There is no California politician more adept than Sen. Tony Strickland of Moorparkl at tapping into obscure county party committees as a fund-raising vehicle. His latest coup, reported on Monday, was a $50,000 contribution from the Stanislaus County Republican Central Committee.
The website ElectionTrack.com reports that the contribution followed donations of a nearly identical amount to the Stanislaus County committee from entities associated with Farmers Insurance. Coincidentally, those contributions were made not long after Strickland had been credited with playing a key role in negotiating an end-of-session bill designed to smooth the way for construction of Farmers' Field, the proposed downtown Los Angeles football stadium to which Farmers Insurance Group has purchased the naming rights.
Under the state's campaign-finance laws, parties are exempt from contribution limits; they can give as much as they like to any candidate, and they can accept as much as they like from individual contributors.
County committees have thus become excellent vehicles for interest groups to make certain their favored candidates are well taken care of. Contributions made through party committees cannot be specifically earmarked for a given candidate, but there have been numerous instances in which the amounts coming in and the amounts going out are quite revealing. As a bonus for candidates and contributors alike, the reporting requirements for county committees are different from those for candidates, so they can be used by donors to hide their financial involvement until after an election is over.
A prime example took place in the 35th Assembly District in 2010, when GOP candidate Mike Stoker received $31,600 from the Ventura County Republican Central Committee in early November -- an amount that wasn't reported until January. That followed a $32,500 contribution to the county party on Sept. 21 from Greka Integrated, the Santa Maria-based oil company for which Stoker was a paid consultant. The company had been repeatedly cited for spills in Santa Barbara County, and Stoker's relationship with the firm had been a campaign issue raised by Democratic opponent Das Williams.
Strickland demonstrated his skill at working with county committees during his successful 2008 campaign. That year he took in more than $600,000 from eight different county committees, including those in Fresno, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Ventura and Yolo. That was in addition to the $1.5 million he received from the state Republican Party.
As he gears up for what will likely be a very expensive 2012 campaign against Democratic Sen. Fran Pavley of Agoura Hills, it appears Strickland has already put his county committee machinery in gear.
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