FEC Dismisses Campaign Mailing Complaint Against Beilenson : Politics: Republican Jim Salomon contends the Democratic lawmaker violated a law and tried to smear him during the 1990 election.

WASHINGTON —  Perennial Republican candidate Jim Salomon has lost another one against Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles).

The Federal Election Commission this month dismissed a year-old complaint by Salomon’s campaign against Beilenson and his campaign. Salomon was trounced by Beilenson in 1988 and 1990 and lost his June primary bid to oppose the veteran Democrat again this fall in the new 24th Congressional District that includes Thousand Oaks.

For the past two years, Salomon has repeatedly told supporters and reporters that Beilenson tried to smear him during the 1990 campaign by planting a highly unflattering news story that appeared in The Times and then anonymously mailing it to Salomon’s campaign donors.

The assistant treasurer of the Salomon campaign, Paul Morgan Fredix, filed a complaint with the FEC on Aug. 22, 1991, alleging that Beilenson and his campaign broke the law. Fredix said Beilenson illegally obtained the names of Salomon’s contributors and then failed to disclose who sent the mailing, as required.

The article detailed Salomon’s failure to make all his child-support payments and painted a portrait of “a man living on the financial edge.” Fredix said the mailing included a note with the article saying, “In case you missed it . . . imagine what his opponent will do with this.”

Beilenson and his campaign treasurer both flatly denied any knowledge of the mailing. Beilenson also said in his response that no proof was presented “that such a mailing was actually sent,” and called the matter a “harassing complaint.”

FEC General Counsel Lawrence M. Noble said in a June 26 report to the commission that Fredix’s “argument does not appear to connect Congressman Beilenson, his staff or the Beilenson campaign committee to the anonymous mailing. Despite the evidence presented, a possibility exists that members of the public, who opposed Salomon, obtained the contribution information” from public records and “used it to undermine Salomon’s campaign.”

Noble also noted that records of FEC contributors may be used by a campaign for political purposes as long as the lists are not used to solicit contributions. The anonymous mailing did not solicit contributions, he added.

Noble said the mailing should have included a disclaimer stating who had authorized it. An unidentified “third party probably violated the act,” he said. But no information was presented implicating anyone.

But FEC files documented one indiscretion by Beilenson’s staff. The staff member stored copies of Beilenson’s campaign handouts in the lawmaker’s congressional district office in Tarzana in October, 1990, where campaign business is not supposed to be conducted. The files also show that she gave copies of them to a Salomon supporter in an official, publicly funded envelope.

“It is not the policy of my office to use franked envelopes for political material,” Beilenson said in a Nov. 12, 1991, letter to Noble in which he explained that the campaign materials were only temporarily stored in his district office. “My entire staff has been reminded of the rules requiring separation of congressional work and campaign work.”

Neither Beilenson, Salomon nor Fredix could be reached Tuesday.