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Azano case about politicians chasing campaign cash

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Just days after he had won the most votes in the June 2012 San Diego mayoral primary, Democratic Congressman Bob Filner’s campaign was worried.

The general election against well-financed Republican candidate Carl DeMaio loomed in a few months, and Filner’s campaign was so low on money it was almost running on fumes.

So in early July, senior campaign officials and longtime Filner supporters convened for a meeting at a Holiday Inn in downtown San Diego, former campaign manager Ed Clancy recalled during his testimony last month in the federal trial of José Susumo Azano Matsura.

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Azano, a Mexican citizen and wealthy businessman, is charged along with three others with scheming to channel almost $600,000 in support of the 2012 mayoral campaigns of Filner and District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. Federal law prohibits foreign citizens without legal status in the U.S., such as a green card, from contributing to elections.

Testimony in the trial ended Thursday and jurors began deliberating the fate of Azano, his son, Edward Susumo Azano Hester, campaign services specialist Ravneet Singh and lobbyist Marco Polo Cortes. All are charged with conspiracy to make illegal campaign contributions and falsifying records.

While much of the case centered on invoices, bank records, wire transfers and reams of emails, Clancy’s testimony, along with other evidence that came out during the 5½ week trial, offered glimpses into a secondary story: how candidates and their staffs in San Diego pursue the lifeblood of any campaign — money.

Clancy testified that the conversation at the July meeting turned to targeting “high-net worth individuals,” and which past supporters of Democratic candidates would be willing and able to contribute a chunk of money to the Filner effort. Some familiar names surfaced: Irwin Jacobs, co-founder of Qualcomm; Bill Lerach, former powerhouse securities lawyer; and Andrew Viterbi, another Qualcomm co-founder.

Then, Clancy recalled, Kelli Maruccia — a professional fundraiser who had worked for the failed primary campaign of District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis — offered a new name: José Azano.

The Mexican businessman had never participated in San Diego politics before, but he had supported Dumanis in a big way. He seeded an independent committee supporting Dumanis with $100,000 just weeks before the election — and when the district attorney was running in fourth polls.

Maruccia suggested she could set up a meeting with Azano, and Filner agreed, Clancy said. That meeting took place at a catered lunch at Azano’s Coronado Cays home in August. In September, a PAC supporting Filner got a $120,000 contribution, which prosecutors said came from Azano and was funneled through a business owned by Marc Chase, a La Jolla luxury car dealer.

There was no evidence that Maruccia knew that Azano was ineligible to contribute. She was initially listed as a government witness in the federal case and was expected to testify but never did. She did not respond to a request for comment.

Maruccia had a pivotal position at that time, working for Dumanis, then the Filner campaign, and also as a fundraiser for Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego.

Vargas met with Azano at least twice and wrote a letter of recommendation to the University of San Diego for the businessman’s son, Edward. (Dumanis and Filner did, too). Government prosecutors contend Azano made a $30,000 contribution to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, again through a Chase-owned business, as part of Vargas’ efforts to raise money for Democrats nationwide.

Prosecutors argued that Azano and his co-conspirators hid the source of the money, knowing it was illegal for him to contribute. Some political professionals who testified — Dumanis, Clancy, an aide to Vargas and others — all said they understood Azano was a legal resident and could contribute.

Not everyone believed that. Political consultant John Wainio testified that in early 2012 he had a meeting with Ernie Encinas, a retired San Diego police detective who was Azano’s security chief. Encinas was also on Dumanis’ campaign finance committee.

At the time, Encinas wanted to place a $100,000 donation into a PAC controlled by the San Diego Deputy District Attorneys Association, which was supporting Dumanis. The association was a client of Wainio’s, he said. But at a meeting with Encinas that Wainio said was set up by Maruccia he got a feeling the source of the funds was “fishy.”

He testified he later asked Dumanis if she knew if the donor had a green card, and the question was met with a long, uncomfortable silence. He recommended the PAC not take the money, and it didn’t.

Wainio said that over the next months he was pestered by Maruccia and others from the Dumanis campaign to help find a way to “get this money into the process.” Kevin Faulconer, a councilman at the time, called him once asking why he didn’t want to accept the money. (Faulconer would later be elected San Diego mayor after Filner resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal.)

Eventually, the money was deposited in an independent committee that was set up to support Dumanis with the help of another consultant, Kevin Spillane. He testified he was told by Encinas that Azano had a green card and could contribute.

The pursuit of Azano, previously an unknown in local political circles, shouldn’t be surprising, said Chris Crotty, a San Diego campaign consultant who was not involved in the case. “San Diego is a difficult place to raise money,” he said. “The first thing I tell clients in a campaign is you are going to be spending four to six hours a day on the phone every day for the next year begging people for money.”

A new player on the scene with a big checkbook touches off a race to get cozy. “You always want to be the first one in,” Crotty said. “If you’re a candidate, the sooner you are in, the better you do with the donor.”

Crotty and another political consultant, John Dadian, who also was not involved in the case, said that San Diego’s strict contribution limits — at the time of the 2012 race a maximum of $500 for an individual — make it challenging to raise large sums of money.

“Certainly in the political campaign and in consulting work, there is always pressure to raise money,” Dadian said. “And the fundraising pool in the San Diego political community is not that large.”

While Dumanis and others testified that they assumed Azano was a legal contributor, it appears that only Wainio asked the question. Crotty said that in the chaos of a campaign there can be a “willing suspension of disbelief that goes on when you’re up against an opponent who is raising more money than you.”

Yet others also were suspicious about Azano.

Longtime political consultant Tom Shepard, who worked for candidate Nathan Fletcher in the 2012 mayoral primary and later for Filner, told prosecutors that after reading in a San Diego City Beat article about the Azano committee set up for Dumanis he did his own research on the businessman.

Shepard said the donation was a “big red flag,” according to court records in the case.

He said that to him, “the facts indicated Mr. Azano wanted something from Ms. Dumanis, as there was no other way to explain so much money being contributed to a losing campaign so late in the election cycle.”

Shepard was on the witness list for the trial but did not testify.

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