Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/campaign-finance/)
Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu paid off his 2016 Assembly campaign debt and a portion of his 2018 mayor campaign debt by fundraising for both campaign committees beginning in December. It’s a move some local politics experts said is an example of loopholes in campaign finance regulations.
The Nov. 6 election comes as the city faces an ever-worsening financial crisis, pulling $10 million in one-time money this year to make ends meet.
Over $2 million from corporations and corporate PACs, whose donations have become a campaign issue this year, has flowed to all the campaign accounts of candidates from both parties in the four hotly contested Orange County Congressional seats, according to federal campaign disclosures.
Government emails and text messages about enforcement of Orange County’s campaign finance laws will be destroyed two years after they’re sent or received, under a policy county supervisors approved Tuesday.
The Disneyland Resort has spent almost $1 million to influence Anaheim city council campaigns and oppose a minimum wage initiative with three weeks to go before the Nov. 6 election, more than it spent at this point ahead of the 2016 election.
Voters have no way of seeing who provided the $2.6 million-plus in dark money supporting or opposing candidates in the four Orange County races key to the battle for control of Congress.
Orange County officials released the names of six candidates and 18 donors involved in returned campaign donations that may have exceeded legal limits, after previously declining to make them public.
Supervisors structured the county enforcement so that when violators are caught by the county enforcement officials, they can return the illegal money and the matter goes away quietly.
Whether you’re a California voter, business owner or run a special interest group, if you want to be a big election donor, you can find a way to get your money in.
Several Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine and other city council members and candidates reported robust fundraising for the first six months of 2017, according to the latest campaign finance disclosures.