Peters fundraiser sponsors have checkered past

When political action committees for the real-estate business team up with resort developers, a lucrative fundraiser may be bound to ensue.

But next week's event for congressman Scott Peters at the Congressional Mews condo complex in a restored historic building at 27 D Street Southeast in Washington doesn’t come without controversy.

According to an invitation posted online by Sunlight Foundation's Political Party Time, admission fees range from $500 for personal admission to up to $1000 for a PAC, and $2500 to be known as a host.

Peters, a La Jolla Democrat, is being joined by a “special guest," New York congressman Joe Crowley, vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, the invitation to the April 14 event says.

Headlined hosts are Sandra Yartin "Sam" DePoy, an in-house lobbyist for the American Resort Development Association's Resort Owners' Coalition PAC, and Kirk Freeman, doing similar duties for REITPAC, a PAC sponsored by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts.

“I am a very traditional woman,” DePoy told an industry publication in February 2010.

“If I don’t have a fundraising dinner, then I cook a full meal every evening. So at the end of a long day at ARDA, my real job begins with dinner, homework, baths, books and bedtime. It is exhausting, but I honestly wouldn’t have it any other way.”

She continued, “It wasn’t until I met my husband, Marty, that I began to develop a better sense of who I was and what I was able to accomplish. I loved seeing myself through his eyes because he saw me very differently than I saw myself.”

Marty DePoy is also a longtime DC lobbyist, whose Bockorny Group has represented both the time-share and real-estate investment trust groups sponsoring next week’s Peters money-raiser.

The couple was written up in a May 2009 profile in Harper’s that featured their role in a fundraising bash for congressman Eric Cantor, noting that the Republican had “sponsored legislation to ease tax laws for real estate investment trusts.”

Concluded the story, “There's the usual chicken-and-egg question here — does Cantor's support for the real estate industry flow from his close connections with lobbyists and donors? Or does he enjoy the support of the real estate industry because he champions it? Most likely the answer is: both.”

Subsequently, in August 2010, the Federal Election Commission handed Sandra DePoy, acting as treasurer of the resort developers’ PAC, a $300,000 civil penalty for "for misstating financial activity, receiving prohibited corporate and foreign national contributions and improperly soliciting contributions," according to an FEC statement.

Among its violations, the FEC said, the PAC "had received prohibited corporate and foreign national contributions, misstated its financial activity on reports filed with the Commission between 2003 and 2008 and solicited contributions from timeshare owners through periodic billings without including required disclaimers."

In addition to the DePoy penalty, the political action committee "agreed to transfer $562,538.75 to its member homeowners’ associations and $34,509" to the resort owners' coalition.

"These amounts are equal to the stipulated amount of prohibited corporate and foreign national contributions received by the respondent from 2003 through 2007, less the $18,323 that the respondent already disgorged to the U.S. Treasury," says the government's release.

According to an account on the Open Secrets blog, the combined financial sanctions were "the largest penalty the FEC has handed out since 2007."

Consistently targeted by the GOP for reelection challenges, Peters in 2014 faced ex–San Diego city councilman Carl DeMaio in a rough-and-tumble battle that later came under scrutiny by Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Morain.

In addition to Washington events and another at a June 2015 Washington Nationals game, Peters has been staging events to round up funds in his home turf of La Jolla.

"Last week, we learned that one of the largest right-wing outside groups is spending $100,000 to attack my record," wrote Peters to a house party last September.

“That’s why I’m asking you to join me at a fundraiser hosted by Leigh Plesniak and Eric Korevaar on Saturday, September 26th. Join me for drinks and discussion about how we can keep supporting our great community.”