SENATE RACE PANEL FINED CASH EXCEEDED CAMPAIGN LIMIT.

Byline: CHARLES F. BOSTWICK Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- State Sen. George Runner's campaign committee was fined $5,500 and ordered to return $6,400 to a Lancaster medical firm and a car dealer for accepting two campaign contributions beyond the monetary limit and for other violations of state election law.

Runner's campaign committee wrongly accepted for his 2004 Senate race a total of $4,200 each from High Desert Medical Group and Sierra Toyota, beyond the legal limit of $3,200 for individual contributions set by the state Political Reform Act, the California Fair Political Practices Commission said in a decision Wednesday.

``The conduct of accepting a contribution in excess of the applicable contribution limit is a serious violation of the act as it harms the integrity of the election process,'' an FPPC report said.

The FPPC said Runner's campaign also violated state election law by not listing on campaign reports the occupations and employers of five small contributors -- including Santa Clarita Councilman Cameron Smyth -- who donated a total of $2,175, and by putting contributions into a campaign bank account originally established for Runner's Assembly campaigns, rather than creating a new one for his Senate campaign.

In addition, Runner's Assembly campaign committee has agreed to a $2,500 fine and has made a $5,000 contribution to Grace Resource Center, a Lancaster charity food bank, in a second settlement expected to go before the the commission in September.

The maximum fine for the three violations could have been $15,000, but FPPC officials said cooperation by Runner and his campaign treasurer, Rita Burleson, and other factors justified the reduction.

Burleson said the violations were all related to the failure to create a new bank account when Runner started his Senate campaign, and that the campaign on its own had discovered the problem and made changes to comply with election law.

Burleson said she discovered the new bank account was necessary after attending a seminar explaining the election changes mandated by Proposition 34, passed by voters in 2000, and immediately contacted FPPC and began correcting the problem.

``We already made the intent from day one to correct all the errors,'' Burleson said.

Runner's Senate campaign contributions and spending from January 2001 to December 2004 were examined in a random audit by the state Franchise Tax Board. The, campaign committee took in more than $431,000 in contributions and spent more than $435,000, the audit found.

FPPC officials said they had earlier told Burleson she could change the name of Runner's Assembly committee but had not told her the Assembly committee couldn't be converted into a Senate campaign committee.

After her discovery that a new Senate campaign committee and separate bank account were necessary, Burleson said she had to transfer data, and during the process unknowingly lost computer data information on four of the small contributors.

Separating out the Assembly and Senate campaign money also resulting in reclassifying $1,000 contributions in 2001 from High Desert Medical and Sierra Toyota as Senate rather than Assembly race contributions, she said. Added to 2003 contributions of $3,200, that put them over the limit.

In addition, money transferred from the Assembly account into the new Senate account ended up being categorized as surplus funds, which must go to charity, she said.

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