Stealth Dollars

When we contacted Advanced Mailing, the firm wouldn't tell SF Weekly who paid for the mailing.

But Ethics records show San Francisco-based campaign lawyer Jim Sutton paid Advanced Mailing more than $6,600 for "campaign literature and mailings" in 2003. There's no record of anybody else in town hiring Advanced Mailing.

Sutton is currently doing work for the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, which has pumped at least $17,984 into Black's campaign. Sutton, who has a well-documented history of running afoul of campaign finance laws — he was hit with some $240,000 in penalties after failing to reveal $800,000 in campaign spending by utility giant PG&E in 2002 — also happens to be Black's former employer.

Sutton, who's unhappy with this paper's previous coverage of his legal operation, the Sutton Law Firm, tells SF Weekly, "We don't think it's appropriate to comment on anything involving our firm's clients."

On Oct. 18, the Black campaign issued a press release accusing Daly of his own campaign-finance shenanigans, claiming the Daly camp misrepresented key information on its reports to Ethics.

By law, all campaigns must reveal the occupations and employers of their donors. Black says the Daly team broke the law by using generic terms like "businessperson" or "consultant" when listing occupations of 23 donors.

At Ethics, St. Croix is scrutinizing the matter. "Words like 'businessperson' are not specific enough," he says. "'Lobbyist' or 'consultant' may be. It's on a case-by-case basis."

Black would like to see Ethics force Daly "to forfeit the money," and also dogs his foe for taking cash from lobbyists tied to the Rincon Hill condo towers and the redevelopment of Treasure Island.

The candidate also thinks the Daly campaign used sleight of hand to get around the $500 limit on contributions made directly to a campaign, by accepting money from both individuals and the companies they own.

Responding to the allegations, Daly says he'll remedy any possible campaign finance problems. And he claims that "you can add two and two together and see that illegal activity occurred" to the benefit of Black.

Meanwhile, St. Croix is reluctant to put a timeline on either probe — but political observers say any penalties levied by Ethics are likely to come well after Election Day.