Posted on 02/08/2004 10:18:28 PM PST by calcowgirl
SACRAMENTO - For almost a quarter century, the future of a 250-acre piece of property called Marblehead overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Orange County bedeviled developers, community activists and the California Coastal Commission, all of whom collectively rejected 10 proposals to build there.
But the 11th attempt proved a charm for its developers, MT No. I, LLC, a division of Lusk Development, which won the state coastal commission's go-ahead in April 2003 to build a residential and shopping complex where former President Nixon once hoped to build his presidential library.
Months later, Jim Johnson, the grateful CEO behind the project - who had contributed little to state politicians before - helped raise thousands of dollars for a political committee with close ties to Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, who's legally charged with appointing one-third of the Coastal Commission.
Now, more than two months after $72,000 in donations reported on the same day, no one connected to them either knows how they happened or wants to talk about them. Johnson, who led the fund-raising, died suddenly on Jan. 13, and other contributors say they gave at his request. Wesson, whose ties to the recipient committee include one of his top aides serving as a committee consultant, said he knows nothing about the Marblehead project or the fund-raiser that followed its approval.
But campaign finance analysts call the curious transaction a "textbook example" of how things work at the intersection of business and politics.
"The ordinariness of this as an example of what goes on all the time, is part of what's so corrupting about the political system we have," said Mark Petracca, a political science professor at the University of California, Irvine, and chairman of the city's planning commission.
Analysts say the flow of money from the developer to the Wesson-tied committee is part of a growing trend in state government everywhere, and raises questions about a new way that politicians ask for money and businesses can show appreciation for government actions. They say "independent expenditure committees," formed in the wake of California's 2000 campaign reform laws that limit politicians to $3,200 from most individual contributors per election, represent a legal route around the limits.
Californians United and similar committees are prime examples of a gaping hole in the campaign finance laws, analysts said, and are places where politicians can seek unlimited money from businesses and "ghost control" the money's destination without leaving footprints.
Jim Knox, executive director of California Common Cause, said companies like MT No. I would typically have one reason to raise money for an obscure committee like Californians United that lists only the name of its Sacramento treasurer, lobbyist and former legislator Bruce Young.
"Usually it's because somebody asked them to," Knox said. "Someone influential has asked them to."
"The real issue from a public policy perspective is, is it really payoff?" Petracca said. "Is it really quid pro quo? But there's virtually no way to prove that."
MT No. I's oceanfront development plan won Coastal Commission approval with a rare 12-0 vote, after the company downsized the project and spent three years and $640,000 lobbying the commission. Campaign funding reports show the same-day checks that followed the vote provided one-fourth of the cash that Californians United, a fund for Democratic causes and candidates, received in 2003.
In the last two years, Californians United has raised nearly $900,000 from a variety of contributors that lobby the Capitol, and in 2002 it helped elect three Southern California lawmakers close to Wesson, including Assemblyman Fabian Nunez, 37, a Los Angeles Democrat who will be sworn in Monday as the Assembly's 66th speaker.
The fund has also paid a Wesson staffer $2,000 for campaign consulting, and $8,250 to a professional fund-raiser who has raised money for two of Wesson's personal campaign committees. Its first president, Dr. William Burke of Los Angeles, is married to Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, Wesson's former boss in local politics - and Wesson also appointed William Burke to the Coastal Commission in 2002.
Wesson, whose term as Assembly speaker ends Monday, acknowledged he's helped raise money for some so-called "independent expenditure committees" such as Californians United, but said that's the limit of his involvement.
By law, elected officials can't directly control such committees.
"There have been independent expenditures that I've lent my name to so they could raise money and that's about it. I don't know how they spend the money other than these groups have historically supported Democratic candidates," Wesson said.
Meanwhile, the newly approved plan for an upscale shopping mall and 313 homes on a majestic site with ocean views, has yet to break ground, and coastal commission officials say they have not issued a final permit to begin construction.
Johnson, 70, helped raise the money for Californians United just weeks before his death, accounting for 13 checks reported on Nov. 24 from Southern California attorneys, engineers, contractors, home builders, environmental consultants and title companies, many with ties to MT No. I.
MT No. I contributed $20,000 of the total. But in the wake of Johnson's death, reasons for the fund-raiser and the money's destination are a mystery.
"I haven't the foggiest idea what to tell you. I have never heard of Californians United," said Nancy Lusk, who is replacing Johnson at the development company, and is the wife of its former chief, John D. Lusk. "I have asked my husband's son, Bill Lusk. He is co-chair of the board. He said he's never heard of this either."
Lusk said Johnson "pretty much operated on his own. He didn't tell us as far as what contributions he was making."
Longtime Johnson friend and business associate Don McCoy, who runs a Dana Point grading company and helped conduct Johnson's Jan. 28 memorial service, also contributed $20,000. McCoy said Johnson asked him to help, a routine practice among related businesses for political fund-raising.
"We're in the grading business," he said. "We give when we think there are people who are pro-development."
But asked about the committee that received his money, McCoy said, "I'm not that familiar with it."
Likewise, Mark Wooditch, co-owner of Irvine-based Wooditch Company Insurance Services, Inc., said he contributed $5,000 at Johnson's request, but knew "nothing" about the recipient, Californians United.
He said Johnson was one of the insurance firm's clients.
Three other contributors didn't return telephone calls from The Associated Press or respond to e-mail messages seeking comment.
At the Center for Public Integrity, senior fellow Larry Makinson said, "This is absolutely a textbook example of the way the system works for people who can write $20,000 checks. Half the time they don't even know the committee that's receiving the money. It makes no difference. It's an investment in good relations with the government and you can take that to the bank."
They forgot the 'convicted felon' part.
No, professor, it is the politicians who are corrupt.
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