By Yue Stella Yu And Jeremia Kimelman/calmatters, The Associated Press

A golf tournament at the scenic Pebble Beach Golf Links with free spa treatments. A six-day stay at an upscale resort in Maui. Tours to Spain, Portugal, Norway and Australia.

Those are among dozens of free trips California state lawmakers took last year, most sponsored and attended by special interest groups with business before the state Legislature.

Nearly 120 organizations — including nonprofits, corporations, foreign governments, state agencies, tribes and campaigns — spent at least $1.2 million on travel for legislators last year, according to the lawmakers’ annual financial disclosures filed earlier this month.

The bulk of the tab — $1.1 million — was picked up by nonprofits that are largely allowed to keep their donors secret, leaving the true source of the funding murky, according to a CalMatters analysis of the filings. The entities, many of which represent major corporations and interest groups, are only required to reveal their donors if they hit certain spending thresholds, which are so high that they are rarely required to disclose them.

That lack of disclosure “muddies the water,” said Sean McMorris, transparency, ethics, and accountability program manager at California Common Cause. “Those nonprofits didn’t just materialize out of thin air. Who is essentially funding those nonprofits is important.”

On top of the trips, lawmakers reported receiving an additional $330,000 in gifts from dozens of organizations last year, including dinners at Michelin Guide-recommended restaurants around the Capitol, suite tickets to Warriors, Kings and Athletics games, tickets to Disneyland and free massages, some of them from the same groups that sponsored those trips.

State officials could accept gifts up to $630 from a single source last year (the cap increases biennially to reflect inflation) and must refund or donate the amount above that limit. They can generally accept unlimited travel sponsored by nonprofits as long as the trips are for governmental or policy reasons.

Details about these gifts and trips are often scarce, as public officials are free to describe them in broad terms. Several state lawmakers reported accepting over-the-limit gifts or failed to disclose trips and only revised their filings after CalMatters contacted them.

Lawmakers and nonprofit sponsors say the trips are often educational and can inform policymakers’ decisions.

Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco, a Downey Democrat, reported more than $45,000 in sponsored travel last year, the highest of any lawmaker. That included $16,800 for a study tour to Spain, $5,700 for a policy conference in Maui and $4,300 to attend a golf tournament and fundraiser at Pebble Beach, among others.

Those trips gave Pacheco opportunities to learn about “challenges and solutions affecting California” and helped inform two legislative measures she introduced this year: One would allow public agencies to charge a fee if a public records request takes more than two hours to fulfill, and another to change state workers’ disciplinary process, her spokesperson Alina Evans told CalMatters.

“These trips do not impede her ability to represent her constituents,” Evans said. “Rather, they enhance her understanding of pressing issues by providing the different perspectives on complicated problems.”

When asked about the influence such sponsorships have on state lawmakers, Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas ’ spokesperson Nick Miller said the members “answer to their constituents, not the highest bidder.”

“Lawmakers cast their votes with a clear sense of responsibility to the Californians they represent, even when well-funded interests flood the zone,” Miller said in a statement. Rivas reported receiving $5,600 in sponsored travel within California and another $4,900 in golf tournament tickets, dinners, jackets and other gifts.

But ethics advocates have long criticized the practice of sponsored travel, arguing it allows interest groups to buy private access to policymakers they seek to influence — the kind of access out of reach for average Californians.

“We can be certain that these free trips and meals and gifts would not be happening if the people giving them did not need or want something in return from those lawmakers,” McMorris said.

Special interest groups pay for foreign trips and luxe treatments because “public officials are in a much better and more agreeable mood if they are in a luxury setting than if they are in the middle of the Mojave in July,” said Jack Pitney, a politics professor at Claremont McKenna College and a former staffer in Congress and in the New York Legislature.

“If you are trying to learn about public issues, why are you doing it in Maui instead of Altadena?” he said.

