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Buying The Oakland Mayor's Race

The Big Outside Bucks And The Busting Of Oakland's Campaign Finance Law In Don Perata's Bid For City Hall

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Spending For Perata Campaign Tops $1 Million By Robert Gammon East Bay Express October 29, 2010 Coalition for a Safer California, a Sacramento group with close ties to Perata, [has now] reported spending $55,000 on a new round of TV ads on behalf of Perata, along with $26,000 on a new mailer, touting Perata’s candidacy. That means the group has now spent $222,000 trying to get the ex-senator elected, pushing total spending for Perata over the $1 million mark. [For The Full Story] Return to top

 

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A's Owners Give Perata A Boost Through Coalition By Cecily Burt Oakland Tribune October 27, 2010 OAKLAND -- After spending enough cash to help Don Perata bust through Oakland's voluntary spending cap in the race for Oakland mayor, the Sacramento-based Coalition for a Safer California appears to be amassing a new war chest for a last blast before the Nov. 2 election. And guess who's helping out? Lew Wolff, owner of the Oakland A's, recently contributed $10,000 and his partner, John Fisher, contributed $15,000, according to campaign finance documents filed with the Secretary of State's Office late last week. Wolff wants to move his team to San Jose, so maybe the contributions aren't surprising given recent published comments in the Tribune that Perata thinks the move is a done deal. But Wolff said Wednesday that Perata's stance on the A's and the team's future home had nothing to do with his decision to try to help him win the election. [For The Full Story] Return to top

 

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Big Corporations Pour Last-Minute Money Into Oakland Mayoral Race PG&E, Comcast, and HealthNet all give donations to political action committee supporting Don Perata Anybody But Perata Website October 25, 2010 Corporate giants PG&E, Comcast, and HealthNet have all donated thousands of dollars in last-minute funds to a group called the Oakland Jobs PAC, helping the political action committee fund a $33,000 brochure mailer in support of the Oakland mayoral candidacy of Don Perata. PG&E donated $10,000 to the Oakland Jobs PAC in the first weeks of October, while Comcast and HealthNet gave $5,000 apiece during the same period. Meanwhile, PG&E, Comcast, and HealthNet were not the only donors to give big money this October to the Oakland Jobs PAC in support of Perata's mayoral campaign. The Northern California Carpenters Regional Council Small Contributor Committee gave another $10,000 and Architectural Dimension of Walnut Creek and Rosendin Electric of San Jose, two major players in the building industry, gave another $5,000 apiece. And the Nossman attorney firm of Los Angeles, which bills itself as a leader in the area of "eminent domain and other valuation disputes, representing public agencies, landowners, and business owners," gave $2,000 to the Oakland Jobs PAC. The Oakland Jobs PAC is headed by Oakland-based consultant and legislative advocate Gregory McConnell, who is also executive director of the Oakland Safe Streets Committee. In 2007, then-Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente appointed McConnell to Oakland’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Housing Affordability as a representative of Oakland’s homebuilding industry. The East Bay Express reported that the Oakland Jobs PAC spent close to $50,000 in 2008 in support of former Oakland School Board member Kerry Hamill's campaign for the Oakland City Council At-Large seat against the eventual winner of that race, Rebecca Kaplan. ("Cops Measure Backers Supporting Hamill, Possibly Illegally" East Bay Express May 30, 2008) Perata supported Hamill against Kaplan in that race. Return to top

 

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A's Owners Give $25,000 to Perata Group After Ex-Senator Says Team Is Moving to San Jose By Robert Gammon East Bay Express October 25, 2010 Oakland A's owners Lew Wolff and John Fisher, who desparately want to move their team to San Jose, are trying to influence the outcome of the Oakland mayor’s race, pumping $25,000 into a political committee that is backing ex-state Senator Don Perata. The move is unusual because Oakland sports team owners don't typically attempt to sway city elections and because Wolff is known for being frugal with his money. The large donations also came after recent statements made by Perata that stopping the A’s move to the South Bay will not be a priority if he becomes mayor. ... In an interview, Wolff denied that Perata's stance on the A's had anything to do with his $10,000 donation, saying he's supporting the ex-senator because he thinks he's the best mayoral candidate. Fisher donated $15,000. "I've known him for years," Wolff said of Perata, "and I respect him." Wolff also said he hasn't been paying attention to what Perata has been saying on the campaign trail. But an attempt by an Oakland sports team owner to affect the outcome of a mayor's race may be unprecedented in recent decades. “I’ve been in Oakland since 1964, and I’ve never heard of anything like this,” Newhouse said in an interview after being told of what Wolff had done. Newhouse also said that Perata’s disinterest in keeping the A’s in Oakland “makes more sense” in light of Wolff’s attempt to get the ex-senator elected. Indeed, it seems unlikely that Wolff and Fisher would support a candidate who would try to stop their San Jose plans. [For The Full Story] Return to top

 

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Trying To Buy Oakland's Election

 

Perata Law Enforcement Ally Has $157,000 Campaign Warchest To Put In Oakland Mayoral Race In Last Days From The Anybody But Perata Website October 24, 2010 The Coalition For A Safer California—a Sacramento-based political action committee largely funded by Don Perata's prison guards union employers—reports close to $157,000 in the bank available to pour into the Oakland mayoral race in the next week, according to financial records available on the California Secretary of State website. That will almost certainly mean massive campaign mailings can be expected to Oakland voters in the next few days either supporting Perata or tearing down his opponents. The Safer California coalition was the funder of the controversial Oakland "police mailer" last summer which criticized two of Perata's major opponents in the mayoral race—Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan—during negotiations with the Oakland police union over closing the city of Oakland's budget gap. The major contributor to the Safer California coalition is the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the prison guards union which gave $75,000 to the coalition in the last two weeks. In all, the prison guards union has given $225,000 to the Safer California coalition this year. Perata has received at least $469,000 as a political consultant from the prison guards union since he left the State Senate in late 2008. Including the money coming from the prison guards union, more than 80% of the Safer California coalition's contributions this month have come directly from Oakland residents or individuals or companies with Oakland interests or Oakland connections. [For The Full Story, Including A Complete List Of Coalition Donors] Return to top

