Breaking: Judge upholds ethics laws to prevent Essel from overturning LAs clean money reforms.

United States Federal District Court Judge Dean Pregerson has tossed out the lawsuit filed by Brian Darcy's "Working Californians", on behalf of CD2 Candidate Christine Essel. The lawsuit sought to overturn a 24 year old ethics law that works to curtail undue financial influence in City elections. "Working Californians" had tried to frame the lawsuit as a free speech issue, but the Judge saw otherwise.

The lawsuit had been called "frivolous" by the Krekorian campaign. A spokesman for the Krekorian campaign expressed his delight at the ruling, and said that this was a "real blow" to the Essel campaign, and her army of lobbyist supporters.

In his ruling, Judge Dean Pregerson said:
“[Working Californians] has not provided any evidence that enforcement of the challenged contribution restrictions will effectively thwart its ability to make independent expenditures related to the upcoming city council runoff election. Working Californians is free to solicit contributions from as many donors as it likes, and assuming that no individual contribution exceeds the city’s $500 threshold, it can spend as much as it likes.”

CD2 candidate Paul Krekorian, who challenged the lawsuit said:
"By filing this lawsuit, the Downtown power brokers proved that they aren't satisfied just trying to steal this election for Essel, they want to hide their tracks too. I was very proud to defend the ethics laws that the voters of Los Angeles enacted and have relied upon for nearly a quarter century. Today we won a tremendous victory for transparency when the Federal Court agreed with my arguments and completely rejected the frivolous lawsuit brought by Chris Essel's special interest supporters to overturn the City's ethics laws."

You can read the entire court ruling HERE.