California In Meltdown as Politicians There Get Rich Off Elected Office!

CALIFORNIA IS IN MELTDOWN.
THE ELECTED CONTINUE TO INVITE ILLEGALS POUR OVER OUR BORDERS, AND IMPORT CHINESE AND INDIANS TO TAKE ALL JOBS REQUIRING LITERACY, SOMETHING MEXICANS LOATHE.
FORECLOSURES HAVE COST THE PEOPLE OF CA HALF THE VALUE OF THEIR HOMES.
AND YET THESE LIFER POLS HAVE GOTTEN FILTHY RICH OFF ELECTED OFFICE!



"I see no evidence of anything improper in this body," said Senate Rules and Administration Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D Calif.) during the floor debate.

Senators Diverting Campaign Funds to Kin

Loophole in Ethics Rules Is One That the Senate Did Not Close Last Year

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 24, 2008; A04
Under long standing congressional ethics rules, corporations, unions and other large organizations cannot directly pay senators stipends. But their contributions to senators' election campaigns can be paid without limit to the children, spouses, in laws and other relatives of the lawmakers, in a practice that has aroused controversy but is fully legal.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D Calif.), for example, paid her son Douglas $320,409.17 in campaign donations through his company Douglas Boxer and Associates from 2001 to 2006, CREW found. Douglas Boxer is a lawyer and a 10 year veteran of her political team, a Boxer spokesman said.
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State's top candidates bring wealth to resumes
Drew Joseph, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, July 30, 2010

(07-29) 19:26 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- If Robin Leach ever revives "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," he may want to spotlight the candidates in California's gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races, who have realized their champagne wishes and caviar dreams.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman has two homes in Atherton, together worth more than $15 million, and a $20 million ranch in Telluride, Colo. Her Democratic opponent, state Attorney General Jerry Brown, has a five-story home in the Oakland hills replete with sauna and wine cellar.
GOP Senate candidate Carly Fiorina owns two yachts - one for each coast - and Democratic incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer has two homes in California and a condo in Washington, D.C.
As Americans blame Wall Street corruption and excess for the recession and unemployment rates refuse to budge, resentment of the rich is growing. The four major California candidates are among the wealthiest ever to compete in a single election, and voters are questioning whether they can address the state and federal budget crises and relate to average people.
Although a Field Poll this month showed the large majority of voters - 81 percent - do not care how rich a candidate is, wealth has emerged as a central issue in this year's races. With the Republican nominees throwing personal millions into their campaign coffers, the focus of many campaign messages and attacks has turned to how much money a candidate has and how they spend it.
Of the remaining 19 percent of Field Poll respondents, 16 percent said they would be less likely to vote for a wealthy candidate, suggesting that some voters view rich candidates as out-of-touch with everyday Californians.
Pushing the point
It is something that Brown and Boxer, whose political careers overshadow their wealth, have been harping on. Boxer has lambasted highly paid former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Fiorina for sending jobs abroad. And opponents of former eBay CEO Whitman have criticized her for the money she made in connection with Goldman Sachs through a practice since outlawed and contend that she is trying to buy the election.
The Democratic candidates have not escaped scrutiny of their wealth, either. Boxer has a blind trust worth between $1 million and $5 million. And Brown's Oakland home created a stir not because of its $1.8 million value but because the residence conflicted with his promises of penny-pinching.
"People may perceive Jerry Brown to be affluent but pretending to be on the side of the working people," said Jeff Manza, who received his doctorate from UC Berkeley and heads the sociology department at New York University.
While Boxer and especially Brown are less wealthy than their opponents, when they claim to represent the interests of everyday people, it can make them seem inauthentic, Manza said. Billionaire Whitman and Fiorina, who received over $40 million when fired from HP, may appear more genuine because they appeal to different voters.
There is still some trepidation that comes with being a rich candidate. When 2008 Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain could not recall how many houses he owned, it showed an "egregious disconnect" with voters, said Robert Greenwald, the head of Brave New Films, which made anti-McCain films in 2008. In California's governor race, both candidates have refused to release their tax filings.
Silver spoons
Robert Gugerty, a construction worker from Campbell who participated in the Field Poll, said he was fed up with all four candidates and their wealth. He said that they had been "born with silver spoons in their mouths" and that they could not represent people of the working class like him.
But other people see Fiorina and Whitman's wealth as indicative of their promise as lawmakers. The candidates are rich because they succeeded in the business world, and they say they will bring that experience to a political world in need of economic acumen.
"Some folks are wealthy because they made themselves to be, and they promote that expertise," said Denise Roth Barber, research director of the National Institute on Money in State Politics.
Showing prudence
Eschewing talk of their private-plane lifestyle, Whitman and Fiorina have also tried to demonstrate prudence to connect with Californians. Fiorina has detailed how she worked her way up the corporate ladder from the first rung as a secretary.
In her 2010 book, "The Power of Many," Whitman describes herself as "one of those people who reaches to flip light switches off when I leave a room, whether I happen to be paying the light bill or not."
Whitman "doesn't flaunt her wealth in a way that's a turn-off," said Maddy Dychtwald, the author of "Influence: How Women's Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better."
Boxer and Brown's wealth has faced less judgment in part because they have political records to critique instead, and also because their assets are not on the scale of their challengers', particularly Whitman's.
"There's money," Roth Barber said, "and then there's money."