At least 12 novices seeking state office have written themselves
six-figure checks, records show.

From the Sacramento Bee, July 30, 2007 . 

As the calendar neared the end of June, the secretary of state's office began reporting one $100,000 donation after another -- each to relatively unknown candidates in California politics, the likes of Richard Holober and Robert Rao and Neil Blais.

Who was writing the checks? Richard Holober and Robert Rao and Neil Blais.

As the six-month fundraising deadline approached, at least 11 candidates for state Assembly and one for state Senate in the June 2008 primary injected roughly $100,000 into their own campaign coffers. Another gave himself $100,000 more than 18 months ago.

The donations are part of what has become a biennial money dance in which newcomer candidates try to prove their viability to the chattering class of Sacramento and the well-heeled lobbyists in the Third House.

"It's become an epidemic," said Dave Gilliard, a Republican campaign strategist who works on Assembly races. "Candidates are so desperate to look viable to the Third House and the legislative leaders -- a lot of the time ... it's all for show."

The self-donations are a growing trend -- some call it a vicious cycle -- in California politics, where money begets money and deep-pocketed candidates hold a distinct advantage.

"It makes it harder for ordinary citizens to run for office when they are faced with opponents who can easily jump-start their campaigns with personal wealth," said Derek Cressman, a campaign watchdog and author of the upcoming book, "The Recall's Broken Promise: How Big Money Still Runs California Politics."

Matt Rexroad, a GOP political consultant, who managed the Assembly Republican efforts in 2002 and 2004, said, "If you look back into the primaries of two years ago, you will see that there were very few people elected to the Assembly who didn't put their own money in there."

...

Without money, few California legislative campaigns succeed. But Cressman, the author and campaign finance watchdog, said the infusion of self-given money is hurting democracy.

"(It) has a pretty significant and negative effect on representative democracy when you are so significantly narrowing the pool of people who can run for office in the first place," he said.