HUGH HEWITT SHOW -- Calif. Attorney Gen'l Returns Oracle Contribution (Reuters)

SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said on Wednesday he would return a $50,000 campaign contribution from Oracle Corp. to prevent the appearance of conflict of interest as he probes a controversial contract the state signed with the software giant.

"Full, fair, nonpartisan and nonpolitical investigations have always been the standard for this office," Lockyer said in a statement.

"Returning the campaign contributions from Oracle will help ensure that partisans don't undermine public confidence" in the Oracle probe, he said.

Lockyer, a Democrat, has come under attack from some Republicans for the $50,000 donation, which he said was received "long before" Oracle became embroiled in a controversy over a $95 million software sale criticized as an expensive boondoggle by a state auditor.

Questions over the software contract have created political problems for Democratic Gov. Gray Davis (news - web sites), who has been forced to fire or suspend three aides amid revelations of document shredding and a $25,000 Oracle donation to Davis' own re-election campaign.

Davis has indicated he plans to return that donation, although he has denied any impropriety in accepting it.

Lockyer, a Davis ally, said his own receipt of Oracle campaign funding created no conflict of interest and violated no law.

But he said the political furor over the donation threatened to undermine his official probe as a "nonpartisan law enforcement endeavor" -- leaving him little choice but to return the cash.

Oracle, for its part, issued a statement on Wednesday saying there was "nothing out of the ordinary" about a major California-based company contributing to state politicians.

"We think it is important for us to participate in the political process," Oracle Chief Financial Officer Jeff Henley said, adding that other corporations ranging from Apple to Verizon had also given money to the governor in 2001.

Lockyer's probe is part of a larger investigation into the Oracle deal. This week, several senior Davis administration officials told a state legislative panel they felt pressured by their superiors to approve the contract despite concerns over its details.

The state audit of the deal said it was approved without competitive bids, had little administrative oversight, involved the purchase of far more software than California needed and could end up costing state taxpayers $41 million.

Davis, who faces re-election in November, has said he did not know about the deal and is as "mad as anyone" about it.

Oracle has offered to rescind the contract, although it says it stands by estimates the deal to order software in bulk for various government agencies could save California more than $100 million over the next decade.

Hugh was going nuts over this today. Lockyer must recuse himself.
Thanks for the ping!

Hmmmm... I seem to remember a SIMILAR case that happened recently, where an Attorney General had taken campaign donations from a corporation that he was charged with investigating, and in that case, HE recused himself - to avoid the appearance of impropriety...

From http://www.opensecrets.org/alerts/v6/alertv6_36.asp:

January 10, 2002 - Attorney General John Ashcroft, who announced today that he will recuse himself from the Justice Department’s criminal probe of fallen energy giant Enron, raised a total of $57,499 from the company for his failed 2000 Senate campaign. Nearly half of that total -- $25,000 – was given by Enron CEO Kenneth Lay to Ashcroft’s joint fund fundraising committee in the form of soft money. The Ashcroft Victory Committee also raised another $25,000 in soft money directly from Enron Corp., bringing the committee’s total take from Enron to $50,000...

There would therefore SEEM to be a precedent, but perhaps it only applies to Attorneys General with CHARACTER.

"Full, fair, nonpartisan and nonpolitical investigations have always been the standard for this office," Lockyer said in a statement...

"Always?"

This standard of "full, fair, nonpartisan and nonpolitical" investigations from Lockyer's office - if it EVER existed - must have been implemented sometime AFTER the "Spike" incident...

From http://www.pacificresearch.org/pub/cap/2001/01-06-13.html:

Vol. 6, No. 21: June 13, 2001

The Energy Crisis, Spike the Tattooed Dude,
and the Case for the Resignation of Bill Lockyer

SACRAMENTO – Bill Lockyer, California’s Attorney General, is an authoritarian thug who should resign. That’s the view of Tom Palmer, a senior fellow of the Cato Institute, based on a statement Lockyer made in a press conference about Kenneth Lay, chairman of Enron Corporation.
“I would love to personally escort Lay to an 8-by-10 cell that he could share with a tattooed dude who says ‘Hi, my name is Spike, honey,’” Lockyer said.
Palmer is one of the few to consider the serious implications of that statement. The Attorney General of California is the chief law enforcement official of the most populous state. But as holder of that office, Mr. Lockyer, “not only has admitted that rape is a regular feature of the state’s prison system, but also that he considers rape a part of the punishment he can inflict on others.” What if, Palmer speculates, the head of Enron were female?
Further, Palmer says, “he has publicly stated that he would like to personally arrange the rape of a Texas businessman who has not even been charged with any illegal behavior.” This leads Palmer to conclude that Lockyer is “an authoritarian thug, someone wholly unsuited to holding an office of public trust.”
Lockyer, who sponsored California’s hate-crimes law, singled out Mr. Lay because he is the chairman of a Texas-based company that is the world’s largest energy trader. Apparently, this justifies the appalling threats Lockyer made.
The Attorney General’s statements, says Palmer, reveal what imprisonment really entails in California. But they also symbolize the response of the Davis Administration to the energy crisis.
“Lockyer and Gov. Gray Davis,” says Palmer, “seem to think that the best way to keep the lights on is to threaten electricity producers with brute force, rather than offer to pay competitive rates in competitive markets. Are energy producers to blame for California’s energy problems? No. Bad policies, including rigid controls on retail prices of electricity, are the cause of the problem, not the people who generate energy.”
True to form, other leading Democrats, such as Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante, want to prosecute energy producers under California’s “three-strikes” laws, intended for violent criminals. The Davis Administration views the crisis as entirely due to “price gouging” by Texas energy companies. The approach Attorney General Lockyer is taking, however, is not new, notes Palmer.
“Scapegoating producers and threatening them with violence is an old ploy of authoritarians. Californians should not stand for it.” Palmer, therefore, concludes: “Lockyer’s remarks merit public disgrace and removal from office. After all, rape is not a form of legal justice in America, is it?”
It is of some significance that criminal lobbies such as the ACLU and prisoner-rights groups let the Attorney General’s statement pass without comment. So did editorial writers at major papers around the state, including the Sacramento Bee, a kind of Democratic Party newsletter. At this writing, Mr. Lockyer is still in office and has yet to publish a response. When he does, we will cite it extensively in this column.
– Lloyd Billingsley

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