CalWatchdog Morning Read – September 21

by CalWatchdog Staff | September 21, 2016 9:48 am

Good morning. Happy hump day. We start with an interesting read from the Los Angeles Times about good government groups fighting with the FPPC.

“A rare and heated dispute has erupted between California’s campaign finance regulators and open-government groups that have accused the watchdog agency of pressuring them to rescind their support for legislation designed to show who is funding political ads.

“Supporters of the bill criticized the state Fair Political Practices Commission for heavy-handed tactics that they said included pushing groups the commission has the power to investigate and fine to drop their support for the transparency bill.

“‘It’s really inappropriate for a regulator who has enormous power over organizations to call up those organizations over which they have power, and lobby them,’ said Trent Lange, president of California Clean Money Campaign. ‘It’s just inherently intimidating to have your regulator call you and ask you to do something.’

“Michele Sutter, co-founder of the group Money Out Voters In, called it ‘shocking behavior by the FPPC.'”

The Los Angeles Times[1] has more.

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Endnotes:
  1. The Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-fppc-open-government-lobby-20160921-snap-story.html
  2. AP/The San Jose Mercury News: http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/09/20/lawmakers-collect-thousands-on-top-of-salary-while-absent/
  3. The Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article102937257.html
  4. Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-sac-essential-politics-updates-calpers-may-need-to-lower-investment-1474408074-htmlstory.html
  5. Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-sac-essential-politics-updates-lgbt-group-withdraws-endorsements-from-1474419459-htmlstory.html

Source URL: https://calwatchdog.com/2016/09/21/calwatchdog-morning-read-september-21/