Posted on 03/15/2009 10:13:19 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO — Eager to accommodate Sacramento's political leaders, interest groups picked up the tab for elected officials' meals, overseas trips, concerts and sporting events last year, perpetuating what critics decry as the influence game at the Capitol.
Statements of economic interests filed last week by elected officials with the state's watchdog agency, the Fair Political Practices Commission, provide a glimpse into the gift-giving culture woven into the age-old system of political favors traded among politicians and their well-financed courtiers.
Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Fremont, for instance, accepted tickets to a Neil Diamond concert from AT&T; four tickets — valued at $155, courtesy of Microsoft — to a Major League Soccer game at the Oakland Coliseum late last spring to see English star David Beckham's Bay Area debut; and four free tickets — worth $385 — for a day with his family at Universal Studios a year ago.
...
Torrico insisted he gives no more access to lobbyists than to regular citizens, but he declared he is swearing off gifts for the remainder of his time as an elected official.
This month, he introduced legislation to ban all gifts because he worries that the public wrongly perceives that lawmakers are vulnerable to the flattery and attention showered on them by interest groups.
Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Castro Valley, took an all-expenses-paid 10-day trip to Madrid, Spain, last spring — valued at $10,372.93, thanks to the largesse of the San Francisco-based California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy.
"Spain has been doing public-private partnerships for four decades, and it's important to learn what's happened," said Hayashi, ...
Lawmakers said the gifts were legal and modest — in some cases serving the public interest — and had no bearing on votes they cast.
(Excerpt) Read more at contracostatimes.com ...
When I found out... that I... had been accepting... gifts... from lobbiests... well, I was furious. Furious! This is exactly the sort of thing I promised myself, my family, and my constituents, that I would never do! I can't begin to tell you how absolutely over-the-top pissed I was. I took immediate action. I fired off urgent memos to myself, my staff, my advisors, my accoutants, and my attorneys, and laid down the law. That's it! No more! I am hereby swearing off... swearing off, do you hear me?! any... further... gifts of this type, of this sort, of this nature... for the remainder of my time as an elected official! No ifs ands or buts, you got that straight?
These clowns that accept largese on behalf of labor unions, environmentalist wackos, trial lawyers, etc are the same people who trash and smear businessmen for paying bonuses and holding corporate events.
Judge, I swear I didn’t do it, and I promise I’ll never do it again!
And if I do ever do it again, well, it won't be the me I once knew, and you can take that to the bank!
LibSpeak
Access to all, but favors by bills passed to benefit lobbyists interests costing taxpayers millions.
The access to "regular citizens" (commoners) reaps no benefits only lies of no problem with accepting thousands from those that get millions of commoners money.
...all-expenses-paid 10-day trip to Madrid, Spain, last spring — valued at $10,372.93, thanks to the largesse of the San Francisco-based California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy.
And gee now we have 30 million in the "stimulus" package for a harvest mouse in California.
In December, at the height of budget negotiations, trial lawyers and unions representing carpenters and firefighters — who had a deep interest in the outcome of the budget — footed a $13,440 bill to cover the Senate Democratic retreat at the posh Wine and Roses Hotel and Spa in Lodi.
Gosh no problem there. The unions don't get any specaial treatment in California.
Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, a leader in the campaign finance reform movement, said it's unavoidable that interest groups step in to fund caucus outings.
Of course it is unavoidable. Without special interest groups wining and dining you lavishly how would they get the taxpayers money from you? It has to go to someone, why not to those that gave you a massage and total spa treatment for your hard working body and ego.
"Gifts are insidious because they're pervasive and subtle," Heller (executive director with Consumer Watchdog) said. "When politicians are willing to accept gifts, they start to tread on the muck and that's when things get dirty."
Muck, dirt.
Politician wallowing grounds.
It’s easier to ignore that debt when you are in Spain.
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