High-dollar trips to around the world

The top travel sponsor for the past four years has been the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that has taken public officials on free “international study tours” since 1984. It spent at least $324,000 on trips to Spain, Norway, Canada, Utah and California last year that a total of 48 lawmakers attended.

The group hosts workshops on a wide range of policies including energy, housing, technology, transportation, water and recycling. It is funded through membership fees from its 94-person board of directors, with representatives from Big Tech, labor unions, oil companies, environmental groups, public utilities and local governments.

The foundation does not publicly disclose its membership fees, but says that no single donor contributes more than 2% of the organization’s budget. In its 2024 tax filings, the group reported $2.6 million in revenue and $2.4 million in expenses.

Last October, the group spent $146,000 to send 10 lawmakers to Spain for 12 days to study “wind and solar energy, green hydrogen, solar panel manufacturing, low carbon farming and high speed rail,” according to its website. The lawmakers were accompanied by some of the nonprofit’s board members, representing utilities such as Edison International and Pacific Gas & Electric Company, oil interests such as Chevron and the Western States Petroleum Association, clean energy advocates, construction workers and plumbers unions and local governments, according to a list the group shared with CalMatters.

It also paid $87,000 to take eight lawmakers on a nine-day green energy tour in Norway in April and $38,000 for six lawmakers to go on a weeklong recycling study trip to Vancouver and Victoria, Canada, in August, with some of the same board members, filings show. Sen. John Laird, a Santa Cruz Democrat, was part of the Norway delegation but failed to disclose the $12,000 trip sponsored by the nonprofit. His spokesperson said he will amend his filing after CalMatters reached out.

“We believe that knowledgeable leaders pursuing sound public policies is an aspiration that serves the best interests of all Californians,” PJ Johnston, a spokesperson for the nonprofit, told CalMatters in an email. “If others want to attack that, so be it.”

The Independent Voter Project, a nonprofit that authored the proposition creating California’s top-two primary in 2010, was the second-highest trip sponsor last year. It spent $145,000 hosting 21 lawmakers at its annual policy conference in Maui in November — a tradition that has previously been criticized for allowing special interests to schmooze with public officials — and another $44,000 taking 12 lawmakers to its “ Make it with Mexico ” conference in July at a four-star resort on the private peninsula of Punta Mita, data shows.

The group is one of the few to disclose the donors who sponsor and attend those conferences.

In 2024, the group paid for 18 lawmakers to attend its Maui conference, which was sponsored and attended by representatives from 63 interest groups, including oil companies, pharmaceutical corporations, tech giants, food chains, airlines, utilities and trade groups, according to the group’s filing. It also reported sponsoring 11 lawmakers that year to attend the Mexico conference, along with 20 corporate and trade association sponsors.

The organization did not respond to CalMatters’ request for comment.

California YIMBY, which champions pro-building housing policies, spent more than $56,000 sending four lawmakers to New Zealand and Australia in December through its charitable education fund. Lawmakers learned from officials there about housing supply struggles and zoning reforms, said Abigail Doerr, who organized the trip. None of the organization’s donors accompanied officials onto the trip, she said.

Officials who have gone on such tours credit them for inspiring policy proposals. Sen. Caroline Menjivar, a Van Nuys Democrat and the only Salvadoran American state lawmaker in California, said she visited four universities in El Salvador last year and introduced a bill this year to allow physicians from El Salvador to provide care in underserved California communities for up to three years. Clínica Romero, a Los Angeles medical clinic, paid $1,307 of her travel costs and sponsored the bill.

“I can’t be in a bubble,” she said. “I go to other countries or other places where I get to learn and bring back those practices for potential policy introductions.”

While international tours could be informative for lawmakers, special interest groups sponsor the events and set the agenda, often loaded with perks, McMorris said.

“They are going to be skewed educationally towards what the sponsoring organization wants (lawmakers) to think about that particular issue,” he said. “You are also getting to travel to places you’ve possibly never been before. You are getting to eat lavish meals that sometimes are on other people’s dime.”

