Flap said the Democrat Party campaign transfer contributions would come and here they are. Timm Herdt has a piece up today noting the Democrat “launder job” from the Santa Barbara Denmocrat Central Committee.

Campaign finance reports show she received $55,000 Friday from the Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee. That comes on the heels of a $156,000 contribution from the state Democratic Party the previous Friday.

Trying to determine where the Santa Barbara County Committee raised its money, I checked the secretary of state’s campaign finance site and found no electronic reports had been filed for the last several years. The explanation, Chairman Daraka Larimore-Hall, told me today is that all of the money was received after June 30. Unlike candidates, who have to report contributions of $1,000 or more within 24 hours, political committees do not have to file another report until Oct. 6.

Larimore-Hall said the money came from “several sources,” including Democratic state senators who are supporting Jackson’s campaign.

So, what is wrong with this picture?

Hannah-Beth Jackson

Voters in the California State Senate District 19 have no idea where her campaign contributions are coming from in direct contrast to the intent of California political campaign contribution disclosure laws. The Republicans do this too but the California Democrat Party has made this “hide the ball” tactic an art form.

The informed and motivated voter would have to comb through hundreds of campaign reports filed either with the California Secretary of State or local county governments in order to find the actual source of the campaign cash. Can this be accomplished timely – like in time for the election?

Doubtful

When Hannah-Beth Jackson criticised her opponent former California Assemblyman Tony Strickland this summer for some Tobacco company contributions, Flap pointed out that Hannah-Beth Jackson was blowing smoke. Of course, her hypocrisy abounds since previous contributors to her campaign had accepted the same tobacco company contributions.

And, Flap showed that Hanna-Beth Jackson has indeed received INDIRECT tobacco company/industry contributions during this campaign cycle.

So, when she says that she ” I have not and will not solicit or accept contributions from tobacco companies” she doesn’t have to do so. The California Democrat Party,various National Democrat Party campaign committees and California Democrat Legislative leaders already have donated or loaned money to her campaign. This allows Jackson to demagogue the tobacco issue against Tony Strickland and to score cheap political points.

Let’s go over a brief history of how California Legislative campaigns are funded. Flap draws upon his experience as being a former member of the California Dental Association’s Council on Legislation and the local Santa Barbara-Ventura County Dental Society’s Cal-D-Pac representative (CAl-D-Pac) for the legislative process history.

The California Democrat Party for decades has used an ingenious system of party committee transfers to insulate their members from campaign reporting scrutiny and to deliver needed funds to those members/candidates who either ingratiate themselves (promise to vote for the leader for various leadership positions) and/or who are in tight races with the Republicans. The transfer mechanism constitute a type of “SLUSH FUND.”

For example, long-time Democrat Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, now the former Mayor of San Francisco as well, would collect money from all the special interests with business before the California Legislature, bundle all of the contributions and then dole them out to whoever was his friend. This has been repeated over and over again for the past decade with various legislative leaders even as term limits and campaign contribution reporting and limitation laws changed.

The reader asks who is funding Hannah-Beth Jackson’s campaign, then? Well, you can go here and look at the contribution report and break it down by industry. Another report will be due October 6th where all of the post June 30th contributions will show up. And, you can go to electiontrack.com and subscribe to Scott Lay’s service and obtain daily e-mail alerts on her contributions (the 24 hour reporting rule is in effect for major contributions, greater than $1,000).

Yet, the top industry contributor to Hannah-Beth Jackson’s campaign will remain Democrat Candidate Committees and various Democrat Party Committees.

So much for transparency in Hannah-Beth Jackson’s campaign.

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