The heat is on against State Senator Josh Newman (D-Fullerton), and the Democrats are scared because the effort is working.
Recently the Democrats passed a trailer bill that changes the timeline of a recall, pushing the election into next year. Now they want to change the rules again, by pressuring the state's campaign watchdog to reverse its stance on on contribution limits to benefit Josh Newman.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission adopted a regulation in 2002 that said state candidates are subject to contribution limits when they give money to a recall committee under the control of another state candidate.
The FPCC interpreted the law to mean that California politicians can't give Josh Newman more than $4,400 each to fight his recall.
But now all of the sudden Senate Democrats are arguing that the FPCC's interpretation is wrong, and say that they should be able to give unlimited sums of money.
The Legislature's lawyers studied the issue, and on June 27 Legislative Counsel Diane Boyer-Vine issued an opinion predicting that courts would uphold a reversal of the interpretation.
Jason Kinney, a spokesman for Senate Democrats, told the Sacramento Bee:
“Unlike the perpetrators of this fraudulent recall attempt, Senate Democrats are committed to properly interpreting and adhering to the law...Given the exigency of the issue, it seems logical and appropriate that the bipartisan FPPC would want to consider the matter quickly.”
That's a bunch of nonsense. The Democrats are afraid and they're doing whatever they can to change the rules to be in their favor. How slimy and gross is that?