Uh oh.
I wouldn't want to be in the position CA State Senator Ron Calderon or the California Latino Legislative Caucus are in right now, at least from what the Fresno Bee is telling us of the FBI raid that happened yesterday:
http://www.fresnobee.com/...
FBI agents raided the offices of Sen. Ron Calderon and the Legislature's 24-member Latino Caucus on Tuesday as part of an undisclosed investigation originating in Los Angeles.
Agents who executed the search warrants in the late afternoon left Calderon's office shortly after 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, carrying several boxes of material.
"Those warrants are sealed by order of the federal court; therefore we have no further information," said Tony Beard, the Senate's chief sergeant at arms, in a statement to the media. "The Senate has and will continue to fully cooperate with the agents in this matter."
Depending on what happens during the process of this investigation, it appears in a situation like this, Senator Calderon can't get any more of a high profile lawyer than Mark Geragos:
Calderon, D-Montebello, 55, a business-friendly lawmaker who belongs to a family political dynasty, is serving out his final two years as a representative of the 30th Senate District. Two of his brothers have previously served in the Legislature, and his nephew Ian Calderon now serves in the state Assembly.
Mark Geragos, Ron Calderon's lawyer, said prosecutors "have no case," and accused them of acting inappropriately in disclosing that the FBI was conducting a search.
"The U.S. attorney's office should be ashamed of themselves," he said. "They have no case, so what they do is they leak the sealed information in an effort to hassle innocent people, and that's all the comment I have."
When asked about the nature of the investigation, Geragos said, "What they're going after is anything to divert attention from their own misfeasance or malfeasance."
Here's some insight into the origins of the investigation:
http://www.fresnobee.com/...
The Los Angeles Times reported in 2011 that a Los Angeles County water district had awarded millions of dollars in contracts to politically connected individuals, including more than $750,000 in consulting fees since 2004 to former Assemblyman Tom Calderon, one of Ron Calderon's brothers.
While the FBI declined to comment on the reasons for the searches, the Calderon name surfaced when agents this year interviewed a man who had complained about the way the Central Basin Municipal Water District awards contracts.
Michael Franchek said he was interviewed on two separate occasions within the last six months after he raised concerns that his firm, Ecogreen Services, was denied a contract the water district had indicated his firm was poised to receive. The contract instead went to a firm affiliated with George Cole, who was later entangled in a corruption scandal and ultimately convicted when he served as a Bell city councilman.
"To me it reeked of cronyism," Franchek said.
It's also worth noting this:
Tuesday's FBI action at the Capitol is the first known raid since the late 1980s. That investigation led to 14 convictions on various corruption charges. Known as Shrimpscam, the scandal involved the agency setting up a phony shrimp company pushing a bill, leading to bribe solicitations.
I'm not going to make any more analysis on this as I just saw this report yesterday. I will say though that given the California Democrats have a large clout over the State Legislature, activism and voter registration, one cannot assume elected officials from our own party are always going to be transparent.
I don't know much about Ron Calderon or his history as a State Senator but when something like this news story hits the news, you can't help but wonder: How many more of these investigations or scandals do we have to deal with before more transparency is actually present in government?
Anyone have any thoughts?