Advertisement hits La Mirada, mailed from Fort Worth Texas with a fake Campaign ID number.
By Brian Hews
A mysterious and questionable two-sided “political hit piece” was mailed to La Mirada residents this week slamming District 2 City Council candidate Pauline Deal.
Deal’s sole competitor is current councilman Andrew Serega.
Hews Media Group-Community News sent a message to Serega for comment but he had not responded as of press time.
Campaign spending laws are very strict in California, anybody wanting to spend money to support candidates must register with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) and obtain a campaign identification number so the money spent supporting the candidate can be tracked.
But the mailer sent out had an obviously fake FPPC campaign ID of 1234567, which is a violation of the Political Reform Act and also mail fraud statutes.
In addition, the mailer originated from zip code 76161, which indicates the first class paid hit piece was mailed from Fort Worth, Texas to residents in La Mirada.
Postal identification showing 76161 mailed from Fort Worth, Texas.
Fort Worth is 1,400 miles from La Mirada.
The campaign committee’s name was Residents for a Better La Mirada, with a PO Box number of 1055 located in La Mirada.
A search on the Secretary of State’s website does show a campaign committee called Residents for a Better La Mirada with the FPPC ID number of 1394249.
HMG-CN called the 562 number listed as the campaign committee filer’s phone number.
A man with an accent answered and yelled, “I don’t have any comment” and hung up.
Residents are telling HMG-CN that District 1 candidate John Lewis was also the victim of a political hit piece.
HMG-CN could not obtain the piece before press time.