It’s been three years but the wheels of election justice have finally caught up with former Peralta colleges trustee and 2010 Oakland mayoral wannabe Marcie Hodge. You may recall her expensive billboards that popped up all over town during that race. It was enough to make a person wonder who paid for them, since Hodge never revealed who the donors were and, at the time, reported having no job or income that generated more than $500 a year. She filed a libel suit—which a judge later tossed—against East Bay Express after the alt weekly had the temerity to take a closer look at her dealings. Now the California Fair Political Practices Commission has concluded that Hodge broke the law by not disclosing campaign donors, and she and her mother, Yvonne, who was her campaign manager, have agreed to pay a $5,000 fine. As for who actually paid for the billboards, that remains a mystery. East Bay Express’s Robert Gammon blogs about it.
Image: Robert Gammon/East Bay Express