 

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Perata Spending Closes in on $1 Million; Marcie Hodge Fails to Disclose Donors By Robert Gammon East Bay Express October 22, 2010 Campaigns attempting to elect Don Perata mayor of Oakland have spent a record $965,000, newly filed campaign finance reports show. Perata’s own mayoral campaign had spent at least $669,000 through October 16, and two other committees backing his candidacy spent at least $269,000 trying to put him in the mayor’s office. The totals easily shatter previous Oakland mayoral campaign spending records. The two other committees spending large sums on Perata’s behalf are a Sacramento group with close ties to him, Coalition for a Safer California, and an Oakland committee, Oakland Jobs PAC, that also has links to the ex-senator. Coalition for a Safer California has spent $141,000 in support of Perata, while Oakland Jobs PAC reported spending $155,000 so far. Both groups eclipsed Oakland’s $95,000 threshold for spending by independent committees. And Perata has now more than doubled the city’s spending cap of $379,000. Perata found a loophole in Oakland law that allows him to exceed the cap once other groups have done so — even if they're spending money on his behalf. The city's cap rule was designed to help candidates who are attacked by outside groups who spend lots of money — but the loophole also allows candidates like Perata to benefit from groups overspending in support of him. ... Finally, it should be noted that mayoral candidate Marcie Hodge has yet to file a campaign finance report as required by law during the election. Hodge has spent significant sums on billboards, mailers, radio spots, and now TV ads. Several black leaders in Oakland believe that Perata supporters are bankrolling her campaign in an effort to siphon votes from Kaplan and Quan. Hodge has denied getting help from the ex-senator and said she loaned herself a large donation, but it’s unclear where she got the money, because she reported having no job, no income, and no investments on her official financial disclosures in August. [To the Full Article] Return to top

 

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Perata Appears to Break Several [Campaign Finance] Laws By Robert Gammon East Bay Express October 11, 2010 The last time Don Perata was in a close election battle, he broke the law to win. It was 1998, and he was facing a tough fight against progressive Assemblywoman Dion Aroner. To beat her, he funneled an illegal $90,000 loan into his campaign just weeks before the election. Now, twelve years later, Perata is in another tough election fight, and interviews and public records suggest that he’s broken several campaign finance laws in his effort to win the Oakland mayor’s race. On June 30, Perata loaned his mayoral campaign $50,000 from his consulting company, Perata Consulting LLC, records show. Under campaign finance law, loans are considered contributions, and the individual contribution limit from a corporation is $700 in Oakland. Although it’s legal for candidates to give or loan unlimited amounts of their own money to their campaigns, it’s not lawful for corporations to loan or donate money in excess of established contribution limits — even if the candidate controls the corporation. “If the candidate wants to donate as much of his own money as he wants to his campaign, he can — but not from his company,” explained Bob Stern, president of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles and former general counsel to the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC). Perata was fined following his 1998 campaign against Aroner for violating election laws involving loans. Just weeks before that election, he wrote himself a $90,000 check from his dying father’s estate and then transferred that money as a loan to his campaign account. The last-minute infusion of cash helped Perata barely defeat Aroner. The FPPC eventually ruled that Perata had broken the law and fined him $4,000. But the ruling and fine came well after Perata had been elected, and so it didn’t change the outcome of the race. Two of Perata’s main opponents in the 2010 mayor’s race, Councilwomen Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, contend that he’s doing the same thing now. “I think he figures he can just break the law and get away with it,” said Quan, who has filed several complaints against the ex-senator with the Oakland Public Ethics Commission — complaints that likely won’t be adjudicated until well after the election. “And I think he’s betting that people won’t care about it. [To Full Article] Return to top

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Don Perata Breaks Spending Record In Oakland Mayor's Race By Cecily Burt Oakland Tribune October 6, 2010 OAKLAND -- The Coalition for a Safer California spent $137,000 in the past three months to help Don Perata in his quest to become Oakland's next mayor, and the former state senator responded by spending more than $593,000 -- a record -- with a month still to go. The coalition filed its quarterly campaign finance report online Tuesday evening with California's secretary of state, putting to rest the question whether the political committee controlled by Perata's longtime associate Paul Kinney did, as promised in a Sept. 16 letter sent to the Oakland Public Ethics Commission, blow through the spending limit on independent expenditures in the Oakland mayor's race. According to Oakland's elections code, once a political action committee independently spends more than the $95,000 ceiling set for the mayor's race, the candidates who previously agreed to abide by voluntary spending limits of $379,000 are no longer held to that limit. Exactly $95,500 was spent between July 6 and Sept. 16 by the coalition, according to the first pre-election filing period that covers July 1 through Sept. 30. The Sept. 16 date is important because Perata said he waited until that day to launch his own television ads that put him over the voluntary $379,000 spending cap set for candidates in the mayor's race. But Perata's closest rivals in the race, City Council members Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, have for three weeks accused Perata of working with the committee to exceed the cap. They questioned how he could know in advance of the Oct. 5 campaign finance filing deadline that the committee had actually spent money in the race unless he had insider knowledge. [More] Return to top

 

