IRS takes small sting out of 12th Assembly race
mini-firestorm

Supervisor Fiona Ma, 12th district assembly candidate, on the steps of City Hall yesterday refuting opportunistic claims by Janet Reilly campaign.
Photo(s) by Luke Thomas

April 28, 2006

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) took a little sting out of charges and counter-charges California Assembly candidates Fiona Ma and Janet Reilly hurled at each other Thursday.

But not much.

The IRS took full blame yesterday as erroneously listing Ma as one-time treasurer for a Nevada right-wing Republican candidate. A computer "glitch" had mixed up Ma campaign filings with reports filed by Governor M. Michael Rounds, the IRS said in a statement.

Appearance of Ma's name with the strident anti-abortion Rounds set off a mini-firestorm in the Assembly 12 race.

Ma blamed Reilly campaign senior staff for circulating mistaken identity to officials and the media.

District 4 Supervisor Ma maintained Reilly showed lack of leadership ability by not confirming accuracy.

She also pointed to irony.

"There's only one candidate in this race who's helped an anti-choice Republican and that's Janet Reilly," Ma stated in an 11:00 a.m. City Hall press conference.

Reilly once worked for Los Angeles Republican Mayor Richard Riordan "who once called a woman's right to choose murder," continued Ma.

Ma claimed Reilly lacked honor by remaining silent after the IRS acknowledged the mistake. As of early today, the Reilly campaign had not issued a statement on the issue.

Campaign consultant Eric Jaye told the San Francisco Chronicle that the Reilly campaign had done nothing wrong. Jaye is under contract to Janet Riley for Assembly.

He said publicizing it was needed to ferret out the truth, Rachel Gordon reported in today's issue of the Chronicle.

Meanwhile, Reilly filed a complaint with State and local oversight agencies alleging a Political Action Committee (PAC) controlled by former State Senator John Burton made illegal donations to the Ma campaign.

State law requires independent expenditure PACs not to coordinate activities with campaigns endorsed by such PACs.

Burton's Leaders for an Effective Government PAC paid for $33,000 worth of Ma campaign television and earlier funding from the PAC help launch the Ma campaign, Reilly asserted. Ma once served as legislative assistant to Burton.

John Burton, keynote speaker at Fiona Ma's campaign kick-off event on March 5, 2006

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