City attorney vows to uncover who’s behind mailer attacking a Fresno City Council frontrunner
The city of Fresno is investigating a negative campaign mailer sent by an unknown “dark money” source to hundreds of homes in southeast Fresno on the eve of a special council election.
The mailer, sent by a group called Fresno Future Forward, contains serious but unconfirmed allegations against Brandon Vang, which his campaign has called “completed false and deeply hurtful.”
Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz announced his office is investigating whether the mailers violated the state and local campaign finance laws.
“Voters have a right to know under the law who is behind these mailers,” Janz said at a Monday press conference.
Any group that spends more than $1,000 on a campaign is required to register with the City Clerk’s office as an independent expenditure — but there’s no record of Fresno Future Forward registering with the city. Nor is it there any record of the group with the California Secretary of State.
Janz said he believes these mailers exceed the $1,000 spending threshold based on an initial investigation.
“The city attorney has subpoena power, so we will use all of our legal tools at our disposal to find out who sent them out,” he said.
Vang’s campaign confirmed it requested the investigation in a formal complaint on Friday.
In a statement, the Vang campaign said: “The complaint raises concerns about negative mailers distributed by special interest groups targeting Brandon Vang, allegedly to benefit his opponents. Given the importance of transparency and accountability in the electoral process, we urge the City Attorney’s Office to conduct a thorough investigation to determine whether any campaign finance laws have been violated.”
Janz said he hopes to wrap up the investigation in a week — on the eve of the March 18 special election. He said he will publicly share the findings of the investigation.
Vang is one of four candidates running for District 5 seat that was vacated by Luis Chavez when he assumed his new position as Fresno County District 2 supervisor in January. Other Candidates include Jose Leon Barraza, a longtime community advocate and city parks commissioner with decades working for Fresno County on economic development; Fresno resident Paul Condon; and Fresno Unified trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas, who has experience in nonprofits, water, planning as well as several major endorsements.
A candidate must win at least 50% plus one of all votes to secure the seat outright and avoid a runoff. Otherwise, the top two winners will head to a runoff election.
According to Vang’s latest campaign finance filing, he’s raised more than $120,000 as of March 1, — more than any other candidate.
Jonasson Rosas has raised more than $97,000 as of March 1, according to her latest campaign filing.
What do mailers say?
The negative mailer sent last weekend tells voters not to vote for Vang. The mailer includes allegations of statutory rape and includes confidential Fresno County records related to paternity and child support.
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“I want to be clear—these allegations are completely false and deeply hurtful,” Vang said in a statement to The Bee.”I have always prioritized my family’s well-being and integrity. The child support case mentioned in the flyer involves my wife of 30 years and our son, who has lived with me his entire life. It’s disheartening to see false claims used as political attacks, but I remain committed to honesty and serving our community with transparency.”
Campaign manager Pedro Ramirez said in a statement that the campaign “will pursue all legal options to expose those behind these misleading and false mailers and hold them accountable for violating campaign finance laws.“
“These individuals are hiding behind sham organizations funded by dark money special interests,” the statement said. “The public deserves full transparency on who is financing these political attack ads to protect the integrity of our local elections and ensure they remain fair, open, and free from outside interference.”
Janz stressed on Monday that the investigation does not seek to verify the claims contained in the mailer.
“My only goal here today is to seek compliance with our campaign finance laws so that voters have the ability to make a fair and informed decision about who they are choosing to be their next council member,” he said.
What do state campaign rules say?
According to the nonpartisan legal organization, Campaign Legal Center, “dark money” refers to special interests using illegal tactics to inject large amounts of secret money into elections as a way to hide political spending and avoid accountability.
In a statement to The Bee, Shery Yang, spokesperson for the Fair Political Practices Commission, said that entities — including corporations, firms, businesses, and proprietorships — making independent expenditures of $1,000 or more in a calendar year qualify as a committee under the Act and must file reports of the independent expenditures.
“An ‘independent expenditures’ is a payment for a communication that expressly advocates the election or defeat of a clearly identified California state or local candidate — and the communication is not coordinated with or ‘made at the behest’ of the affected candidate or committee,” Yang said.
The mailer in question states that it was “not authorized by a candidate or candidate’s committee.”
Advertisements paid for by an independent expenditure which support or oppose either candidates or ballot measures, must identify the committee making the independent expenditure, Yang said.
“The disclosure must be presented in a clear manner to give the reader or listener adequate notice of the identity of the committee,” she said.