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Perata Tops Half a Million on Mayor's Race By Zusha Elinson The Bay Citizen October 6, 2010 Don Perata has spent more than half a million on his campaign to become Oakland Mayor – far exceeding his rivals and the voluntary limits for what can be spent in the race. Perata has spent a total of $594,000 on the race and raised $663,000 in his bid to beat out a crowded field, according to filings made today. The voluntary spending limit for the Oakland mayor’s race is $379,000. Oakland City Council Member Jean Quan – who has been polling a close second to Perata and attacking Perata for evading campaign finance rules – at first appeared to have exceeded the limit this morning. But the Quan campaign said it had made a computational error, putting the total she’s raised at $320,000. City Council member Rebecca Kaplan, who’s polling third, has raised $138,000. Joe Tuman, a former television analyst and a dark horse who's been rising in the polls, raised $64,000 in his first-time bid for public office Quan, Kaplan and others have targeted Perata for his fundraising, saying he's unfairly evading the spending limits. Perata has said that he is following the rules, which state that the cap on spending is automatically lifted if an independent expenditure committee spends more than $90,000 on behalf of a candidate. A committee funded by police and prison guard unions called the Coalition for a Safer California blew past that limit last month. The Coalition, an independent expenditure committee supporting Perata, revealed yesterday that it spent $136,000 supporting Perata's bid for mayor, according to its own finance disclosures. The group has paid for television spots as well as mailers. Paul Kinney, a longtime Perata associate, is being paid to run the committee. The coalition was originally being funded by the law enforcement groups, including the prison guards' union, which employs Perata as a political consultant. The latest disclosures show large donations from longtime Perata supporters in the East Bay. As an independent expenditure committee, there are no limits on contributions. Jon Reynolds of Reynolds & Brown, which is building a big housing development near the Oakland Estuary, kicked in $10,000. James Falaschi, a real estate developer who's done projects in Jack London Square, plunked down $25,000. T. Gary Rogers, a former Dreyer's Ice Cream executive, threw in $10,000, adding to the $20,000 he'd previously put into the coalition. Another political action committee, called Oakland Jobs, is also dumping money into the effort to get Perata elected. The group, funded by businesses and real estate developers, reported that it has spent a total of $114,000 on surveys, consultants and mailers. [More] Return to top

 

 

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Perata Blows Lid off Spending Cap By Robert Gammon East Bay Express October 6, 2010 Don Perata has spent at least $594,000 in his attempt to become the next mayor of Oakland, thereby demolishing the city’s expenditure cap of $379,000, according to campaign finance reports filed today with the city clerk’s office. It was the first time that a mayoral candidate has ever gone over Oakland’s spending limit. Perata contends that he can exceed the cap because a Sacramento group with close ties to him has gone over the cap as well. That group, Coalition for a Safer California, which is run by a longtime Perata friend and is funded by the ex-senator’s best donors, reported last night that it had spent at least $137,000 trying to get him elected. However, two of Perata’s main competitors, Councilwomen Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, noted that it appears from the campaign filings that Perata may have gone over the city’s spending cap before Coalition for a Safer California did. If so, then Perata broke Oakland law. The filings show that Coalition for a Safer California reported that it spent more than the city’s $95,000 cap for independent committees on September 16. But Perata’s TV ads, which reportedly put him over the cap, too, started appearing right around the same time. [More] Return to top

 

 

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Perata-Linked Group Reports Spending $137,000 on His Behalf By Robert Gammon East Bay Express October 6, 2010 A Sacramento group with close ties to Don Perata has spent at least $137,000 trying to get the ex-state senator elected mayor of Oakland, according to new filings with the California Secretary of State’s Office. The reported expenditures by the group, Coalition for a Safer California, which is run by Perata’s longtime friend, Paul Kinney, and is funded by some of the ex-senator’s best donors, appears to be the most that any outside group has ever spent in an Oakland mayoral election. Through September 30, Coalition for a Safer California reported spending $55,500 for TV ads that it says have run or will run on local cable TV and KTVU-Channel 2, and $41,600 for a mailer on Perata’s behalf that presumably will be sent to Oakland voters. The group also reported paying Kinney $40,000 for “consulting” work in its effort to help Perata win the Oakland mayor’s race, and $10,000 for fund-raising. The group reported paying consultant Stephanie Shakofsky for the fund-raising. Shakofsky is the former girlfriend of Oakland City Attorney John Russo, and two knowledgeable sources say she also was romantically involved with Perata for a time as well. The reported spending by the group also appears to lift the spending caps in the mayor’s race, thereby allowing Perata to spend as much money as he wants in the election. The move is a boon to Perata because he was closing in on the city’s $379,000 cap for mayoral campaigns several months ago. Perata told reporters last week the he had gone over the cap as a result of the Coalition for a Safer California’s spending. The group also reported raising $80,000 from July through September. It said it received contributions from longtime Perata donors: James Falaschi ($25,000), co-owner of most of the buildings in Jack London Square; Jon Reynolds ($10,000), co-developer of the massive Oak-to-Ninth housing development; T. Gary Rogers ($10,000), former CEO of Dreyer’s Ice Cream; AB&I Foundry ($7,500); and the billboard company, CBS Outdoor ($7,500). Return to top

 

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Perata’s Haul from Prison Guards Grows By Robert Gammon East Bay Express October 5, 2010 Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata received another $60,000 from the California prison guard’s union in the past three months, raising his total pay from the union to at least $469,000 since early 2009. In newly filed campaign finance reports, the prison guard’s union said it paid Perata $20,000 per month from July through September for “campaign consulting,” even though the union reported that it mounted no political campaigns during that time. Earlier this year, the union was the primary funder of two hit-piece mailers that attacked two of Perata’s main opponents in the mayor’s race — Councilwomen Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan. In other words, Perata is being paid as a “campaign consultant” to a union whose only political campaign this year was an attack on his opponents in the mayor’s race. It must be just a coincidence. Return to top

