(cross-posted on the
BetterCA blog)
Everyone knows Arnold is in China talking up business. But who is joining him and who exactly is paying for this three city tour? The Chronicle blog has a
long list of the 11 staffers, a hand full of advance/security folks, upwards of 30 CHP, 3 cabinet members and one Marty Wilson, the governor's chief fundraiser who are all in China with Arnold and Maria.
Why is Marty around? Well someone has to handle the business executives from Chevron, Target, Pfizer etc. See, they paid for the trip. The get, as a perk, to travel with the Governor's entourage. They basically bought themselves access to Schwarzengger and will have several events where they can rub elbows with him. Don't worry they are not on the plane with him, but United did offer discounts to anyone who donated to fund the trip.
Let's unravel the money trail. The
LA Times several weeks ago wrote an excellent article on this whole pay to play boondoggle. Now, first of all, it is not totally unheard of for California governors to solicit money to pay for trips, rather than having the taxpayers foot the bill. (Not the greatest ethical idea, but he is not way out in left field.) What are very troubling are the close ties between the donors, those soliciting the donations and the Schwarzenegger administration. In addition, the refusal to disclose who is donating raises serious ethical questions.
For months now they have been gathering up donations to pay for the trip into the California Protocol Foundation (CPF), which is a tax-exempt organization that does not have to disclose its donors. Grey Davis had a similar arrangement in 1999, when he traveled to the Middle East and Europe. He however, chose to disclose who had paid for the trip. Why would the Schwarzenegger administration be "willing to take the heat to try to protect donors"? What does he plan on signing, or not signing that would bring pay to play headlines?
The CDF hired several people along with Marty to coordinate the donations and the company's face time with the governor:
To manage the business delegation traveling with the governor, the Protocol Foundation has hired the public relations firm Apco Worldwide. Two former members of Schwarzenegger's staff, Cassandra Pye and Denise Davis, joined Apco's Sacramento office this year. Both are going on the China trip, which begins Nov. 14.
Another public relations firm tapped to help with the visit is Manning Selvage & Lee. The firm retains as its West Coast branch a company co-owned by Martin Wilson, Schwarzenegger's main fundraising aide.
They have carefully choreographed the announcements of previously worked out business deals. After all, they need to make it look like Arnold is actually getting something done over there. The head of the jobs commission, in advance, solicited from the business groups the announcements. They made abundantly clear that they only wanted certain types of deals:
From a memo from the Executive Director of the jobs commission Mark Mosher to the businesses tagging along on the trip:
Please note that we are only interested in products or services that are not controversial.
When we hear the announcements later this week, remember these were not a result of this trip, nor are they a measure of its success.
We have not seen any figures for the total expense of this trip, but given the entourage, I am sure it will be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Transparency and accountability are not hallmarks of the Schwarzenegger administration, despite his campaign declarations not to take special interests money. Just another example of say one thing and do another.