Spas, golfing and luxury box seats

The perks often go beyond meals.

At least eight lawmakers reported receiving free massages or spa treatments sponsored by various groups, valued between $124 and $450 apiece, filing show. At least eight lawmakers reported accepting free golf, several at Pebble Beach Golf Links, a renowned luxury course where a round of golf starts at $675.

Assembly Minority Leader Heath Flora, a Ripon Republican, reported $1,200 in golf expenses while attending the Governor’s Cup Foundation’s annual golf tournament last July paid for by the foundation and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. Flora’s office did not return CalMatters’ requests for comment.

While at the tournament, Assemblymember José Solache, a Lakewood Democrat, and Sen. Tony Strickland, a Huntington Beach Republican — reported receiving spa treatments, with Solache reporting two at $450 apiece. When reached by CalMatters, Strickland’s spokesperson Jacqui Nguyen said that the senator “inadvertently included” a spa treatment for his wife — priced at $124 — and would reimburse the cost.

Six other Republican lawmakers received free massages from Legislative Action California at the group’s leadership conference in Palos Verdes last September. The nonprofit’s political action committee is funded by tribes, major corporations and trade groups from the energy, health care, insurance, real estate, agricultural, food and telecommunications sectors. None of those lawmakers responded to CalMatters’ questions.

Free tickets were a common perk: At least 59 lawmakers reported receiving tickets to sports events, concerts, award ceremonies, fine dining experiences or theme parks, according to CalMatters’ analysis.

While most lawmakers who received gifts and travel sponsorships did not return CalMatters’ inquiry, those who did dismissed concerns about influence and stressed that their votes are not for sale.

Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, a San Francisco Democrat, reported a $630 suite ticket from Blue Shield of California to a December Warriors game. Stefani attended the game at a friend’s invitation and “had no prior knowledge” she’d be sitting in a Blue Shield-sponsored suite, said her spokesperson Daniel Herzstein.

That gift did not sway Stefani’s position on Blue Shield, Herzstein said. In January, Stefani pressed Blue Shield’s CEO regarding cancer treatment denials for retired firefighters and later demanded to meet with company executives —“not the behavior of someone whose judgment has been compromised by a suite ticket she didn’t know she was getting,” he said.

Assemblymember Tasha Boerner, a Solana Beach Democrat who reported attending 11 sponsored trips last year, called herself “morally inflexible.”

“There’s no dollar amount that would buy my vote,” she said.

Pitney called arguments like that “talking points I used to write as a staffer.” While interest groups may not be trying to buy votes, which would be illegal, he said the access they pay for gets them the ear of the politicians more easily.

“(The lawmakers) are denying that there is an explicit quid pro quo, and in nearly all cases, there is no quid pro quo,” Pitney said. “But ordinary citizens don’t have the luxury of schmoozing with lawmakers in luxury settings.”

More transparency on the way?

It is hard to tell who’s bankrolling the nonprofits wining and dining state officials.

Under a 2015 law, nonprofits meeting certain spending thresholds must disclose their donors. To qualify for disclosure, nonprofits must spend a total of more than $10,000 on sponsored trips or at least $5,000 on one official’s trip, and the travel spending must account for at least a third of its total expenses that year.

While many groups meet the first threshold, few meet the second. An audit last year, prompted by CalMatters’ reporting on the scarce use of the law, found that many nonprofits with significant donor activities were exempt.

That may soon change. The Fair Political Practices Commission, which enforces campaign finance and ethics laws, is sponsoring legislation this year to eliminate the second criterion and expand the scope of disclosure.

Assembly Bill 1788, authored by Boerner, would get rid of the one-third expense threshold and subject more nonprofits to disclosure requirements. It would also mandate that those nonprofits report itemized spending for each official’s trip and require the groups to retain detailed records for an unspecified period.

“If you have nothing to hide, there’s no problem disclosing more,” Boerner said.

___

This story was originally published by CalMatters and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

Learn more about our News Monitoring here.

---