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The Legislature passed late Sunday a bill that would banish lobbyists convicted of corruption from the Capitol for 12 years. It now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for his signature, three weeks before Dana Williamson, his former chief of staff and a powerful lobbyist, is set to be sentenced after she pled guilty to fraud and lying to the FBI last month.
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The Assembly voted 60-0 to pass Assembly Bill 2592, which requires lobbyists to undergo ethics training and certify with the California Secretary of State when registering as a lobbyist that they have not been convicted of public corruption within the last 12 years.
The bill would void any existing lobbyists’ certification immediately if they are convicted of corruption and require them to withdraw their lobbying registration with the Fair Political Practices Commission immediately after conviction.
Assemblymembers Dawn Addis, D-Morro Bay and Blanca Pacheco, D-Downey, co-sponsored the bill. Addis also sponsored AB 2691, which would ban lobbyists convicted of certain kinds of sexual assault or human trafficking from the Capitol, and also ban people convicted of those crimes from running for public office.
Addis said she introduced both bills to hold lobbyists to a “higher standard,” noting it’s nearly been a decade since cultural movements like We Said Enough and MeToo exposed rampant sexual assault and harassment in the Legislature.
“It’s very important that anyone inside the Capitol or outside the Capitol working in the Capitol is held to these high levels of ethics standards,” Addis said. “I think it’s just particularly salient with what we’re seeing in the national news with Epstein, with the Epstein class, and then with all of those who are in Congress right now or running for Congress right now.”
Earlier this year, former Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Dublin, was leading the field of Democratic governor candidates before five women came forward and accused him of sexual misconduct. Within days, he resigned from office and suspended his campaign.
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The Senate previously amended AB 2591 to absorb parts of a similar bill from Assemblymember David Tangipa, R-Clovis, that he introduced in January after the FBI arrested Williamson, lobbyist Greg Campbell and former Deputy Attorney General Sean McCluskie last year in a public corruption scheme.
Tangipa voted in favor of AB 2591. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” he said.
Federal authorities accused McCluskie of masterminding a plot to siphon $225,000 from his boss, former Attorney General Xavier Becerra, to pad his salary after he took a pay cut to follow Becerra to Washington, D.C., when the two served in the Biden administration.
Campbell and Williamson both helped McCluskie obtain the money by disguising the payments to McCluskie’s bank account and claiming they were remittances for McCluskie’s wife, who they claimed was working for Williamson’s consulting firm.
Campbell and McCluskie both previously pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing in October. Williamson is set to be sentenced on Sept. 17.
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