Rising California political star Evan Low was just hit with a massive fine for concealing political donations and payments, and one payment that stands out was $227,000 under the table to actor Alec Baldwin for showing up at a Lunar New Year party.

You may have occasionally seen headlines about a B-list (but rising) Bay Area political figure named Evan Low. Low became the nation’s youngest openly gay Asian American mayor in 2009 when appointed Mayor of Campbell, went on to spend ten years in the California state Assembly, and co-chaired Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign. Over the last year, Low was in the headlines for a stunningly close race for US Congress that almost ended in a dead-heat tie, though Low would win the second spot in that primary by just five votes, and then go on to lose the race to Sam Liccardo this past November.  

Now out of office, Low is back in the news for reasons he will not welcome. CalMatters reports that the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) has dinged Low for 18 separate campaign finance violations, and that Low and his affiliated political committee have agreed to pay a $106,000 fine.

But the one concealed payment that stands out here is a payment from Low’s technology-focused nonprofit called “the Foundation for California’s Technology and Innovation Economy,” which bizarrely paid actor Alec Baldwin $227,000 to show up at a conference and a Low fundraising event, and then claimed Baldwin only showed up as an unpaid volunteer.

Low and company have scrubbed that event off of Facebook, but some record of it still exists in the form of the above tweet from the California Podiatric Medical Association. This was in February 2020, shortly before the pandemic hit, well before Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charges on the set of the film Rust, and a time when Baldwin was best known for his Saturday Night Live Trump impersonations. As stated in the tweet, the Low fundraiser was intended to “ring in the Lunar New Year” and that “This year’s special guest was actor Alec Baldwin."

The now-deleted Facebook invite said “For the Year of the Rat, expect big surprises and a big name,” and “Trust me, you won’t want to miss out on this special ‘presidential-esque’ event!”

Low told FPPC investigators that Baldwin came on his “own accord” and as a volunteer. But the investigators found that Low’s nonprofit actually paid Baldwin $227,000, which they did not disclose as required by law.

KTVU has the full 26-page report, which details many “behested” payments that Low and his affiliated nonprofits solicited from big-money players like Apple, Facebook, AT&T, and Gilead Sciences. While the payments were made to very nice-sounding nonprofits like Equality California and the Foundation for California’s Technology and Innovation Economy, they could have been seen as influence-buying with then-Assemblymember Evan Low.

“During the investigation of this matter, the Enforcement Division identified multiple accrued expenses, paid for by the Foundation, that the Committee and Low failed to timely disclose,” the FPPC said in their report. “Additionally, the Committee and Low failed to timely disclose subvendor payments made associated with the accrued expenses, failed to maintain records of the accrued expenses and subvendor payments, and improperly terminated the Committee. Furthermore, Low failed to verify each of the Committee’s campaign statements were true and correct.”

CalMatters actually ran a detailed report on the lunchtime event that Alec Baldwin attended (for his fee) not long after it happened in February 2020. As that outlet reported at the time, the luncheon “featured discussions by representatives from Uber and a driverless car company, as well as a lunchtime visit from actor Alec Baldwin, who on the Celebrity Speakers Bureau advertises speaking fees that start at $100,000.”

That site also added that “Conference organizers had hotel security remove a CalMatters reporter from the property before lunch began.”

Evan Low is not currently holding any public office in the state of California, and is now president and CEO of a political action committee (PAC) called the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund. It remains to be seen whether this scandal keeps him from running for office again. And it also remains to be seen whether this tempers Low’s fascination with famous Hollywood celebrities. A Getty Images search on Low’s name shows him hobnobbing with comedians Kathy Griffin and Jenny Yang, and he's apparently a frequent attendee of glitzy gala events.

Related: The Race for Second for South Bay Congressional Seat Has Ended In a Tie? [SFist]

Image: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 11: Assemblyperson Evan Low speaks onstage at CAPE's Radiance Gala Celebrating API Women & Non-Binary Achievement in Entertainment at Wilshire Ebell Theatre on March 11, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for CAPE (Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment))