Kelly
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) - California Attorney General-hopeful Chris Kelly has been selling his stock in Facebook to finance his campaign, and his opponent is calling for an investigation.
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris urged the Fair Political Practices Commission to take a look into Kelly's campaign fund on Tuesday, while Kelly's campaign said Harris has hit a new low.
Kelly took out a $100,000 loan "to facilitate stock option exercise," a statement of economic interests completed by Kelly says. Harris says that loan is in excess of state contribution limits and that Kelly failed to disclose who has purchased his Facebook stock.
Kelly is a former executive at Facebook.
"(W)e demand that the FPPC immediately investigate whether Kelly is improperly financing his campaign, and if it finds that he is doing so, to immediately seek an injunction or otherwise prevent Kelly from further spending any funds which were derived from this illegal loan," states the letter from James R. Sutton, counsel to the Harris Campaign.
"We also demand that the FPPC immediately investigate whether Kelly has failed to disclose sources of his income, and if it finds that he has done so, to immediately seek an injunction or otherwise compel Kelly to disclose who paid him millions of dollars to purchase his private investments."
Kelly has contributed $9.6 million to his campaign.
The complaint is "merely the latest attempt to distract voters from the fact that she's not qualified to be the attorney general of our great state," a release from Kelly says, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
From Legal Newsline: Reach John O'Brien by e-mail at jobrienwv@gmail.com.