A rare and heated dispute has erupted between California’s campaign finance regulators and open-government groups that have accused the watchdog agency of pressuring them to rescind their support for legislation designed to show who is funding political ads.
Supporters of the bill criticized the state Fair Political Practices Commission for heavy-handed tactics that they said included pushing groups the commission has the power to investigate and fine to drop their support for the transparency bill.
“It’s really inappropriate for a regulator who has enormous power over organizations to call up those organizations over which they have power, and lobby them,” said Trent Lange, president of California Clean Money Campaign. “It’s just inherently intimidating to have your regulator call you and ask you to do something.”
Michele Sutter, co-founder of the group Money Out Voters In, called it “shocking behavior by the FPPC.”