The United States Supreme Court in landmark case of Buckley v. Valeo dealing with Watergate era campaign finance reforms ruled that campaign expenditures were constitutionally protected free speech and cannot be limited but that campaign donations, because of their ability to either cause corruption or because the government has a substantial interest in stopping an appearance of corruption.

For the government to function our elected officials must safeguard the public trust, however little it might be at times, in our institutions and the people that run them.

Elected officials must keep in mind that even if they know that large donations haven't influenced them and even if all of their supporters trust that they aren't under the influence of their donors, that doesn't mean the general public trust you. When the general public hears of large, suspicious donations their natural reaction is to trust less in government and it diminishes their desire to get involved.

For the rest of the entry click on continue reading.

I don't have a budget for prizes but if you are up for it try to guess the identity of these Ventura County politicians:

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And click on continue reading for a difficult bonus question!

Post your answers as a comment by clicking on continue reading.

Mike Chandler, the blogger behind VoteSimiValley.com, recently posted this video of Barbra Williamson discussing campaign finance reform and the idea of forming a committee of Simi Valley citizens to come up with ideas for them. Any nominations?

Mike Chandler of votesimivalley.com posted this video of Steve Sojka speaking about campaign finance regulations at Monday night's city council meeting.

I don't remember the complete story behind the $5,000 donation from Texas in 2004, but if you can fill all of us in, please do so.

Steve Sojka is clearly referencing the recent stories about donations to Barbra Williamson from the owners, employees, and related companies to CandleLight/The Vineyards that appear to some to violate the cap of $1,000 from an individual or business.

What seems strange to me is that looking at Steve Sojka's campaign finance disclosure forms ( click here to download them from the city's website ) a group of related people that appear to be from Texas also donated a large sum of money to him during this election cycle. It doesn't seem like a great idea to complain about Texas money and then have money that looks to be from the same source. If I am wrong about some of the facts here I am sure I will be corrected. Maybe they do live in Simi Valley.

On October 25th David Saperstein, Hillevi Saperstein, Alexis Saperstein, and Jonathan Saperstein all donated the maximum $1,000 to Steve Sojka's campaign.

But in a new article about campaign finance today it is reported that Steve Sojka has decided to give the money back and the mayor also agreed now that there is a project in front of the city for the property is also giving the money back. It shows smart judgment to help restore or maintain the publics' trust in our elected officials.

David Saperstein seems to really care about Ventura County elections giving money to County school board candidates, city council candidates, and others. It is clear that Republican Party leader and Dean Kunicki, who works with Saperstein, is helping to raise the money for the candidates and that's why Paul Miller gave his money back too.

The Acorn is also now reporting on campaign finance with an article out tomorrow about donations to Barbra Williamson's campaign.

Click here for that story. In the article Barbra Williamson complains about the damage to her name when newspaper articles talk about her being investigated. Because of that I think the city should move quickly to show what she did was either wrong or within the rules.

In the article she said:

"The code is written so poorly that they don't know what they wrote," she said. "How can they say I have done something wrong when they can't even decipher their own code?"

I could be wrong, but even though staff wrote it the whole council voted on the rules. If it was unclear it should have been dealt with long before the election. The council should have made sure they agreed on what it did before they voted for it. Of course, with the complexity of campaign finance and corporate structure I could see that they didn't expect an issue to come up about the clarity of the rules.

But to all the candidates, their supporters, and my other readers, let me be clear:

It is not inherently wrong to give or take money for a political campaign. Most of the candidates here are not independently wealthy and couldn't spend only their own money if that was the alternative. Looking through donations records there are a few special interests listed. But there is decent community members who want nothing more than to support their friends and elect people they support.

Besides the appearance of a conflict of interest, which in itself is a reason to avoid questionable money, I have no evidence that any council member has ever done anything unethical because of a donation. I don't see any questionable appointments or votes tied to money for any of the candidates.

Try not to rush to judgment when so many alleged campaign finance issues start as seemingly major scandals and end up with either little or no action taken.

Those in the public eye take criticism all of the time, some of it warranted and some of it not. Before you start making accusations make sure you get all of your facts in order. And like always, if you see an over the top comment that us unfair, send me an email. When I delete emails I don't say who requested to have them removed.

All of these issues are even more in focus because of the many rumors that both Barbra Williamson and Steve Sojka are thinking about running for mayor in 2 years if Paul Miller retires.

Oh, and to add more confusion here is an article about another ethics issue.

The Star published a news report about Barbra Williamson's campaign donations last Saturday. Click here to read the story.

Barbra Williamson has explained some of the issues on a past entry. Click here to see that entry.

Now, she has issued a press release with more information. Click on continue reading to see it.

( This video is from Mike Chandler of votesimivalley.com )

Simi Valley City Council Member Barbra Williamson was the focus of a critical story in The Star because of fundraising issues.

Click here to read the article.

Click here to see the financial reports for candidates on the city's website.

