On the campaign trail last fall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
theatrically promised to take his broom and sweep the insider
dealing out of the capital.
On the campaign trail last fall, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger theatrically promised to take his broom and sweep the insider dealing out of the capital. The cleansing agents in his janitor’s cart included promises to ban political fund raising during the budget process and to close campaign financing loopholes.
This was fine rhetoric, but Schwarzenegger has shown little interest in matching it to reality.
Less than six months after his election, Schwarzenegger has broken the fund-raising records of his predecessor, Gray Davis. Just last week, he set up a nonprofit corporation that amounts to a campaign-money Laundromat, allowing his political machine to avoid disclosing the sources of donations. The California Recovery Team is, under the law, a “social welfare” entity … dedicated to improving the plight of suffering humanity. How? By pressing Schwarzenegger’s political projects.
Schwarzenegger’s people say they won’t use the nonprofit to conceal contributions, but there’s no particular reason they couldn’t. Their actions deserve watching, because the governor has a convoluted record on campaign finance. First he wouldn’t take special-interest donations, then he narrowed “special interest” to mean unions and Indian tribes. This month his team decided it was unseemly to take campaign money from insurance companies amid negotiations about workers’ compensation, but the industry has already donated more than $900,000 to his causes. Will that all be so quickly forgotten?
It’s hard to fault Schwarzenegger’s fund raising in itself. Though popular with the voters, the Republican faces a hostile Democratic Legislature and wants to maintain at least a credible threat to put his proposals on the ballot for a popular vote. Getting the word out costs money, and his political rivals are racing to win their own games.
The irony is that Schwarzenegger is generally on the right political track – pushing toward balanced state budgets and relief for business in the form of workers’ compensation reform. Neither he nor his supporters have anything to hide. But his promises about clean and open government seem to be forgotten as he settles into Sacramento.
On the budget and a dozen other matters, Schwarzenegger has some major battles ahead. One of his most potent weapons is that famous broom. Here’s hoping he remembers how to use it.
