February 20, 2001

EXPOSES LARGE-SCALE CONTRIBUTIONS
WHICH MAY VIOLATE CITY ETHICS LAWS

Following a decision by the Los Angeles Ethics Commission to investigate the role of lobbyists and political consultants and their cozy relationship to city council members, a broad-based nonpartisan coalition of community organizations, independent political parties, religious leaders and political activists is held a press conference to expose the large number of contributions from lobbyists and special interests in the mayoral campaign. The press conference was held on Tuesday, February 20 at 9:15am in front of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission at 201 N. Main Street in the LA Mall, Space 2.

At the press conference, coalition founder Jim Mangia called for an Ethics Commission investigation of the contribution violations and outlined the amount of money received in the last three months from major corporations, lobbyists and law firms that represent businesses that have contracts before the city. More than 25% of all contributions collected by candidate Steve Soboroff, more than 20% collected by Mr. Hahn and over 15% collected by Antonio Villaraigosa were from these corporations and law firms. In the three month period between October 1, 2000 and December 31, 2001 they collected over $250,000 from these special interest sources.

The coalition demanded that candidates for Mayor agree to the spending and contribution limits laid out in the Los Angeles Municipal Code. They announced the formation of a citywide watchdog organization to monitor the contribution and spending activities of the mayoral candidates. Last week, candidate Steve Soboroff urged other mayoral candidates to exploit loopholes in the law and forgo campaign matching funds and spending limits.

"The hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from lobbyists and law firms representing clients that have business before the city to some of the leading candidates for mayor exposes the increasing corruption of our municipal elections process," stated Jim Mangia, the founder of the coalition and the former national secretary of the Reform Party. "We demand an investigation by the Ethics Commission to determine what laws have been broken by these conflicts of interest. Furthermore, the effort by Soboroff to bypass the city's matching funds and campaign finance laws is a blatant attempt to further corrupt the electoral process and coerce other mayoral candidates to do the same at a time when the Ethics Commission has seen fit to investigate widespread lobbyist and special interest contributions and influence in our city government."
The L.A. watchdog effort, known as the Coalition for Political Reform (CPR), has endorsements from Common Cause, former Secretary of State Tony Miller (author of Proposition 208), the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the Reform and Natural Law parties, Sara Amir, a leader of the Green Party, and a host of community-based organizations and religious and political leaders.

"We are demanding that the Ethics Commission hold hearings to investigate the frighteningly high amounts of money being poured into the mayoral campaign as well as the cozy relationship lobbyists have with city council members," said Jim Knox, Executive Director of Common Cause. "We need accountability and we need to expose the illegalities so we can stop the flow of special interest money which is all about buying influence in this election!"

Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association stated their support for the coalition effort, "The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association condemns the influence of special interest money in the Los Angeles mayoral campaign. Our members are simple homeowners - many of whom struggle just to keep their homes. We urge the candidates to reject efforts by narrowly focused special interest groups to exert undue influence on the outcome of this election and, instead, remember that the Mayor of this City - whoever that may be - has a duty to represent all the citizens; not just powerful organizations and interests."

Sara Amir of the Green Party stated, "The city's matching funds law is an important step towards reforming the way politics is done in this city. We know that the people are willing to pay a few dollars a year to underwrite their democratic process. People know that if they don't share the small cost of campaign expenses, they pay far more from failed savings and loans, utilities, and other public-interest concerns that are de-regulated by politicians who are prisoners of corporate campaign donations. Our democratic process is precious. We must save it from rolling corporate blackouts. We need campaign finance reform now."

COALITION FOR POLITICAL REFORM (CPR)
7985 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 22, Los Angeles, California 90046; 323-654-7409; Fax: 323-654-7446
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NEWS RELEASE Contact: Jim Mangia
February 20, 2001 323-654-7409

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