CA: Shelley staffers' political duties - Official used state resources in 2002 race, documents say

Mercury News ^ | 10/08/04 | Dion NIssenbaum

[NormsRevenge]

SACRAMENTO - Top deputies to Secretary of State Kevin Shelley enlisted government aides and used state resources to work on his political campaigns in possible violation of state law, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Mercury News.

While Shelley was an assemblyman running to be California's top elections official and after the San Francisco Democrat took office last year, aides drove his campaign manager to pick up donations, used state mail to ferry campaign checks to Sacramento and used a government fax machine to transmit political fundraising material, records and interviews show.

One regional director cited her political work in a memo prepared for Shelley that outlined her official duties, and a onetime field representative said she spent as much as half her workday in the campaign office at the height of the Democrat's 2002 race for secretary of state.

The documents and interviews suggest that the Shelley staff may have been improperly diverted from state work in violation of California laws meant to ensure that elected officials don't use taxpayer money to promote their political careers.

Blurring the line

``It's one thing to fax one document,'' said Robert M. Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies and a co-author of the state's Political Reform Act. ``But the problem is we have an accumulation of incidents here that indicates that there was no concern for using state resources for political purposes. There seems to be a conscious effort to blur the line.''

While Shelley declined to comment Thursday, his communications director, Carol Dahmen, said there were ``isolated examples of mistakes by individuals, but there is no pattern of abuse or misuse of public funds.''

[NormsRevenge]

ShmelleyGate

[calcowgirl]

With all those folks on Shelley's staff doing campaign work, it sounds like his office is a prime candidate for a budget cut. I wonder if eliminating campaign work was included as a CPR recommendation.

This is definitely not a good year for Shmelley:

Allegations that the Shelley staff mixed government and political work come as the ambitious politician is facing several state and federal investigations. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission and California state auditor are looking into whether Shelley improperly used non-partisan federal voting funds for partisan political purposes. Meanwhile, the FBI, the California attorney general and the state political watchdog agency are probing whether one of his loyal fundraisers was involved in a money-laundering scheme.

[GSWarrior]

A corrupt Democrat from San Francisco? Knock me over with a feather boa.

[NormsRevenge]

It must be a karma thing .. :-}

[calcowgirl]

>>It must be a karma thing .. :-}

Yep, that must be it.

Hey... Arnold said he would save Billions by rooting out fraud and waste in the Capitol.
Pssssst... Arnie, over here.... check Shelley's office. ;-)