Burkholder warned over inaccurate finance filing
NORTH
COUNTY
The state Fair Political Practices Commission has issued a warning to Assembly District 76 candidate Melanie Burkholder after she failed to disclose all her sources of income on the required Statement of Economic Interests.
A complaint filed by Jess Durfee of San Diego, an elected member of the Democratic National Committee, says Burkholder failed to list a business she owns, Alpenglow Counseling Services, any income from that business, and her interest in the employment of her husband, Shawn Burkholder, a project director at Mccarthy Building Industries.
Burkholder, a Carlsbad resident, said Friday that the statement has been corrected to include the missing information.
“It was just an oversight,” she said. “I just missed it. They gave me a warning ... and said that’s the end of it.”
The statement of economic interests, Form 700, is required by the FPPC to make the public aware of a candidate’s potential conflicts of interest. It provides information to help people decide whether a candidate is voting in the public’s interest or for their own financial benefit.
The disclosure error is the second public scrape for Burkholder’s campaign.
In December, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ordered that Burkholder stop identifying herself as “doctor” on her March 3 primary ballot statement.
The judge said she could call herself a “licensed counselor/businesswoman,” but not a “doctor/business owner” as she had requested. She continues to use the title “Dr.” on her website and in her campaign material.
Burkholder reportedly has a doctorate in Christian counseling but is not a medical doctor.
Burkholder is the Republican candidate for the 76th Assembly District seat held by Democrat Tasha Boerner Horvath, a former Encinitas council member who was first elected to the two-year Assembly seat in 2018.
A former Secret Service agent, Burkholder was briefly a candidate for the Carlsbad City Council in 2016.