All of Orange County's major congressional campaigns recently filed mandatory financial disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission in Washington, D.C. and there are interesting nuggets of information about the candidates and the notable interests that support them.
For example: Which OC candidates got money from Newport Coast horror writer Dean Koontz or controversial Pittsburgh publishing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife?
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Received contributions from horror writer Dean Koontz, Pittsburg
publishing billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife and legendary conservative
fundraiser Richard Viguerie.
Watergate scandal dirty tricks operative Donald Segretti, conservative
activist Ken Khachigian and Newport Beach energy executive Buck Johns
contributed.
Took $3,500 from Poker Players Alliance and $41,000 from insurance
industry special interest political action committees (PACS).
Total Contributions: $41,565
Cash on Hand: $228,241
Notable:
Diverted 28 percent of contributions to his own bank account in the name of his wife for
alleged campaign work, and is taking money from a drone company
executive.
Ron Varasteh (Democrat)
Total Contributions: $6,144
Cash on Hand: -$1,950
Notable: Democratic consultant Melahat Rafiei was one of just four reportable contributions.
Received contributions from Laguna Beach resident Virginia Ueberroth,
wife of former Major League Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth; and an
illegal $500 from a prohibited corporate source, Villa Park Farms.
Received contributions from former state Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore
Sheila Kuehl as well as the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and the
Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians.
Total Contributions: $179,039
Cash on Hand: $1,134,386
Notable:
Received contributions from former Tonight Show with Jay Leno monologue
writer Michael Morse and Hollywood producer Jonathan King (Dreamgirls,
Studio 54 etc).
Jerry Hayden (Republican)
Total Contributions: $48,440
Cash on Hand: $27,298
Notable:
Received no reportable contributions from anyone in the congressional
district; most contributions came from Laguna Beach and Newport Beach,
or out of state.
The AFL-CIO, Comcast Corporate PAC, Yahoo! Inc. PAC, Time Warner Inc.
PAC, Verizon Communications Inc. PAC, Home Depot Inc. PAC, SeaWorld
Parks PAC and American Federation of Teachers contributed.
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CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.
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