Fresno chamber seeks data for candidate checks

Published online on Tuesday, Apr. 15, 2008

The Fresno Chamber of Commerce is causing a stir -- and apparently plowing new political ground -- by asking candidates who want its support to reveal their Social Security and driver's license numbers.

Chamber officials asked for the information so they could conduct background checks on candidates.

"The idea basically is simple enough," said Al Smith, the chamber's president and chief executive. "If we're going to put our name behind a candidate, we want to make sure there's nothing in his background that we don't know about."

But two candidates have rejected the chamber's request, and others who handed over the data said they were uncomfortable doing so.

"This has nothing to do with checking me out. I'm comfortable with that," said Fresno County supervisor candidate Debbie Poochigian, who sent a letter to the chamber outlining her reasons for not providing the information. "But you can't give up every privacy right in the world."

Fresno County Supervisor Susan B. Anderson, who is seeking re-election, provided the information sought by the chamber, "but it does make me feel a little bit uncomfortable. I don't think that people who are running for office should have to give their personal information for endorsements, and no other group has asked for that."

The chamber's request is not new. It has asked candidates for this information for at least the past four years, Smith said. But this is the first time anyone has objected, likely because of the increased attention being given to identity theft, he said.

Smith said it is important to conduct the background check on the right person. The chamber asked for Social Security and driver's license numbers, he said, because they are "the most convenient and probably the most accurate" forms of identification available to conduct such checks.

Several political scientists said they'd never heard of such a request, and they said it was inappropriate for the chamber to ask for such sensitive information -- especially at a time when identity theft is so prevalent.

"I'm just floored," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst at University of Southern California. "To me, that's an invasion of privacy. It's appalling, I think."

John J. Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California, said he'd heard of intensive questionnaires, but the chamber's background check request "is very unusual and pretty darn improper, too."

The chamber said the background check would include criminal and civil courts, state Department of Motor Vehicle records, employment history, education and professional certifications.

By signing the document, the candidates also agree not to hold the chamber and its board liable if information from the background check is made public.

Poochigian and Fresno City Council Member Mike Dages, who is running for mayor, both rejected the request.

"My bank asked for it and I gave it to them, but that's as far as I go," Dages said. "I think asking for my driver's license number and my Social Security number opens me up to any sort of identity theft."

Poochigian, who is running against Clovis Council Member Nathan Magsig for the departing Bob Waterston's District 5 seat on the Fresno County Board of Supervisors, said she knows her decision will kill her chances at a high-profile endorsement.

In her letter to the chamber, Poochigian called the request "a highly unusual -- if not unique -- request from a trade association or political action committee; it places the candidate and his or her family in a position of vulnerability to identity theft, Internet fraud or other inappropriate consequences ... put simply, it's just not right."

The chamber unsuccessfully tried to reach a compromise with Poochigian, and Smith said it was her right not to give the information. But he said the chamber will not put its name behind a candidate without doing a thorough background check.

"We're not trying to be antagonistic, we're just trying to be careful," Smith said.

Several candidates had no problem handing over the information. One of them was Magsig -- Poochigian's opponent.

"I have nothing to hide, so I have no problem giving them the information they needed," he said.

Fresno City Council Member Jerry Duncan, a mayoral candidate, called the request "no big deal," and Ashley Swearengin, on leave from her job as head of the nonprofit Regional Jobs Initiative, said, "I trust the folks at the chamber, so I didn't mind giving them what they needed to know to thoroughly investigate me."

But Dages said there's an easy way for the chamber to get all the information it needs: "If they want to know about my background," he said, "they can sit down and ask me."