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No Change To Campaign Finance Laws; Inquiry On Perata Donations Sent To Ethics Commission Council member Jean Quan, right, asks city attorney Mark Morodomi, left, to give a legal opinion on spending rules outlined in the Oakland Campaign Reform Act. By Evan Wagstaff Oakland North October 1, 2010 Oakland City Council members Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, candidates in the mayoral race, were unable Thursday to prompt amendments to the city’s campaign finance laws before the November 2 election. The proposed changes targeted fellow candidate Don Perata, whose campaign has already exceeded the $379,000 spending cap. The issue was first brought to light when the Coalition for a Safer California, an independent expenditure committee, announced that it had spent $95,000 on Perata’s behalf. Under current city election law, this donation triggered the lifting of the spending cap for all mayoral candidates. The revisions Quan and Kaplan were seeking Thursday, as they brought the issue to the council’s rules and legislation committee, would have included a requirement that candidates sign documents pledging in advance—under penalty of perjury—not to coordinate with committees to raise the spending cap, as Quan suspects Perata has. “We’re absolutely challenging whether this was actually independent,” Quan said. But the rules committee, of which Quan is a member and Kaplan is not, voted Thursday to conduct an investigation through the city’s public ethics commission, rather than sending the issue directly to the city council. Kaplan and Quan’s complaint will be investigated, but could take “weeks, if not months” before it’s formally addressed by the commission, ethics commission executive director Daniel Purnell said. [To Full Story] Return to top

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Perata Thwarts Campaign Spending Limits— Big Surprise, Huh? By Stephen Buel East Bay Express October 1, 2010 Oakland Mayoral candidate Don Perata once again demonstrated his low regard for the rule of law by announcing that his campaign has exceeded Oakland's campaign spending limits. The Oakland Tribune reported that Perata said he based his decision on guidance from a variety of city officials, including the city attorney. "John Russo told me that as far as he was concerned, the cap had been broken," Perata told the paper. But a spokesman for Russo said that is not true, and the Trib report diligently noted that the city attorney's recent legal opinion on the subject would seem to confirm that. Perata is exploiting a loophole in the city's toothless contribution limits that allows any candidate to spend whatever he wants once an independent outside campaign committee has done so. "Independent" allies of Perata who just happen to get their money from the same places he does say they have — ooopsy!!! — exceeded the spending limits. The former state senator says, er, well, this is all, like, some kind of total coincidence. [To Full Blog Entry] Return to top

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Bid To Limit Oakland Campaign Spending Fails By Cecily Burt Oakland Tribune September 30, 2010 OAKLAND -- The hopes of two mayoral candidates to get the City Council to tighten rules on campaign finance spending before the Nov. 2 election ended Thursday when the council's rules committee refused their request. Candidates Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, both of them council members, raised the matter after the Sacramento-based Coalition for a Safer California declared in a letter dated Sept. 16 that it had spent more than $95,000 -- the threshold for independent expenditure committees -- on behalf of a candidate in the Oakland mayor's race. The committee is not required to provide a detailed accounting until Tuesday. According to the Oakland Campaign Reform Act, once an independent expenditure committee exceeds the threshold, mayoral candidates are free to spend more than the voluntary spending limit of $379,000. But candidates must decide whether they want to risk exceeding the cap without first seeing the spending details next week. Quan, who serves on the rules committee, and Kaplan, who does not, said that mayoral candidate Don Perata, the former state Senate leader, worked with the coalition to break the spending cap on his behalf, a charge Perata has denied. Perata said Thursday that he has now exceeded the spending ceiling. [More] Return to top

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Mayoral Race Campaign Spending Limits: Maintaining An Honest Campaign (Opinion) By Susan Mernit Oakland Local September 30, 2010 Neighborhood groups are up in arms about the inconsistencies on the City of Oakland's laws on campaign spending in elections. Apparently, the way the rules are structured, having one candidate, such as Don Perata, exceed the city's spending cap in the race for Mayor has the effect of removing the cap from the race. This pretty much seems to guarantee a scenario where EVERY candidate with the cash can spend over the agreed-upon campaign spending limits, and we could very well end up electing a mayor whose first months in office could include being investigated--and convicted-- for breaking campaign finance laws. ... Don Perata's supporters, of course without Perata's consent or knowledge, he says, triggered this whole thing when they announced they'd spent more than $95,000 in expenditures marketing their candidate--and therefore all budget restrictions were broken. The group is called The Coalition for a Safer California, Perata's their man, and it conveniently creates a way for Perata to spend more of what he's raised (since he reportedly hit his spending limit in August 2010). Sounds like just the guy you want to buy, I mean vote for, as Mayor of Oakland, right? Sounds like just the fella to deal with Oakland's debt and bankruptcy--maybe his friends in Sacramento can find some more loop holes when we have to deal with our looming--and crushing--budget deficits? Doesn't sound so good, does it? Not only can we lose our mayoral race spending limits, we risk voting in the rule-breaker whose MO is to try to buy the election. Is this going to build a better Oakland? If Don Perata was the man of integrity his campaign manager claims he is, he'd follow the rules and set the example. [For Full Story] Return to top

 

