In a weird twist, a local politico logs an FPPC complaint against the Weekly.

At a local newspaper this time of year, leading up to an election, we receive tons of tips about alleged campaign violations. About a week ago, I fielded a confusing (and confused) call from a volunteer who took issue with big signs for a candidate mounted on private property around Salinas. This week, Squid opines on a candidate for Alisal Union School District shredding his competitor’s flier.

But it was a little weird when we received a notification from the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the state’s election watchdog agency, on Oct. 26, of a complaint against the Monterey County Weekly.

The grievance concerns the cover of our Oct. 13 issue, which we dedicated to endorsements for candidates and ballot measures in the Nov. 8 election. As is our custom, we put someone we are endorsing – in this case, Tyller Williamson for Monterey mayor, with his dachshund, Sasha – on the cover. (We did not endorse Sasha, preferring bulldogs.)

“This publication which claims to be under the guise of an endorsement, is effectively not an endorsement but an actual advertisement for the endorsed candidate,” Jeff Davi wrote in his complaint to the FPPC.

Davi was wrong on all counts. First, the cover of the Monterey County Weekly is for editorial coverage, and it’s not for sale. The FPPC does not have regulatory control over our editorial content, nor does anyone – the very definition of independent. When it comes to advertising, all candidates may purchase ads throughout any given issue and many do, whether they receive an endorsement or not.

That same Oct. 13 issue is a perfect case study: Williamson had a full-page ad, and his opponent, Dan Albert, bought a quarter-page ad. (Davi conveniently omitted Albert’s ad from his complaint to the FPPC, but he did attach Williamson’s ad. Even more head-scratching, he included an ad from the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District about desalination.)

Davi seemed to be alleging a failure by our newspaper to properly identify a political advertisement, which requires an FPPC-assigned campaign committee number, to disclose to readers (and prospective voters) who has paid for an ad. In the case of the cover image, there is no FPPC committee number – because it’s not an ad.

Our editorial board responded to the FPPC with about a dozen recent examples of putting a candidate or ballot measure on our cover – and also a few ads that Davi himself placed in the Weekly back in 1993, when he ran unsuccessfully for Monterey County supervisor.

Davi should know the difference between ads and editorial. This year, Davi filed a Form 501 with the Monterey City Clerk’s office, indicating his intention to run for City Council, something he did not follow through on. He was appointed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as state real estate commissioner. He’s long been involved in local politics as a former member of the Republican Central Committee.

What was Davi – whose family is also a longtime Monterey property owner and manager – really trying to do here; subvert support for Williamson?

I called Davi to ask what he was thinking. “I thought it crossed the line into basically giving him advertising,” he told me.

Anyone can file a complaint with the FPPC, and then it’s up to staff there – these days, that’s four people, each sorting through a stack roughly 100 complaints deep – to determine whether to launch an investigation.

In this case, staff decided to reject Davi’s allegations, at roughly the same time Davi says he followed up to withdraw his complaint anyway. After we spoke, Davi called me back to apologize.

We’ve published stories about the steep decline of newspapers doing endorsements. Unlike social media or other media platforms that have no vetting process, we conscientiously and deliberately make our endorsements, after hours of research and painstaking interviews. We do it not to make friends, but to encourage readers to engage in local politics and to spur a conversation—and, we hope, to influence the outcome of elections in a way that our editorial board believes moves the community forward in a positive direction.

We always get feedback and pushback on our endorsements, but I think this custom serves a valuable role in the community. If you disagree, and we expect many of you will, you can write a letter to the editor, buy an ad with your message or, of course, vote for the other candidate.

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@mcweekly.com