Political watchdog agency, the Fair Political Practices Commission, threw down the gauntlet via a $9 million lawsuit against poor, besieged, one-time front-runner for reelection, Senator Carole Migden. The state agency accuses Migden of "consistent and deliberate violations of the state's campaign finance laws," and think that a settlement of $9 million will somehow ease their pain. According to the AP:

It is a response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Migden. In that action, Migden challenged the agency's refusal to let her use $647,000 that she raised while she was in the state Assembly.

This comes a week after Carole was handed at record $350,000 fine for campaign finance violations. Yikes. The poor thing. What's next? Well, how about Mark Leno as a shoo-in for the June 3 primary election to steal Migden's Third District seat? Or former San Rafael Assemblyman Joe Nation? Perhaps. John Wildermuth at the Chron reports:

Leno and Nation are calling delegates in an effort to keep Migden from getting the majority she needs for the endorsement. If she receives the district's nod, Leno's supporters have vowed to collect enough signatures from delegates to force an endorsement vote of all convention delegates on Sunday.

This is going to get uglier before it gets better. Yay!

Somewhere Mark Leno is giggling, quietly.

Today, state regulators handed Senator Carol Migden a $350,000 fine for 89 -- -- campaign spending and disclosure violations. The abuses reach all the way back to 2003, and include illegal personal use of campaign funds.

Ouch.

According to the Sacramento Bee:

The state's Fair Political Practices Commission on Tuesday released details of the San Francisco Democrat's transgressions, which also included misrepresenting spending, soliciting donations prior to establishing campaign accounts, and failure to adequately disclose contributions and expenses...[t]he 35-page FPPC report...said Migden on eight occasions between 2005 and last June spent a total of $16,317 in campaign funds that "conferred a substantial personal benefit" to her without having a reasonable "political, legislative or governmental purpose."

But, sadly, today's report does not reveal any delicious details as to how the money was spent.

San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno--who "initiated the FPPC complaint" and is, oddly enough, running against her in this year's election--accused Midgen of "charging $397,000 in political expenses" without not reporting how said money was being used. Midgen, however, claims the financial boo-boos were the simply fault of "volunteer bookkeepers unfamiliar with all of the state's finance reporting requirements."

Altered image credit: Brian Baer / Sacramento Bee file, 2007