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"If Not Fixed, [Oakland's Campaign-Finance Law] Could Lead To A Kind OF Coup D'etat In The Upcoming Mayoral Election" Email Originally Sent to ClevelandHeightsNeighbors@yahoogroups.com, GrandLakeNCPC@yahoogroups.com, and APAC_14X@yahoogroups.com September 29, 2010 I apologize up front: I try to avoid using our neighborhood Yahoo groups for discussions that have partisan political overtones. Unfortunately, to address an impending crisis in Oakland's rules meant to safeguard our democratic processes, it's unavoidable that one mayoral candidate is going to get mentioned. Oakland's campaign-finance law is in a major crisis and, if not fixed, could lead to a kind of coup d'etat in the upcoming mayoral election (similar to how the Supreme Court decision in Bush v Gore in 2000 felt like a judicial coup d'etat of the presidential election). The following paragraph from the East Bay Express is the quickest summary I know: "A new legal opinion from the Oakland City Attorney's Office will effectively allow ex-state Senator Don Perata to exceed the city's spending cap in the mayor's race and not have to worry about potential consequences until well after the election. The opinion, coupled with the city's cumbersome process for investigating campaign finance violations, also likely means that voters won't know for sure whether Perata has broken any laws until after theyÕve cast their ballots." The city council's Rules Committee meets tomorrow at 10:30 in city council chambers to decide whether to put this issue on the agenda for the full council for Tuesday's city-council meeting. As I'll try to explain below, this is an important issue, with which the full council needs to deal ASAP. You can encourage the Rules Committee to bring this issue to the full council... So what's the back story here? It's pretty amazing to me; it's so Kafkaesque. There's a "what-were-they-thinking!?" loophole in Oakland's campaign-finance law that says: if independent expenditures in a particular race are too high, then the campaign-spending limits are lifted for all candidates in that race. So the Coalition for a Safer California (a Sacramento-based political group closely tied to mayoral candidate Don Perata) did just that: They announced that they had exceeded $95,000 in expenditures on the mayoral race and that, therefore, mayoral candidates can now spend as much as they want. Just coincidentally, Perata is the only candidate that would gain from this. He had by August already raised more than he would typically be permitted to spend. All of the other candidates have pledged to comply with the campaign-spending limits, regardless of the outcome on this loophole. What's ironic, even perverse, is that this loophole was meant to protect a candidate's ability to respond to a well-financed NEGATIVE campaign by an ADVERSE independent group. Here Perata is taking advantage of a pro-Perata group's spending to allow Perata's campaign to spend even more! Perata and the Coalition for a Safer California have asserted that what the Coalition did is "independent" of Perata's campaign. However, that doesn't pass the "Oh, really?" test for at least two reasons: *Not only had Perata already raised more than he could legally spend (without some "independent group" spending enough to trigger the loophole), but *By August, Perata's campaign had already spent 85% of its legal limit for the campaign! Perata's campaign would never have spent almost all of its money with three months of campaigning to go unless it was dead certain that an independent group would bust the campaign's limit and allow Perata to spend all he wants. So that's the bizarre story. Unless the city council finds a way fast to address this, Oakland is effectively without any campaign-spending limits for this year's mayor's race. If you want to read more about the background, you can go to http://www.notdon.org/. Note: This is an explicitly anti-Perata site. However, they've archived the full text of newspaper articles concerning this topic. So even if you don't agree or like their slant, they are a good one-stop-shop source for relevant news coverage. Jim Ratliff Return to top

 

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Open Letter To the Mayor, Oakland City Council, City Attorney, And The Public Ethics Commission Oakland Local September 29, 2010 Open Letter to the Mayor, Oakland City Council, City Attorney, and the Public Ethics Commission: The Oakland Campaign Reform Act of 2008 was devised to promote good government and to protect Oaklandís electorate from the undue influence of money in the choice of our elected leaders. Former Senator Don Perata has shown by his actions that he will not abide by those laws, even while he is running for the office of Mayor of Oakland, the position sacredly charged with guarding both the letter and the spirit of those laws. Months before his TV ads were aired he had almost topped out on the spending limits he had agreed to stand by. Now his friends and employers (organizations that he consults for on an ongoing basis) have overshot the ìindependent expendituresî limits that were also established by the voters, thereby providing Mr. Perata with the excuse to spend even more money. Out of the 9 other candidates for mayor, eight of them have pledged to continue following the law as Oaklanders intended it. Only Don Perata has thumbed his nose at his promise and at Oakland voters. Thatís why the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club joins with other Democratic Clubs and good government organizations to demand that: 1) the City Council, along with the City Attorneyís office, immediately enact legislation that corrects the loophole which is now being used to break the spending limits agreed to by all candidates, and 2) demand that the Public Ethics Commission move quickly to enforce all applicable laws. The Wellstone Club has watched with horror while services in our federal, state, and local governments have decreased while ever more obscene amounts of money are poured into federal, state, and even local campaigns. The effect of those dollars is the opposite of democracy. As more and more voters perceive that elections are just auctions to the highest bidder, fewer and fewer people choose to vote. Oaklanders made a statement with this legislation that they did not want their city put on the auction block, and they do not deserve to have their desires ignored and their choices thwarted even by Don Perata. Sincerely, Pamela Drake, Local Politics Chair, Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club [For The Original Article] Return to top

 

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Door Opened for Perata to Buy Oakland Mayor's Race By Robert Gammon East Bay Express September 29, 2010 A new legal opinion from the Oakland City Attorney’s Office will effectively allow ex-state Senator Don Perata to exceed the city’s spending cap in the mayor’s race and not have to worry about potential consequences until well after the election. The opinion, coupled with the city’s cumbersome process for investigating campaign finance violations, also likely means that voters won’t know for sure whether Perata has broken any laws until after they’ve cast their ballots. Rebecca Kaplan, one of Perata’s main competitors in the mayor’s race, said the City Attorney’s opinion effectively means that Oakland “has no campaign finance law.” The opinion was prompted by questions Kaplan raised about spending by Perata and a Sacramento-group with close ties to him. That group, Coalition for a Safer California, recently declared that it had exceeded Oakland’s spending threshold for independent committees, thereby lifting all expenditure caps in the mayor’s race. And Perata appears to now have exceeded the city’s spending limit of $379,000 for mayoral candidates with a wave of recent cable TV ads. Kaplan noted that Perata and the Coalition for a Safer California have effectively turned Oakland’s campaign finance law on its head. The law was written in the 1990s to allow a candidate to exceed the expenditure cap if some group spends large sums attacking that candidate. But a loophole in the law also lets Perata benefit from a group that supports him — Coalition for a Safer California — by allowing him to overspend if it overspends, too. Coalition for a Safer California is run by Perata’s longtime friend, Paul Kinney, and is primarily funded by Perata’s primary employer, the state prison guard’s union, thereby also raising questions as to whether Perata has been coordinating with the group in violation of state and local laws. Kaplan called Perata and the group’s actions a “new low” in Oakland politics. She noted that Perata had promised early on to run an ethical campaign. [More] Return to top

