California‘s political watchdog moved forward Thursday with a controversial change to a campaign finance rule that will help a Democratic state senator facing a recall.
The Fair Political Practices Commission voted 3-1 Thursday to adopt the change, which was requested by a lawyer for Senate Democrats.
The commission has long had a rule that politicians can only contribute $4,400 from their campaign accounts to help lawmakers facing a recall. Commissioners decided to lift the restriction as Democratic Sen. Josh Newman of Fullerton fights a potential recall.
That matches the rule for individual contributors to recall campaigns, who can give without limit.
Two Republican commissioners and one Democrat agreed with Democratic lawyer Richard Rios, who said the longstanding guidance was wrong.