In the previous post – I touched on the large amounts of money lavished on to the Capitol Resource Institute by Ted Gaines and Doug LaMalfa.
Have you started to wonder why with the state Billions in the hole, our state education ranked 49th, our credit rating last, our roads crumbling and a new bill just passed mandating 6 year olds be taught about homosexuality – why LaMalfa and Gaines have prioritized attacking Republican volunteers?
After the CRA Convention, we have uncovered a treasure trove of new information. It is becoming clear that Karen England’s behavior is motivated by far more than her irrational hatred of Tom Hudson, George Park, and me. Here’s the deal:
Many of the largest donors to the Capitol Resource Institute are incumbent officeholders. It is particularly odd that so many political candidates have donated campaign money, which is very difficult to raise under the limits of Proposition 34, to this dubious “charity” that cannot legally campaign for them. Campaigns get no tax deductions for donations to charities. You have to wonder what the campaign donors would think if they found out that their donations to a candidate were simply given away — presumably with no strings attached (since that would be illegal) — to a private charity instead of spent on legitimate campaign activities.
I am not saying that Senator Ted Gaines did anything wrong. Frankly, there has been way too much secrecy for me to draw any conclusions about that. Still, I have to wonder if Ted Gaines disclosed to his campaign donors that their money was going to be given away to a private non-profit organization that presumably cannot campaign for him. I assume he told them everything. I am no lawyer, but it seems screwy to me when a politician raises money for one purpose and spends it on another, especially without prior permission from the donors.
Either Senator Doug LaMalfa is a very generous man with other people’s money or else there is something more sinister going on here. Either way, we need more transparency. The Placer County Republican Party has disclosed every single expenditure, down to the penny, in its monthly Treasurer’s Reports. Maybe Senator LaMalfa should follow the Party’s example and tell his donors exactly what the Capitol Resource Institute did with their money.
Further, why has it taken this blogger to be the one to shed light on these financial arrangements? Shouldn’t Placer County’s loudest advocate of transparency have laid all her cards on the table months – even years ago?
The Capitol Resource Institute”s website says it all – information on their board of directors was wiped off of their website in 2010 when I first started making an issue of the donations and the connections of their board members. Your intrepid blogger happens to have an archived page showing Doug LaMalfa’s then chief of staff David Stafford Reade on the Capitol Resoruce Institute’s board of directors.
All I know is that it does not seem like a coincidence that Senator LaMalfa and Senator Gaines joined Karen England’s bizarre campaign against the Placer County Republican Central Committee after contributing so much money to the organization that employs Karen England.
And, of course there is the California Republican Assembly, the CRA.