California high speed rail commission set to award contract to group with ties to Schwarzenegger

$9-million public relations deal is set to go to a firm led by the governor's top political advisor and his former campaign manager. Ethical questions are being raised.
By Shane Goldmacher



Reporting from Sacramento - California's high speed rail commission, dominated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appointees, is set to award a $9-million contract today to a company led by the governor's top political advisor and his former campaign manager.

The three commission staff members charged with recommending a public relations firm have advised the board to give the contract to Mercury Public Affairs at its meeting today. Schwarzenegger strategist Adam Mendelsohn is a partner at Mercury, as is Steve Schmidt, who managed the governor's 2006 reelection effort.

Two members of the staff panel are former Mendelsohn colleagues.

Ethics watchdogs raised questions about the appearance of favoritism.

"You can't help but raise your eyebrows," said Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause. "We are seeing a revolving door of legislators and former state officials and state employees going from public service to private PR firms . . . and pulling on all the personal relationships that they've developed to build up their business."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rail3-2009sep03,0,5428988.story

Do I smell kickback.

How did this guy get to be governor.

But I'd also like to see ahnuld recalled investigated indicted tried convicted and imprisoned for malfeasance in office (or worse).

So is this good news or bad news?

It certainly does not help that the cause is tarred by this kind of slimy conduct. But the point about the revolving door is well taken. A problem for governments at all levels.

consortium....

and yet they can fork over 9 million for a PR campaign? :wtf:

I'm sure you can explain it in detail from over there in Alabama.

it's bonded, voted on by the electorate and the funds are hypothecated in line with a the budget submitted to the state auditor and approved by the voters. In short, this contract has to be awarded to someone, by law. Whether it should be awarded this particular firm is open to debate, your argument about comparing with the state general fund is not.

If you don't understand CA law and the bond process, then you have no idea what you're talking about.

1) California can't pay it's bills.

2) Despite this, it wants to spend 9 mil on an ad campaign.

The rest is just bureaucratic hogwash.

Because of deflation, Ahnnnuld only wants to give 9 MILLION, not the usual Billion, to his cronies.
So there's savngs, right there !

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Steve_Schmidt

Steve Schmidt is a veteran campaign strategist and public relations expert. . . .

In his career to date he has been:

* Communications director for Senate campaign of Matt Fong. (1998)
* Advisor to Republican presidential candidate Lamar Alexander.
* Spokesman for the Republican National Congressional Campaign Committee.
* Chief strategist in charge of Supreme Court nominations of Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Chief Justice John Roberts.
* Counselor and spokesman for Vice President Dick Cheney.
* Member of the exclusive "breakfast club" led by top White House adviser Karl Rove that ran President Bush's re-election campaign. (2004)
* Campaign Manager for re-election campaign of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. (2006) . . .

On July 2, 2008, Schmidt was promoted to heading up day to day operations of the McCain campaign in response to concerns that the McCain campaign was losing ground to Obama.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Schmidt

The New York Times described Schmidt's management as having transformed the McCain campaign into an "an elbows-out, risk-taking, disciplined machine," crediting him with aggressive responses to press criticism and creative methods of manipulating the news cycle.

Time's Michael Scherer, in an opinion piece from September 15, 2008 relating to Schmidt's involvement with John McCain's presidential campaign stated that Schmidt, the "lord of outrage, has a long and prosperous career ahead of him."