The California Fair Political Practices Commission, a state government ethics watchdog, is now investigating both candidates in Long Beach’s 2nd District City Council race for allegedly violating a campaign advertisement law.

Cindy Allen, a businesswoman and former Long Beach Police officer, and Robert Fox, a businessman, have filed dueling complaints with the FPPC, both alleging their opponent failed to include “paid for” disclaimers in campaign text message ads.

State law mandates that all candidates and political committees must include “disclosures on campaign advertisements that identify the committee that paid for or authorized the communication.”

The FPPC on Tuesday launched an official investigation into Fox following a complaint from Allen. On Friday, it launched an investigation into Allen following complaints from Fox’s campaign manager Ian Patton and supporter Deborah Mozer.

Text message from the Cindy Allen campaign.

The agency has not made any determination about the validity of the allegations. FPPC investigations can often take months to be completed.

Allen in a statement on Saturday noted that the FPPC is still investigating and has not made any findings. She said two of the text messages in question had a hyperlink to the campaign website, which clearly identifies that the messages were sent from Allen.

Patton, Fox’s campaign manager, fired back stating that Allen has deliberately tried to mislead voters.

“She has no plans to fix parking, police practices, homelessness, or devastated small businesses,” Patton said, in a statement Saturday. “She only has insults to our intelligence.”

The dueling FPPC complaints filed days before the November election are part of a contentious runoff in which both candidates have accused each other of mud-slinging and running dishonest campaigns.

Fox’s campaign has accused Allen of voter registration fraud and living in her Fountain Valley home rather than her Long Beach condo, while Allen has accused Fox’s campaign of stalking and other illegal activities.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to note that Allen is a former owner of the Long Beach Post but has not had any involvement with the Post since she sold it in 2018.