 

 

Misleading Headline Alert! Note: The headline in the Oakland Tribune story below reads that the spending cap has been lifted in the Oakland mayoral race. The headline is wrong. In fact, as the story indicates, as of the date the story was written, one of the triggering mechanisms to lift the spending cap has possibly occurred. However, as of the date of this story, Oakland election officials had not yet declared the spending cap lifted. Spending Cap Lifted In Oakland Mayoral Race By Cecily Burt Oakland Tribune September 22, 2010 OAKLAND -- If it wasn't clear before, the gloves -- and caps on campaign spending -- are off in the race for Oakland mayor. That's if one wants to rely on the contents of a letter. The Coalition for a Safer California, an independent expenditure committee run by candidate Don Perata's longtime associate Paul Kinney, claims in a letter sent to the Oakland Public Ethics Commission that it has spent at least $95,000 on the mayor's race. According to Oakland's elections code, once an independent committee spends more than the ceiling for the mayor's race, in this case $95,000, the candidates who previously agreed to abide by voluntary spending limits of $379,000 are no longer held to that limit. But is the letter proof enough to take that risk? The coalition has until Oct. 5 to file pre-election statements with the Oakland City Clerk's office. That filing will list the independent expenditures made in local races. If it turns out that the coalition didn't spend the funds, but a candidate went ahead and blew through the voluntary spending limit, Oakland elections code states that the candidate could be subject to fines and penalties. [More] Return to top

 

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Has Perata Already Broken The Spending Cap? By Robert Gammon East Bay Express September 22, 2010 Ex-State Senator Don Perata launched TV ads over the weekend in his quest to become Oakland’s next mayor, raising questions as to whether he has violated the city’s campaign spending limit. As reported by numerous media outlets, Perata was close to reaching Oakland’s $379,000 expenditure limit for mayoral campaigns before his ads went on cable television. One of Perata’s ads ran during the San Francisco 49ers game Monday night on ESPN. Perata may have decided to launch the TV ad campaign and exceed the city’s cap because a Sacramento political group, Coalition for a Safer California, declared late last week that it had gone over Oakland’s spending threshold for independent committees — a move that could lift all spending caps in the mayor’s race. Perata's campaign manager Larry Tramutola did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment for this story. At the same time, it’s unclear whether the declaration by the Sacramento group is sufficient to lift the caps or if the Oakland Public Ethics Commission or the Oakland City Attorney’s Office must make that determination. Both city agencies said earlier today that they are looking into the matter. It’s a novel issue, because no group or candidate has ever exceeded the city’s spending limits before. Councilwoman Jean Quan, who is also running for mayor, plans to call on the Ethics Commission tonight to examine expenditures made by Coalition for a Safer California to determine whether the group really has exceeded Oakland’s cap. [More] Return to top

 

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Spending Cap Lifted In Oakland Mayor’s Race? By Robert Gammon East Bay Express September 22, 2010 Coalition for a Safer California, a Sacramento political group with close ties to ex-state Senator Don Perata, is declaring that it has exceeded Oakland’s $95,000 spending cap for independent committees, thereby possibly lifting the cap for all other candidates and committees in the campaign. The move could be pivotal in the mayor’s race because of Perata’s prodigious fund-raising abilities and because he is close to reaching the city’s $379,000 spending limit for mayoral candidates even though the election is still six weeks away. Both Councilwoman Jean Quan, who is also running for mayor, and Dan Purnell, executive director of Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission, said today that they have seen notification from the Perata-linked group, saying that it had exceeded the $95,000 threshold. But Quan said in a statement that she plans to call on the Ethics Commission tonight to not lift the spending caps in the mayor's race until it has determined whether the Coalition for a Safer California actually had spent that much money. As the Express reported last week, Paul Kinney, head of the Perata-linked group, said that it had spent at least $70,000 on fund-raising and his salary in connection with the Oakland mayor’s race. However, according to the documents filed by the group with the Secretary of State’s Office, the group had not reported making any independent expenditures in the race through June 30. The group launched two hit-piece mailers earlier this year against Quan and Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan, who is also running for mayor, but Kinney said last week that his group does not consider those ads to be related to the mayoral campaign. As a result, it’s unclear whether the group actually has exceeded Oakland’s spending limit. [More] Return to top

 

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Oakland Mayor’s Race Cap Is $95,000 for ‘Independent Committees’ By Robert Gammon East Bay Express September 16, 2010 The Oakland City Clerk’s Office has set the spending cap in the Oakland mayor’s race at $95,000 for so-called “independent” committees. The clerk’s office notified candidates yesterday about the spending limit. The cap became news earlier this week when the Express reported that a Sacramento group with close ties to ex-state Senator Don Perata revealed that it had exceeded the spending limit, thereby allowing all candidates, including Perata, to spend as much as they wanted on the mayor’s race. The Perata-linked group, Coalition for a Safer California, which has launched attacks ads against his competitors, Councilwomen Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, later had to rescind its declaration when it discovered that the cap was not $70,000 as it had thought. The cap was established in 1998 at $70,000, but has grown to $95,000 because of inflation, the clerk’s office said. However, the Perata-linked group has indicated that it nonetheless plans to exceed the $95,000 cap before the election, thereby allowing the ex-senator to spend as much as he wants to win the mayor's office. In a follow-up letter to the Oakland City Attorney’s Office and the city’s Public Ethics Commission, Paul Kinney of the Coalition for a Safer California described his earlier declaration about exceeding the cap as “premature,” implying that the group plans to go over it at a later date. Kinney also said in the letter that he will alert both city agencies “should we cross the line” — a reference to the $95,000 limit. [More] Return to top

 

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Don Perata To Buy Oakland Mayor's Race? Friends of the ex-senator have found a legal loophole that could allow him to greatly exceed the city's campaign spending cap. By Robert Gammon East Bay Express September 15, 2010 Don Perata and his political allies in Sacramento may have found a legal loophole that could let the former state senator spend as much money as he wants on the Oakland mayoral election. Normally, Oakland mayoral candidates are prohibited by law from violating the city's expenditure cap, which currently is about $379,000. However, actions taken by a shadowy political group in Sacramento with close ties to Perata could eventually allow him to spend far more than $379,000 without worry of breaking the law. Last weekend, the Perata-linked group, Coalition for a Safer California sent a letter to the Oakland City Attorney's Office and the Oakland Public Ethics Commission stating that it had exceeded the city's cap on expenditures for so-called "independent expenditure committees." The letter also claimed that because the coalition had overspent, Perata and every other candidate were now free to overspend too without fear of penalty. Typically, mayoral candidates don't violate locally imposed campaign spending caps because doing so generates bad press and it's expensive. Under Oakland law, candidates can face fines triple the amount they overspend. So if Perata were to exceed the cap by $50,000, he could face a $150,000 fine. In interviews, Dan Purnell, executive director of Oakland's Public Ethics Commission, and Mark Morodomi, a lead attorney for the Oakland City Attorney's Office, said that the Coalition for a Safer California was correct. If the group spent more than the city's cap for independent committees, about $90,000, then Oakland's campaign finance law allows all other committees, along with the individual campaigns themselves, to spend as much money as they want. Purnell called the loophole a "crude" measure that was meant to help candidates who have been unfairly attacked by soft-money groups. But the loophole also helps a candidate like Perata, who benefits when a committee that supports him also overspends on attack ads against his competitors. [More] Return to top

 

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Perata May Benefit From Oakland Spending Rule By Matthai Kuruvila San Francisco Chronicle September 15, 2010 A Sacramento campaign committee is poised to break Oakland's mayoral campaign finance limits, an action that critics say would benefit only one candidate in this race: Don Perata. Mayoral candidates had agreed to a spending limit of $379,000 total in exchange for raising the per-person contribution from $100 to $700. However, under city rules, if an independent expenditure committee spends roughly $90,000 in the mayoral race, the limits are lifted and candidates can spend as much as they want. This week, the city attorney's office and the city public ethics commission received a letter from an independent expenditure committee called the Coalition for a Safer California, which stated that it intended to spend enough in the Oakland mayoral race to trigger the elimination of expenditure limits. The committee receives much of its funding from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which has paid Perata $369,000 as a consultant over the past two years. The former state Senate president has handily beat his rivals in fundraising thus far. As of June 30, however, he had spent 85 percent of the $379,000 limit. He has already raised $416,000 and is raising more. [More] Return to top

 

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Perata and Quan Swap Jabs Oakland mayoral candidates Jean Quan (center) and Arnold Fields (right) at City Hall press conference By John Grennan Oakbook September 14, 2010 Six mayoral candidates, led by City Council member Jean Quan, raised questions at a City Hall press conference Tuesday afternoon about whether groups supporting Don Perata’s mayoral bid opened a loophole in Oakland’s spending limits, which would release Perata from a pledge to only spend $379,000 in his campaign. The Perata camp fired back, saying it’s following all campaign laws and that Quan’s campaign spending merits closer scrutiny. “Don Perata is lining up big outside interests to do outside spending on his behalf,” Quan said, citing a Sept. 13 East Bay Express article. Quan said Perata’s relationship with the state’s prison guards union, which has spent money on mailings criticizing Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, was giving him an unfair advantage in the election. “It’s a clear violation, a spit-in-your-face ignoring of the campaign limits that the citizens of Oakland have voted for,” Quan said. [More] Return to top

 

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Oakland Mayoral Candidates Protest Perata Spending The Oakland mayoral candidates line up and reaffirm their commitment to campaign spending limits. Pictured left to right: Greg Harland, Jean Quan, Arnie Fields, Larry Lionel Young, Jr., Macleay spokesman Orlando Johnson, and Don Macleay. By Evan Wagstaff Oakland North September 15, 2010 Five of the ten candidates for Oakland mayor stood on the steps of Oakland City Hall Tuesday afternoon to reaffirm their commitment to campaign expenditure limits while slamming fellow candidate Don Perata, accusing him of attempting to raise the spending ceiling agreed upon by all candidates. Candidates Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Arnie Fields, Larry Lionel “LL” Young, Jr., Don Macleay, plus a surrogate representing Rebecca Kaplan, came together to express their intent to continue to limit their campaign expenditures to the $379,000 per candidate outlined in the Oakland Campaign Reform Act (OCRA). The stated purpose of the act is to ensure equal opportunity in the Oakland elective process, to reduce the sway of large contributors, and to allow candidates to spend less time fundraising and more time campaigning. Candidate Joe Tuman, though not present, also reaffirmed his support for the spending limits via a press release, writing he would “like to see all candidates abide by these rules.” In a race with 10 competing candidates, early spending can make a sizable difference at the ballot box. Quan alleged that Perata has made at least three attempts to legally justify surpassing the spending ceiling, and said she believes he will eventually do so. “We have no doubt [Perata] will find a way to violate the campaign limits,” Quan said. “Don Perata, the one person who could actually raise $1 million, gets to spend as much as he wants to.” Perata first tried to raise the expenditure cap in June, said Sue Piper, policy analyst for Jean Quan. Due to the implementation of ranked choice voting, Perata argued, a primary campaign and a general election had been consolidated and thus deserved an elevated spending limit. His second attempt, Piper said, came in the form of letters to the Alameda County registrar of voters, voicing his opinion that the city of Oakland wasn’t ready for ranked choice voting and should delay its introduction. According to the Quan campaign, his third and most recent attempt is to utilize a legal loophole in the finance law that would allow him to spend more than $379,000. [More] Return to top

