A complaint by San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Jimmy Paulding against his opponent in an upcoming election has been dismissed.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission declined to take any action against Adam Verdin, the co-owner of the restaurant Old Juan’s Cantina and a candidate for the District Four Supervisor seat.
Paulding accused Verdin of violating campaign contribution limits last Sunday.
Verdin said that since the FPPC dismissed the complaint, Paulding should apologize.
“The apology should be to the community for weaponizing a system that's designed to protect the public, and using that for political purposes against his opponent,” Verdin said.
Paulding told the San Luis Obispo Tribune that he would not be apologizing for filing the complaint.
His initial allegation was that Verdin accepted donations from a single business over what’s allowed per election.
But in a recent letter addressed to Paulding provided to KCBX by Verdin’s campaign, the FPPC said that “primary and general elections are considered separate elections…”
Verdin says the money donated over the $5,900 limit was set aside in case there’s a runoff election. Those donations were made by the real estate developer Covelop.
“They wanted to help and so we thought, well, you know, let's think about a general election,” Verdin told KCBX.
A runoff election will be held for the District Four seat in November if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in June.
So far, a runoff election isn’t possible because only two candidates are campaigning for the District Four seat. The deadline for candidates to join the race is March 6.
When KCBX asked Paulding about his complaint being dismissed, he forwarded a Facebook post he wrote criticizing political donations from housing developers.
