Imperial Nonsense

The LA Times carried a story today about a member of the California Board of Equalization today and his relationship to a foundation which his wife serves as an employee. The Pacific Policy Research Foundation collected a lot of dough from a series of corporations which have issues before the board. The PPRF seems to have had one function for those donations - that is to organize a conference in Maui (afterall that is in the Pacific) which the Board Member (Bill Leonard) attended. Were the corporate contributions to have come as campaign money there would be a limit - but because these are "charitable" there is not a limit. The organization seems to have had two employees - a former member of the State Assembly (who quipped "I do not know where the conflict is." and Leonard's wife. Almost anyone who looks at this would have the same reaction to this activity as to the revelations that a member of congress (John Doolittle) used his wife as a fund-raiser who then pocketed 15% of all that was raised for his campaign. Doolittle made the same outrageous claim about that conflict. In either case it would be good for the elected official to think a bit about the appearance here. But beyond the appearance here someone else should think about the substance.