A lawsuit is still pending over the $35 million state contract awarded to a political consulting firm that campaigned on behalf of candidates ahead of the November elections.
“This involves the $35 million contract that was executed between the Secretary of State and a political consulting firm that has close ties to the Biden campaign, SKD Knickerbocker,” Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA), told the Northern California Record.
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association vs. Alex Padilla in his official capacity as the Secretary of State of California was filed Oct. 9 in Sacramento County Superior Court.
“Our issue with the contract was there were no appropriations for it,” Coupal said. “So it was beyond the authority and capacity of the Secretary of State to sign a contract and attempt to get the Controller to send money to the firm.”
The suit states, “[T]he SOS is committing taxpayer resources that he does not have under a contract that has not been approved and will never be approved because there is no lawful appropriation to pay for the contracted services and it does not comply with the Public Contract Code.”
Following revelations about the contract by calmatters.org and other news outlets, state leaders said the $35 million would get paid.
Gov. Gavin Newsom named Padilla to fill Kamala Harris’ U.S. Senate seat in December.
The balance owed on the contract was covered by AB 85, which the legislature passed along partisan lines on Feb. 23.
“Because Republicans wanted more information about how the contract was used for targeted outreach – if it had been for a public service announcement, we wouldn’t have had a problem with it,” Coupal said. “But they used a Democrat-affiliated partisan firm for what was supposed to be a voter outreach effort.”
The AB 85 Senate floor analysis states, “Clean-up to authorize the transfer of funds under the Secretary of State.”
The HJTA on Feb. 26 issued a summons in the lawsuit to Padilla and state Contoller Betty Yee.
“We are exploring our options,” Coupal said. “We have already achieved a substantial victory by forcing them to pass a statute.”
Coupal said the litigation is part of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Foundation’s Public Integrity Project, which was created to make sure that the government doesn’t use taxpayer dollars for political activity.
“Voters, citizens and taxpayers need to be really vigilant about how taxpayers’ dollars are being used,” Coupal said. “People need to be very careful when they vote, and vote for people of integrity.”