Posted on 02/18/2005 6:35:36 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - A week after announcing his resignation, embattled Secretary of State Kevin Shelley quietly named a Sacramento area attorney to a four-year term on the state board that regulates California's political campaigns.
Shelley appointed A. Eugene Huguenin, a former staff lawyer for the California Teachers Association, to succeed Thomas Knox on the Fair Political Practices Commission. Knox's term expired Jan. 31.
Shelley, facing allegations that he mishandled federal election funds, accepted tainted campaign contributions and sexually harassed employees, announced Feb. 4 that he would leave office March 1.
According to news reports, the FPPC is one of the agencies looking into $125,000 in campaign donations made to Shelley by recipients of state grants for a San Francisco neighborhood center that was never built. Shelley, as a state assemblyman, helped win approval of that grant money.
Shelley notified the FPPC last week by fax that he was naming Huguenin to the commission, said Jon Matthews, a spokesman for the FPPC, which enforces California's campaign donation disclosure requirements.
Shelley's office didn't announce the appointment. The FPPC issued a press release on it Friday. Matthews said Huguenin plans to be sworn in Monday.
"We look forward to meeting Mr. Huguenin and working with him on the commission," the FPPC's chairwoman, Liane Randolph, said in a statement.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has nominated former state Sen. Bruce McPherson, a Santa Cruz Republican, to succeed Shelley, but Matthews said McPherson, if confirmed as secretary of state by the Legislature, would not be able to remove Huguenin from the commission.
"There's no provision in the Political Reform Act that would allow the revoking of an appointment by the next appointing power," Matthews said.
Schwarzenegger's office had no comment on the appointment. Neither did Caren Daniels-Meade, Shelley's press secretary.
Huguenin, a Democrat who spent 27 years with the CTA, a teachers' union, said he didn't know Shelley personally and assumed that he was appointed because of "recommendations from others."
"I have a reputation as an experienced labor and employment law attorney," he said. "I've spent a lot of time representing public sector unions and their members. My guess is that based on that experience my name was put forward to Mr. Shelley as someone worthy of the appointment."
He said some of his work has involved advising clients on issues related to the FPPC. "I am familiar with the agency and what it does."
Asked if Shelley should have let his successor fill the FPPC vacancy, Huguenin said, "He had some authority which he chose to exercise, which was his right to do."
Huguenin has a law office in Elk Grove, a Sacramento suburb, and represents clients in labor, education and employment matters.
The governor appoints two of the five members of the FPPC, including the chair. The rest are named by the secretary of state, attorney general and state controller. No more than three members can be members of the same political party.
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On the Net: www.fppc.ca.gov
Coincidences? or just Business as usual?
Shmelleygate Ping
Gezzz, are there ANY dems who aren't corrupt to the core?
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