I think that when the voters put term limits in place, one reason that many did so was because being an elected legislator should not be a career. Rather, it should be an opportunity for those who have had very real life experiences to spend a six or eight years in Sacramento, and then they would return back to the private sector, allowing other noble citizens to step forward and give of their time.
Long gone are the days of ‘career-politicians’ who serve twenty, thirty or in some cases over forty years in the legislature. Long gone are the kind of parochial politicians who use their offices to milk millions out of political supporters to enhance their lifestyles, and to live supremus alius – above others. Willie Brown is and his kind are long gone, right? WRONG.
I was absolutely floored today when I received a copy of a complaint filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) against State Senate President Don Perata (pictured right) by Bob Adney, the newly hired Executive Director of the California Term Limits Defense Fund. You may recall that recently the folks at US Term Limits gave Perata their Golden Pig award. Well, it’s no wonder. YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS…
Since his first election to the State Legislature in 1996, Perata has raised millions of dollars in political contributions. This complaint alleges that (as apparently pointed out in an article in a local newspaper) over that time several hundred thousand dollars of those contributions appear to have been spent on personal rather than political expenses.
The eye-popping part of the complaint goes into some detail:
A quick review of Attachment A reveals 1) over $7,500 in payments to Abigail’s – a woman’s clothier; 2) over $2,000 in payments for office audio equipment; 3) over $75,000 in unexplained credit card expenses; 4) over $8,500 spent at various bookstores (including $231.51 for meals at “Cody’s Books” despite the fact that the bookstore does not sell food); 5) over $6,000 in expenditures for wine; 6) over $2000 spent for luggage; 7) over $1500 in expenses for Italian ceramics from Bella Ceramica; 8) an “unexplained” $4000 expense to Delora Properties; 8) over $750 in purchases for high-end writing instruments from Fahrneys Pen; 9) a $226.50 expense for meals at Galleria Scola which does not sell food (but does provide custom framing); 10) $544.80 in payments to Harrington Catalog – a high-end catalog clothier; 11) over $11,000 in expenses at Macy’s and Nordstrom’s department stores; 12) over $17,500 expended at St. Joseph’s Woodworks; 13) over $30,000 spent at Target department store; 14) over $18,000 in chartered air travel expenses; and 15) over $75,000 in gifts to staff, constituents, and other legislators.
Attachment “A” is merely a highlight of an entire list of expenditures the undesigned alleges were personal appropriations paid for by funds from Senator Perata’s various controlled committees. The full list of expenditures is found attached to this letter as Attachment “B.” It is each and every expenditure listed in Attachment B for which the undersigned is filing a formal complaint against Senator Perata, and for which the undersigned requests the FPPC to investigate and commence civil or administrative action.
We have placed "Attachment A" and "Attachment B" to this post for your own personal review (they are in Excel format).
The complaint, as these legal documents will do, goes on to state the specific legal case for why you can’t use donated political funds for personal use.
It is our hope that the FPPC will quickly take up this complaint due to the extremely egregious nature of the allegations (and the brazenness and quantity of the non-political expenses).
In the meantime, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist for Gale Kaufman, Matthew Dowd and the other consultants running the Perata/Nunez term-limits weakening measure that they are running their race with an anchor around their neck — a very heavy one — a Golden Pig, in fact.
June 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am
You were “floored” by a meritless publicity stunt? Puh-leez. If this is what the anti- term limits reform is going to be all about, it’s going to do worse than it already is in the polls now. The FPPC isn’t going to act on this because it’s bunk.
June 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am
How typical, when confronted with evidence of clear misconduct label it as a publicity stunt.I talk to real people everyday from every walk of life which is a lot better than any of your “Polls designed to get the answer you want”.Your politician protection act is going to go down in flames. Wave goodbye to Hugo Nunez and Fidel Perata for me.
June 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am
There’s no evidence, hence the political stunt. If there were, then someone besides the Term Limits campaign would have pursued it long, long ago.
Also good to see Term Limits lawsuit laughed out of court again today.
June 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am
I tell you what. Why don’t you send out a mailer to every voter in the state listing all the expenditures on his own attachment? I do presume that this is his own offices report right. If the voters of the state of California approve of these expenditures then so be it. But something tells me you won’t do this. I’ve shown the list to friends of mine who are all working class people and they all want to know how they can get this kind of job where you can spend other peoples money and not have to answer to anybody for it. Then they all began to realize, hey that’s our money he’s spending.