Dow Jones Interactive

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL / CALIFORNIA
Citizens Group Brings Suit Over a Surfeit of Lawyers
By Ryan Tate

07/28/1999
The Wall Street Journal
CA3
(Copyright (c) 1999, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

For weeks, legislators have known that a panel established to review campaign laws is, itself, in violation of state law. The so-called McPherson Commission has four politically active lawyers among its 14 members, when the Government Code allows only three.

Now it looks like the commission may need all those lawyers after all.

After repeated complaints brought no action, California Common Cause, a citizens' advocacy group, filed suit against state officials earlier this month. Jim Knox, Common Cause's executive director, says the impact of the lawyer surplus is evident at commission meetings, which dwell on the needs of politicians and campaign managers. "Very little is focused on the public impact" of campaign rules, he says.

The suit, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, seeks to stop the commission from spending its $212,000 budget. The state attorney general has asked the court to dismiss the case.

Commission Chairman Steve Lucas sees the problem as a technicality. "If you went through all the commissions in state government, you'd find that many are not in compliance with their statutes," he says.

Meanwhile, a bill to allow five politically active lawyers on the panel awaits action in the Assembly, having passed the Senate in May.