THE LAWS OF PERCEPTION

Sunday’s Orange County Register included an article, “Questionable Campaigning” by Jim Hinch and Kimberly Kindy, that raises questions the state’s taxpayers deserve to have answered. For instance does Schwarzenegger’s staff really know the law regarding the use of state resources for campaign activity?

Schwarzenegger adviser Marty Wilson was quoted saying, “Number one, we know what the law is, and probably more important than the law is the public perception,”

Really, Marty? Perception is more important than the law?

In any event, the governor’s staff may want to consult the advance team’s cook book because according to the Register’s investigation they’ve been whipping up a “recipe for disaster,” as Mr. Wilson put it. Here are some highlights and a link to the article:

“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has used taxpayer- funded resources on numerous occasions to advance his own campaign agenda - promoting ballot initiatives and calling on voters to remove Democrats from office - despite several state laws intended to restrict such activities. Schwarzenegger's state staff has planned entire campaign events, scouted locations, overseen construction of elaborate backdrops, and taken and posted campaign photos on the governor's official Web site - often on the taxpayers' dime. State law forbids using ‘state resources for a campaign activity.’” (OC Register, 5/8/05)

But wait, there’s more:

“Rob Stutzman, Schwarzenegger's communications director, said the governor has broken no laws. However, Stutzman and administration lawyers gave conflicting explanations of why the governor's activities have been legal…

“Stutzman said that whenever state resources - such as the five-member advance team that readies sites for rallies and other events - are used for political purposes, they are reimbursed from one of Schwarzenegger's campaign bank accounts.

“But when pressed by the Register to provide proof of this claim, the administration's legal staff changed its reasoning to assert that because advance team members are ‘a complement to (the governor's) security detail,’ taxpayers can foot the bill for their work at fundraisers and other campaign-related events.

The distinction is significant because state law entitles a governor to 24-hour protection by Highway Patrol officers. But there is no provision exempting other staff from laws intended to separate state from political work. The cost to taxpayers of folding Schwarzenegger's advance team into his security detail: more than $1,700 per day. (Orange County Register, 5/8/05) http://www.ocregister.com

I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that the line between campaigning and governing is so blurry to the Governor’s staff, considering Schwarzenegger himself doesn’t seem to have a clue that governing happens INSIDE the Capitol not while driving around it in a Humvee.

But in any case, the Guv’s lawyers and staff need to sit down and have a little chat about how the law is what keeps policy, politics, and money separate, not public perception.

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