The Sacramento Bee reports that a commissioner of California's political watchdog agency met secretly with a lawyer working for Senate Democrats while advocating for changes to the recall process that would benefit Senator Josh Newman and keep him in his seat.
Commissioner Brian Hatch, a Democrat and former lobbyist for the firefighters union, met in private, talked on the phone, and exchanged text messages with the lawyer as the Fair Political Practices Commission considered changing a longstanding legal interpretation of campaign finance law.
Senate Democrats want the FPCC to reverse its position on campaign contribution limits in a recall election because they want to protect Newman from being kicked out.
They're losing the fight, so they're changing the rules to benefit them. It's so corrupt.
If the FPCC approves the change next week, state candidates would be able to give as much money as they want to Newman. That means all of the Democrats will throw all of their money at him so that they can protect their supermajority.
This kind of meeting Brian Hatch had with Richard Rios, the attorney representing Senate Democrats, is unusual and was not disclosed like it should have been.
The Democrats are playing very dirty.
Click here to read about the conversations at the Sacramento Bee.