Response to Sacramento News & Review Article – UNPRINTED
Disclosure Irony
By Russ Howard
Reforming the Reform Act, 11/2/2000, is an excellent article on political reform, partly dealing with my own case. Facing America's largest disclosure fine ever, I think additional disclosure is needed:
· Lance Olson is more biased than he reveals: Besides an ally of politicians exposed by our group Californians Against Corruption, he's our Judge's former law partner. Nor is Olson an impartial reformer, since his business depends on the mandatory political disclosure industry.
· CAC's campaigns weren't just about self-defense rights, but rather any violation of the oath to defend the Constitution – including the 1st and all other amendments. We re-exposed a $50,000 payment of "investment" profits to Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Mike Roos from a convicted influence peddler. We also opposed Senate President David Roberti over financial corruption. Both left office in the wake of our campaigns, and Roberti blamed us for his downfall. Respected groups promoting tax limitation, good government, and other issues joined the Roberti recall, including People's Advocate, Citizens for Law & Order, the Doris Tate Crime Victims' Bureau, Operation Slush Fund, California Voter Alliance, and the Law Enforcement Alliance of America. Funding was overwhelmingly from grassroots activists, not organizations.
· It was not I who sued. The FPPC sued us to collect the fine, then we filed a cross complaint. They failed to appear for hearings and took no action for 3 years, leading us to drop efforts to get help, believing they didn't want to pursue. Did they play dead?
· When the FPPC "woke up" this year, both parties moved to dismiss each other's complaints for lack of prosecution. Judge Lloyd Connelly granted the FPPC's motion and denied ours. But we haven't lost the case: We've yet to go to trial.
· Connelly himself failed to disclose conflicts of interest. By luck, our attorney learned he'd been an Assemblyman. Moreover, he was on our Corrupt Politician List.
· CAC asked Connelly to vacate his orders so an unbiased judge could reconsider. He refused, so California's Supreme Court appointed a special judge to consider his conflicts. Connelly now admits Roos gave $5,000 to his campaign and Roberti paid $12,000 to his & Olson's firm, yet still denies any conflict. Judges should rise above political incest, not embarrass the Judiciary like foxes guarding the hen house.
· Echoing the FPPC, Olson doesn't have "a lot of sympathy" for us, claiming we "thumbed [our] noses" at the law. Wrong. I always fully reported until the recall, when I obeyed my conscience in a time of death threats, break-ins, etc., and reluctantly began safeguarding donor identities. Even then I reported as much as possible – including donation amounts – balancing the spirit of the law with the right to privacy and free speech. When the danger seemed past, I turned in all requested data. It's effectively a late filing, so the maximum fine should've been small – or none, if the FPPC respected the spirit of Supreme Court decisions like NAACP v. Alabama.
· I declared that co-defendant Steve Cicero, a software consultant with a wife and young child, was erroneously listed as treasurer and all acts were mine alone. Nevertheless, falsely swearing we were served and hadn't cooperated, they fined us jointly as if we were both treasurer – in absentia, at a kangaroo hearing with the FPPC as cop, judge, jury, & executioner. (See www.CACDefenseFund.org).
· Olson scoffs at the idea the FPPC violated the 8th Amendment ban on excessive fines and cruel & unusual punishment. We were grassroots activists of average means. The day they fined Steve and me – personally – $808,000 for defending rights, they fined the San Francisco '49ers just $60,000, 1/13th as much, for money laundering. The fine is ineligible for bankruptcy. If this doesn't qualify as excessive, cruel or unusual, what would? Execution?
Maybe Olson doesn't think human rights apply to people whose political beliefs are inconvenient to him and his powerful associates.