 

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Opponents Say Don Perata Trying To Buy Oakland Mayor's Seat By Cecily Burt Oakland Tribune September 14, 2010 OAKLAND -- Don Perata's opponents gathered outside City Hall on Tuesday and alleged that the former state Senate leader is using his well-heeled friends to buy the Oakland mayoral race ahead of the November election. Jean Quan, Greg Harland, Arnie Fields, Larry Lionel Young, Jr., Don Macleay and a representative for Rebecca Kaplan said that Perata's close ties to a Sacramento-based independent expenditure committee prove that their opponent is attempting to circumvent the voluntary campaign spending limits set for the November election. The group made the accusations even though Perata's campaign has not exceeded the voluntary expenditure limit of $379,000 set for the November election. However, a loophole in Oakland's Campaign Reform Act states that the candidate spending limits may be lifted if an independent expenditure committee exceeds the spending thresholds set for the race. And in this case, that is exactly what has happened. The Coalition for a Safer California, an independent expenditure committee that has close ties to Perata, distributed a letter Friday stating that it had exceeded the $70,000 threshold set for committee spending for the mayor's race. The coalition has received a $100,000 donation from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which has paid the former state senator $308,894 as a political consultant, as well as several other donations from other close Perata associates. [More] Return to top

 

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Breaking News: Perata To Buy Mayoral Election? By Robert Gammon East Bay Express September 13, 2010 Don Perata and his political allies in Sacramento may have found a legal loophole that will let the former state senator spend as much money as he wants on the Oakland mayoral election. Normally, Oakland mayoral candidates are prohibited by law from violating the city’s expenditure cap on elections, which currently is about $379,000. However, actions taken by a shadowy political group in Sacramento with close ties to Perata may allow him to spend far more than $379,000 without worry of breaking the law. In recent days, the group, Coalition for a Safer California, which strongly supports Perata, is run by his friends, and is funded by his employer, sent letters to mayoral campaigns in Oakland, saying it has exceeded the city’s cap on expenditures for so-called “independent expenditure committees.” That cap is currently about $90,000, according to Dan Purnell, executive director of Oakland’s Public Ethics Commission. Councilwoman Jean Quan, who is one of Perata’s main competitors, received one of the letters. It was sent by Paul Kinney, who runs Coalition for a Safer California and is a longtime Sacramento political consultant with close ties to the ex-senator. The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Express, states that because Kinney’s group allegedly went over the city’s cap on expenditures for independent committees, then Perata and every other mayoral campaign can now spend more than the city’s $379,000 cap without fear of penalty. Typically, mayoral candidates don’t violate the cap because doing so generates bad press, and it’s expensive. Under city law, candidates can face fines that are triple the amount they overspend. So if Perata were to spend $50,000 more than the cap, he would face a $150,000 fine. But the ex-senator may now be able to overspend by hundreds of thousands of dollars without fear of fines. The issue is key for him, because as the Express reported last month, Perata had already spent more than $320,000 on his mayoral campaign by June 30, leaving him with virtually no money for the final stages of the race. Now, he may have no such worries. Indeed, his lavish early spending on expensive consultants indicates that he may have been counting on his friends and the legal loophole all along. [More] Return to top

 

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Perata Stays On Prison Guards Payroll By Robert Gammon East Bay Express August 3, 2010 Ex-state Senator Don Perata apparently does not believe that his close association with the California prison guards’ union will harm his chances with progressive Oakland voters in this year’s mayoral race. According to newly filed campaign finance reports, the powerful prison guards' union paid Perata another $60,000 from April through June of this year. Perata has now pocketed nearly $409,000 from the prison guards' union since being termed out of the Senate in January 2009. [More] Return to top

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In Oakland, Perata Supporters Tied To Mailers On Police Cuts By Kelly Rayburn Oakland Tribune June 29, 2010 OAKLAND — A group of organizations and individuals with long-standing ties to mayoral candidate and former state Sen. Don Perata are among those behind mailers attacking four City Council members after the council voted Thursday to lay off 80 police officers, records show. The pieces hit mailboxes late last week and Monday after the council's vote on a 2010-11 budget plan and in the middle of negotiations between the city and the Oakland Police Officers Association aimed at securing concessions from the union and possibly saving jobs. One mailer shows a police officer standing in an unemployment line above the words, "Is this the future of Oakland?" Residents also received a letter from Gary Delagnes, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association, comparing Oakland's police staffing level unfavorably to San Francisco's. Both were paid for by the Sacramento-based Coalition for a Safer California. The group singled out council members Jean Quan, Pat Kernighan, Rebecca Kaplan and Desley Brooks — even though Kaplan and Brooks voted against the budget. City Council President Jane Brunner and Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente, who voted for and played a key role in crafting the proposal, were not mentioned in either piece, however. [More] Return to top

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Perata Pockets Nearly $50,000 More From Prison Guards By Robert Gammon East Bay Express June 17, 2010 Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata continues to collect lucrative fees as a “campaign consultant” from the state’s powerful prison guard’s union, even though the union has mounted no political campaigns. The ex-state senator pocketed $48,893 in the past few months, according to the latest campaign finance filings, raising the total he has banked from the California Correctional Peace Officers’ Association’s Issues Committee to nearly $90,000 in the first five months of this year. Perata went on the prison guard’s union payroll immediately after being termed out from the state senate in late 2008. In 2009, the union paid him $260,000 as a “campaign consultant.” But it’s unclear exactly what Perata’s company, Perata Consulting, which includes his son, Nick Perata, has done to earn nearly $350,000 in the past seventeen months because the union has launched no political campaigns since it hired him. [More] Return to top

 

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