FEC complaint alleges link between Pombo, McClintock

A California-based group and other local officials filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint Monday regarding the alleged ties between an ex-aide to Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) and state Sen. Tom McClintock (R).

McClintock and former Rep. Doug Ose (R-Calif.) are in a bitter primary battle to face off against Democrat Charlie Brown this fall for retiring Rep. John Doolittle’s (R-Calif.) seat.

{mosads}At issue is the role of Steve Ding — an ex-McClintock consultant and former chief of staff for Pombo — and The Partnership for America, a 501(c)4 advocacy group headed by Pombo.

McClatchy recently reported that Pombo’s group is organizing a $660,000 independent campaign in the 4th congressional district.

Under campaign finance laws, contributions to such organizations do not have to be disclosed, but they are barred from coordinating with political campaigns.

The FEC complaint states, “Tom McClintock, a candidate for the 4th congressional district in California, has chosen to disregard federal law and conspired with a shadowy third party to influence his upcoming primary election to be held on June 3, 2008.”

Filed by Cheryl Schmit, director of Stand Up for California, and several local officials, the FEC complaint alleges two weeks after he left the McClintock campaign, Ding was soliciting donors for the Partnership for America during an April 22 National Indian Gaming Association meeting.

“At the meeting, McClintock personally solicited campaign contributions for his campaign,” it states.

“Immediately after McClintock made his pitch to Indian Gaming Tribes, Steve Ding, a McClintock agent, solicited contributions to McClintock for Congress by encouraging contributors to fund a campaign effort through Partnership for America.”

Ding, a partner at Strategic Alliances International, said, “I never solicited funds for anything.”

He disputed claims that he was seeking donors for Pombo’s group: “I’m not involved in any way. If I was running an independent expenditure there would be a reason for a complaint.

“If Doug Ose spent as much time campaign as he does chasing rumors and filing FEC complaints, he might not be down 20 points in the polls,” Ding added.

Asked whether he was at the April 22 Indian gaming event, Ding acknowledged he saw McClintock there but emphatically denied doing any fundraising work.

“I saw Tom. I said, ‘Hello, senator.’ He said, ‘Hello, Steven’ and that was it,” he said. “There was no solicitation.
“I don’t work for The Partnership for America,” he said.

Ding added that he was hired as an outside vendor for the group about a year ago to do a poll about wilderness areas and recreation uses.

The Partnership for America did not comment for this article.

Schmit said in a statement, “Residents of this district should be outraged that Southern California gaming tribes are trying to buy this election in a manner that is neither ethical nor legal … [there] is no justification for this type of activity.”

Stan Devereaux, a spokesman for the McClintock campaign, dismissed the complaint as a political tactic.

“This is another attempt by the Ose campaign to distract the voters away from his liberal voting record,” he said. “The bottom line is that there is no coordination.”

This is not the first time that Ding has attracted headlines. According to reports in 2006, Ding spent $87,000 of taxpayer money commuting between his home in California to Washington between 2003 and 2005.