Key Todd Gloria backer Gil Cabrera gets hand slapped

Getting Gil’s goat

A political committee run by the chair of the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority Gil Cabrera, which emailed a hit piece attacking ex-Assembly Democrat Lori Saldana last year during her bid to unseat city council incumbent Jen Campbell, has been sent a warning letter by the California Fair Political Practices Commission, calling out Cabrera for a lapse in disclosure. “Your actions violated the [California Political Reform Act],” because “the email failed to include ‘committee major funding from’ with the names of the top contributors to the committee,” says the missive to Cabrera and his New San Diego committee, dated January 20, from FPPC enforcement honcho Angela J. Brereton.

The letter notes that influential Democrat Cabrera, a key backer of San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, got off with the lightest possible outcome: simply being told not to do it again. “The Enforcement Division has decided to close this case with a warning letter rather than a fine. First, you do not have a violation of these advertisement disclosure provisions within the past five years. Second, the public harm is minimal because the disclaimers included in the mass email clearly identified the committee, the top contributors were properly disclosed on the committee’s campaign statements, and no other disclaimers were missing or incorrect.”

But the level of harm done by Cabrera’s transgression of not telling email recipients who paid for the missive is in the eye of the beholder. During the campaign, Saldana partisans accused Cabrera of ethics violations, noting in a May 24 letter to the Airport Authority that Craig Benedetto and Ben Haddad, lobbyists associated with the firm of California Strategies, had each kicked in $1250 to New San Diego, said the complaint reported by the OB Rag in a May 31 post. The complaint also named Rachel Laing, once a lobbyist and now an aide to Gloria, as a $500 donor to New San Diego.

Other influential donors to New San Diego, as noted here February 8, included wealthy San Diego County Water Authority chairman and Del Mar-based political money player Mel Katz, who came up with $5000 on December 16, 2021, and utility giant Sempra Energy, kicking in $2500 on December 20, 2021, per a January 22, 2022, company disclosure filing with the California Secretary of State, as reported here last May 18. Sempra’s semi-annual disclosure dated July 27 of last year showed its contribution to New San Diego as being reversed on May 25. New San Diego’s most recent disclosure report, filed January 31 of this year and covering the second half of 2022, reveals contributions from the Greater San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce PAC ($40,000, October 25, 2022), the Building Industry Association of San Diego PAC ($10,000, November 2, 2022), San Diego County Building and Construction Trades PAC ($5000, October 25), and E-W Services of Pasadena ($5000, December 19).

A February 4, 2022, filing with the state Secretary of State’s office shows E-W Services shares an address with East West Bank, whose chairman Dominic Ng says on the company website: “With a diverse base of consumer, small business, and commercial customers, we have prioritized the diversification of our $64 billion balance sheet, including loans and deposits to many sectors to reduce any concentration risks. We have no exposure to crypto.” According to a March 28 post by LAist.com, longtime Republican Ng “generously supported [Joe] Biden’s presidential bid. And when the Biden administration came calling last year to ask him to advise U.S. officials for the Asia-Pacific Economic forum, Ng said yes.” Ng calls questions of disloyalty raised by a group of conservative House Republicans , who claim he has ties to Chinese Communists, “baseless,” per LAist’s account.

The American Banker reported on February 17 that the charges were made in a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray from the House members. “The Republican letter, which along with [Rep. Lance] Gooden, was signed by Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, Lauren Boebert of Coloradeo, Ben Cline of Virginia, Doug LaMalfa of California, and Keith Self of Texas...alleges that Ng has worked for two Chinese intelligence operations front groups.”

Big stores, big money

Nathan Fletcher — the Democratic County supervisor who announced on March 26 he was quitting his race for state Senate on Sunday to go into rehab for alcohol abuse, PTSD, and trauma treatment and was hit March 29 with a sexual harassment suit, causing him to admit he had two-timed his wife, ex-Assembly Democrat Lorena Gonzalez — collected $9000 from supermarket takeover billionaire Ron Buckle on March 27. So says a March 28 disclosure filing by Fletcher’s campaign.

Fletcher subsequently announcd he is stepping down as supervisor on May 15. Meanwhile, termed-out Democratic Senator Toni Atkins, whose seat Fletcher was seeking, was out raising cash for her 2026 campaign to become Lt. Governor. Filings show that she got $10,900 from Faculty for our University’s Future, a committee sponsored by the California Faculty Association, on March 27. The same day, The Home Depot PAC came up with $5000. According to an Advocacy and Political Activity Report for the fiscal year 2022 posted on the company’s website, “The Home Depot generally does not make contributions from corporate funds to political campaigns, super political action committees or political parties, but is committed to disclosing such contributions if they are made.” The statement goes on to say, “We use several business-focused criteria and our core values to make decisions that will allow us to have a seat at the table to engage, both on the issues on which we align and those on which we disagree, to support our business, associates, and communities.”

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

The Reader offers $25 for news tips published in this column. Call our voice mail at 619-235-3000, ext. 440, or sandiegoreader.com/staff/matt-potter/contact/.