Hahn Calls for Investigation Into Video

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn's congressional campaign said Wednesday that it plans to file a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against Republican rival Craig Huey's campaign in response to a new video attack ad that has surfaced online.

Huey's campaign has said that it has no connection with the viral video, publicly condemning it as "crap."

Hahn and Huey will face off  election to fill the vacant 36th Congressional District seat, which longtime Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) resigned from in February to join a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.

The video was reportedly credited to the third party, political action group Turn Right USA, and is titled "Give us your cash, B--ch!" (you have to be 18 or older to view on YouTube.) Images in the video place Hahn's photo over the head of a stripper and aligns her with gang members. 

Hahn alleged that Huey's campaign and the group appear to have coordinated on campaign efforts, violating federal independent expenditure laws.

She responded to the ad in a statement on her campaign website with this message:

"I thought I’d seen extreme, offensive campaign ads before, but then I saw the latest video posted by Craig Huey supporters.

If you haven’t watched it, don’t. But know that it's degrading to women in the worst way, and any reasonable candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives would demand that his supporters apologize and take down the video."

Turn Right USA issued a press release Wednesday explaining that filmmaker Ladd Ehlinger Jr. produced the video and "at no time was there ever any collusion between Turn Right USA and the Huey campaign. The Huey campaign has requested through the media for Turn Right USA to remove the video. Turn Right USA, called 'fringe' by the Craig Huey campaign, refuses this request."

Huey's campaign also has said that Hahn is mistaken and Huey has "no connection" with the video or those behind it.

"There is absolutely no connection between the Huey campaign and this
group,'' said Huey’s campaign manager Jimmy Camp to City News Service. "I am offended by the ad. I am offended by the group. I think they're despicable for distracting the voters of this district with this crap."

But Hahn's campaign has argued that the company Huey ordered yard signs from, CampaignLA, and the Turn Right USA group both have had post office boxes at the same Gardena address—the address Turn Right USA listed on its June 8 Federal Election Commission filing is the same address that CampaignLA listed in its May 2010 Federal Election Commission filing.

Under federal election law, political action committees can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, but may not coordinate mailings, television, radio, and online ads or any other communications with candidates.

— City News Service contributed to this report.