Pete Peterson, a member of the Democrat Party, wrote on Twitter, “The Republicans are right, but no one will listen in a state where Democrats have supermajorities.” He added, ‘something is happening.’ Then he linked to an article about Democrats getting rich. That is what is happening. It happens in the U.S. Congress too.
The article in the Sacramento Bee reports that having a supermajority pays off for some Democrats. The piece begins, “Recent stories revealing questionable monetary contributions and lucrative no-bid contracts suggest thereโs truth to the adage that โabsolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Here’s one example from the article:
Letโs start with Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Lakewood. An investigation by The Sacramento Bee and the Center for Investigative Reporting revealed thatย politically-connected corporate donors have pumped over $500,000 into nonprofits associated with Rendonโs wife, Annie Lam, in recent years.
โNonprofits are not required to publicly disclose their donors,โ wrote Hannah Wiley and Lance Williams. โBut since 2016, when Rendon ascended to the speakership, five nonprofits where Lam is employed have received donations or sponsorships from more than 50 entities, according to public records, promotional flyers and interviews.โ
Top donors include companies like PG&E, which donated $360,000 to three of Lamโs nonprofits from 2017 through 2019. Other big corporate donors include AT&T, Comcast, Coca Cola and PepsiCo.
โMore than half of the sponsors and donors are corporations that regularly lobby the Legislature on bills that have the potential to affect their bottom lines, records show,โ wrote Wiley and Williams.
โIn aย 2018 Sacramento Business Journal report, Lam said she had bumped fundraising by 768% for the API Caucus and boosted the Womenโs Caucus budget by 530%,โ they added.
Rendon vehemently denies any connection between his position as speaker and the surge in contributions to his wifeโs employers.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO NONPROFITS
Yet, as The Bee reported: โTwenty-one of the companies that have supported Lamโs nonprofits have also made a total of more than $350,000 in campaign donations to Rendon since he first ran for the Assembly in 2012, records show.โ
Thereโs nothing illegal about such contributions, but they raise obvious concerns about ethics.
โThe real question is if he werenโt speaker, would the nonprofits be getting this money?โ asked Bob Stern, who co-authored the 1974 Political Reform Act. โAnd the answer is probably no.โ
Read on at the Sacramento Bee to find out more about Newsom.
Never thought Iโd read: โThe Republicans are right, but no one will listen in a state where Democrats have supermajorities…โ Something is happening. https://t.co/RHwegpIoiH
โ Pete Peterson (@Pete4CA) February 24, 2021
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