In fact, the FPPC's regulations may constitute that agency's most significant decision-making since it was created more than two decades ago in the wake of the Watergate scandals. With no criminal prosecutorial authority, the FPPC is relegated to levying fines -- a maximum of $2,000 per count -- to force, wheedle and cajole politicians into obeying the state's political finance laws.

It has had indifferent success: The fines are generally levied too late to have an impact on an election, and the penalties can be paid out of campaign funds, which means the personal funds of a candidate generally emerge unscathed.

But last week, in the latest in a series of regulatory moves, the FPPC crafted rules that apply to political action committees and major donors.

Voters approved Proposition 208 by more than 60 percent of the vote, and the initiative gave the FPPC the authority to write the specific regulations to implement the controversial new law.

Among other things, the initiative limits campaign donations from individuals and political action committees to $100 to $1,000, depending on several factors including the specific election.

Campaign consultants thought they had found a loophole in the law, which would have allowed candidates to create shadow PACs and major donors to funnel money to a specific campaign.

In effect, instead of one large donation of the kind targeted by Proposition 208, shell committees and donors would have been established to make numerous modest donations, thus bypassing the intent of the initiative.

But the FPPC closed the apparent loophole after an all-day session in which the panel went through a minute discussion of a half-dozen separate proposals. Finally, the five-member panel adopted complex new rules defining so-called "affiliated entities" -- the bureaucratic euphemism for shell committees and donors -- that effectively blocks the replication or cloning of conduits for campaign funds.

The FPPC's action, one of several involving Proposition 208, has not caught the public's attention. But next year, when voters go to the polls, the agency's decisions will be felt.

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