There are many policies and issues that I disagree with Barbra Williamson on but she has always been open to debating, discussing, and explaining herself. Her candor and enthusiasm for open dialogue has served her and our community well. I expect she will use those attributes in dealing with this issue.

I am not defending her, she can do that herself as she always has before. Barbra, thanks for reading and commenting on my blog.

Going through the fundraising of different candidates is there anything you think deserves more attention?

I have been hearing rumors that Hummingbird Ranch has been mulling over developing a resort in Simi Valley by Smiley Face Hill. Does that explain why people involved with Hummingbird Ranch are involved with local city politics in a year that hasn't seen much competition?

Thanks to Mike Judge for sending in some pictures of his campaign signs around town.

Most of the signs in Simi Valley are from the two incumbents running, which is odd being that they have both said they are against campaign signs.

Here is a recent quote from Steve Sojka:

"I'd be more than happy to do away with them altogether," Sojka said.

Steve, if you really want to do away from them, why do you have what appears to be the most signs in town? If they are an effective way to communicate, why would you ban them?

Barbra Williamson also has expressed dismay about campaign signs. Barbra, if they are such a nuisance, why put them up in an election where none of the challengers are spending a serious amount of money? If they are effective, why would you want to further limit them? If I have your view about this wrong, please correct me.

Click here to see a recent story from Star Reporter Anna Bakalis on this issue.

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I caught the closing statements at the League of Women Voters' Forum for Simi Valley City Council candidates tonight. By the time I arrived there was approximately forty people there including reporters, bloggers, supporters, candidates, and maybe an undecided voter. I am not sure about that last category yet.

I am going to have a few entries in the following days about the event but the first entry is focusing on Richard Paul Carter. Click on the video above to see his cosing statement. Click here to see his website.

I talked with him and he agreed to answer questions from me and from my readers.

Here are my questions:

1. Your campaign literature says you are against the landfill/dump expansion. Could you explain why? What do you think of the arguments that it will create jobs, bring in taxes, and that Waste Management has been a strong partner of our community?

If the trash was mostly from Ventura County would that influence your opinion?

2. You say you want to help local businesses compete. Why do you see that as a function of government and more specifically as a function of the Simi Valley City Council?

3. What do you think of the Shop Simi Valley First campaign? Do you think it is a wise use of taxpayer dollars? Do you think it is effective? How did you arrive at your conclusion?

4. Do you attend city council meetings? f you do share with us what you have learned from attending them.

5. Would you be in favor of higher taxes to buy open space? How else would you go about preserving open space if it belongs to private landowners?

6. What local elected official do you admire the most?

7. How are you communicating with voters? Are you walking precincts, making phone calls, sending mailers, or posting signs?

That's all of my questions for now. What questions do you have for the candidate?

Other candidate Q and A entries will be coming up this weekend.

Please give the candidates time to respond to your questions. Most of them are very busy.

I stopped by city hall and the following people have picked up their paperwork to run for city council:

Incumbents:

Steve Sojka
Barbra Williamson

New folks:
Gina Hardy
Gerald Smith

If anyone has their contact information please send it to me.

The Mayor of Simi Valley, Paul Miller, is running again. You can read the whole Acorn story here at this link.

I have spoken to the mayor a few times but something I hope to explore more with him is the impact his degree in religion from UCLA had upon his career as a police officer and an elected official.

Here is Paul Miller's website. By looking at it do you think he anticipates having to campaign hard?

What about the city council races in Simi Valley? What have you heard? Do you think Barbra Williamson and Steve Sojka will run again? Do you think there will be anybody else running?

I have heard many rumors that local Republican activists were going to go after Barbra Williamson for supporting Jim Dantona over Judy Mikels and Peter Foy but I doubt they will be successful. Beating an incumbent is always difficult to do. Besides Peter Foy might be too busy with his new antitax and anti doing something about climate change group.

Do you see any need for a change in Simi Valley city government? What are your top issues?

If you were going to nominate someone who would you nominate?

A classic.

Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks are in the top ten for safety nation wide.*

Maybe it is a combination of luck, police work, good citizenship, and good parenting.

But if you are feeling generous here is the website for The Simi Valley Police Foundation.

If this post gets to 100 comments without one example of name calling or poor behavior ( that includes being off topic!) I will join too.

Who else will take the pledge?

Do you put credit into these surveys?

The Tony Strickland for State Senate campaign has announced the support of many Simi Valley City officials and other Simi Valley citizens. You can click on continue reading to read the whole list. Rep. Elton Gallegly is one of the most prominent, but so far it looks like a who's who of the Simi Valley Republican Party. Most of them could be relied upon to endorse the GOP candidate in most campaigns.

The list includes the entire city council except for Michelle Foster. Anyone know why Michelle didn't join with the rest of the council? The other prominent names not mentioned are Republican school board members Eric Lundstrom and Janice Difatta,

On a personal note, thank you to Tony Strickland and his staff . Tony has put together a quick responding and young staff. Thanks for your help! I will write about it more later.

I will have a Hannah Beth Jackson campaign update next week. But in the meantime enjoy their new campaign widget: