Campaigns feud over spending by committee opposing SMART’s sales tax renewal

State campaign watchdogs are reviewing a complaint filed by the committee supporting SMART’s sales tax renewal that alleges an opposition group violated campaign finance laws by not disclosing the source of its contributions before political advertisements began airing earlier this month.

The Yes on Measure I campaign submitted its sworn objection last week to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, requesting that the agency charged with enforcing election rules investigate the No on Measure I campaign, which is bankrolled by Molly Gallaher Flater, the 35-year-old daughter of prominent Sonoma County developer Bill Gallaher. Flater, who is chief operating officer of Windsor-based Gallaher Homes, has so far contributed almost $560,000 to the effort against Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit’s 30-year sales tax extension, according to opposition campaign consultant Matt Rexroad of Sacramento-based Meridian Pacific Inc.

The Jan. 15 complaint was filed by Dani Sheehan-Meyer, treasurer for the Stay Green, Keep SMART campaign committee, and cites several radio and cable TV ads against Measure I that started running Jan. 14. It asserts that any expenses for or against a ballot measure within 90 days of the March 3 election require filing campaign paperwork, including identifying within a day donations of more than $1,000. Neither were listed with the Secretary of State, nor on the elections websites for the counties of Sonoma or Marin, where the ballot measure is up for a vote, the complaint alleges.

“It’s not just not playing by the rules; it’s a clear violation of the rules,” said Novato Councilman Eric Lucan, who is co-chairman of the pro-SMART campaign. “We’re filing everything and are being transparent with the public. So I find it kind of ironic that they’re saying we are not transparent, and they’re not filing reports at all.”

The opposition group, which goes by the name NotSoSmart.org, disputes the campaign has violated any finance rules, noting that Flater was listed as its major donor in all of its political ads and on its website. The committee was also not subject to the county filing requirements before last week because her contributions and that of at least one other person above $1,000 were received prior to the campaign committee formalizing its specific purpose, Rexroad said in an emailed statement.

The group submitted initial paperwork to the Secretary of State in mid-November, but under a different title and as a general purpose committee, as opposed to one organized around a specific issue. According to a Secretary of State spokesman, the committee filed amended paperwork on Dec. 27, taking the name NotSoSmart.org but still as a general purpose group, and again on Jan. 15, designating itself as a No on Measure I campaign that would require donor filings with the elections offices in Sonoma or Marin counties.

The question of whether the opposition group was ever focused on an issue beyond Measure I would be central to any state inquiry, which could result in fines if opponents of the sales tax are found to have violated the law. A spokesman for the commission declined to wade into a pending review by its enforcement division, despite the pro-SMART campaign’s insistence of foul play.

“I can’t see how anybody can make an argument that this is not a primarily formed committee,” Lucan said. “You can’t just keep filing amendments and changing your committee name for whatever’s convenient.”

The Sonoma County elections office received paperwork for a $1,000 contribution on Tuesday and Kamari Marchbanks, the county’s senior elections specialist, said it would appear on its website within a day. Committee filings showing Flater’s contributions to the campaign have yet to be publicly recorded by either the Secretary of State, or with the offices in Sonoma or Marin counties, according to elections officials.

On Tuesday, Rexroad also provided a copy of a local committee filing imprinted with a Sonoma County Clerk stamp on Jan. 17. The document is signed by Mike Arnold, a Novato economist and longtime critic of SMART, who is listed as treasurer of the No on Measure I campaign.

Arnold, who also co-chaired campaigns against SMART in 2006 and 2008, said he was first approached “out of the blue” by Bill Gallaher in October to see if he was interested in becoming the committee’s technical adviser. He has since met with Gallaher three times, including last week when Arnold said he met Flater for the first time.

Arnold said each meeting with Gallaher revolved around opposition to SMART.

“It was all about SMART and Measure I,” Arnold said by phone Tuesday. “I’m the naysayer in chief of SMART. I’ve been making the same arguments about this train since 2006. They called me. I did not call them. I had never heard the name Gallaher.”

Rexroad also emailed copies of the campaign’s total contribution and spending records, which are due to the county elections office later this month. It shows Flater made three contributions on Jan. 7, totaling $559,183. Flater did not respond to an emailed request for an interview Tuesday, but said in a written statement last week that she was willing to spend up to $1 million to defeat SMART’s pursuit of the quarter-cent sales tax renewal.

The documents show spending totaling nearly $275,000 on television advertising, almost $117,000 with local radio stations and $63,750 in digital ads with Google and Facebook. The filing must be submitted to the county elections office by Thursday, per state campaign requirements.

The group is also preparing a response to the election commission’s inquiry, Rexroad wrote by email. The review determining whether the state agency will open an investigation could take a few weeks, but will be prioritized because of the short timeline ahead of the March 3 election, a commission spokesman said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin Fixler at 707-521-5336 or kevin.fixler@pressdemocrat.com.