An article in yesterday’s Sacramento Bee, “E-mail no-no cancels event: Potential givers were told they could discuss bill with governor,” provides us with yet another powerful example of why we need the reforms in Proposition 89, the Clean Money initiative put on the ballot by the California Nurses Association. Read this piece and you will wonder:
Why plastic surgeons were expected to give $500,000 to the Schwarzenegger campaign and some felt this was necessary to be able to discuss a bill with him?
Why Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar bill they opposed in 2004, SB 1336, which dealt with what is basically a turf war between plastic surgeons and dentists and passed the Assembly 67-2 and the Senate 30-0?
Why the Executive Director of the California Society of Facial Plastic Surgery, a group of over 200 members would e-mail them that “This event will provide us with a very important opportunity to discuss our opinions about Senate Bill 438 with the governor” at a time when that measure is making its way though the legislature at the end of the session and about to be placed on the Governor’s desk?
How many other groups with issues pending in Sacramento feel the need to hold fundraisers to get “access” to the Governor and other officeholders?
The governor’s campaign communications director, Katie Levinson, (formerly the Bush Director of White Television Operations) tried to brush it off, saying, “These actions by an individual not connected with our campaign were completely inappropriate and run contrary to the way we do business.” She had good reason to do so. It is illegal to combine fundraising with discussion of legislation.
But isn’t this reminiscent of that scene in Casablanca, where Captain Louis Renault said “I’m shocked, shocked to find there is gambling going on here.”?
Bob Stern, quoted in the Bee article, summed it up best:
It’s unusual for someone to make an overt connection between fundraising and government business, said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies.
“It’s rarely said,” Stern said. “It’s always unspoken. In a sense, this shows you what the reality is: People give because they want something from the government.”
You’ve got to wonder how many times this has been on people’s minds as we have a record number of fundraisers in Sacramento in August as reported in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Capitol Weekly in the last couple of days.
This is beginning to be one of the biggest open secrets in town. What made the particular plastic surgeon’s fundraiser news is that there was a written record of the expected quid pro quo: You give money, you get to talk.
Schwarzenegger’s cancellation of this event was necessary because this was not said in code or done in a subtle way. He has raised more money than any other elected official in the state of California, and this should come as no more of a surprise to him than the revelations in Casablanca. He should be replaced with Phil Angelides who is supporting the Clean Money Proposition 89, so there won’t be any lingering questions for those who cannot connect the dots.
