paid lobbyists to represent its interest in school finance before the state.
Dan Reeves, De León’s chief of staff, said the contribution was sent to the senator’s political attorney, Stephen Kaufman, one of whose staff members erroneously deposited it. Kaufman wrote to De León apologizing for the error.
Sen. Joel Anderson (RSan Diego) was the lone vote against the new Senate rule, calling it “window dressing” and saying it would not stop misbehavior.
“I predicted that when you pass convoluted laws like this they are going to be very difficult to follow,” Anderson said Friday, so the De León matter is “no surprise to me.”