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Contributors
Patrick
Mallon -
Columnist
 Who's
After Perata's Job?
FBI interested in Sacramento's Senate leader...
[Patrick Mallon] 12/17/04
There's something missing in this story, and maybe we'll get
an answer soon.
Don Perata, the newly installed president pro tem of the California
Senate, the man who replaced termed-out legend John Burton, may
be on thin ice, despite being unanimously voted into this enormously
powerful position, just days ago, by his peers.
Mr. Perata is now under federal investigation for his business
relationships, and allegations of conflict of interest over public
contracts awarded in the Bay Area.
In 2003, several newspaper sources claimed to have strong evidence
that Perata helped move campaign money to an associate's consulting
business before then going to work for that same associate's
company as an adviser. However, a lawyer for the senate ethics
committee determined that there were insufficient grounds to
launch an investigation.
Today, the FBI apparently sees the same, and additional, details
differently.
Nick Perata, a political consultant who has worked on a number
of his father's campaigns, is under the microscope too. According
to disclosure reports, Nick Perata's political lobbying and campaign
work has generated more than $1.6 million since 1990.
Somewhere,
someone, or some group is serious about capitalizing on a wider
exposure of potential legal improprieties in the Perata
camp.
In a Dec.16 Los
Angeles Times story:
"A federal
investigation involving Don Perata, president pro tem of the
California Senate, and his political
circle intensified
Wednesday as the FBI raided the Oakland home of Perata's son,
Nick, a political consultant who has worked on campaigns with
his father."
The Times reported that the FBI called young Nick and requested
that he open the door to his house (and restrain his dogs), so
that agents could conduct their search. The agents removed a
computer and several boxes of documents. Nick left the site in
his truck, dogs in tow, while wearing a Halloween mask to avoid
photographers.
The probe seeks to give light to relationships involving work
and consulting services on BART contracts, as well as dealings
with people who have ties with the senator's political consulting
firm, Perata Engineering.
Now, it would be stupid to try to reach any conclusions from
an ongoing investigation, and I won't start here. However, it
is entirely equitable to bring readers up to speed on historical
background, raise theories (yes, just theories), and describe
potential beneficiaries should Mr. Perata eventually lose his
job. One important point: to date, not a single Democrat in the
legislature has advanced a visible and vigorous defense of the
accused.
Competition Within
Don Perata was a surprise victor of a secret ballot conducted
on Aug. 24 to choose a successor to John Burton. Perata beat
out Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier) in a vote she was sure she
would win. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) was in the running as
well. Perata was considered the most business friendly of the
three.
Escutia,
a member of the Latino Caucus, strongly backs "One
Bill" Gil Cedillo and immigrant driver's licenses. Kuehl,
the legislature's first openly gay member, aggressively supports
Mark Leno's ceaseless drive for gay marriage. Both positions
are extremely unpopular with mainstream California voters, not
that public opinion means much to this radical duo.
Dan Walters of the Sacramento
Bee surmised back on Nov. 24 that
there were still those in the party who didn't want to see Perata
succeed to the post. And though Perata was successful in attaining
the coveted seat earlier this month, it is interesting to note,
Walters said in November:
"One
scenario has Carole Migden, Burton's certain senate successor
from San Francisco, working with Escutia
to force a
new pro tem vote, in return for Migden's inheriting the top spot
when Escutia is termed out of the senate in 2006. Both Escutia
and Migden deny plotting along those lines."
Migden (D-San Francisco) was selected by Perata to head the
powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, a gauntlet every piece
of legislation must go through.
As well,
Migden, was "married" to her partner by San
Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome back in Feb, 2004, and was quoted
in the Washington Times then as saying: "We've done our
work; we've raised visibility ... and being a lesbian and gay
leader for 20 years, I understand about patience," Miss
Migden told the San Francisco Chronicle. "But this is igniting
America, and any Democrat that doesn't recognize it should step
back and get out of the way."
Who is Don Perata?
Don Perata is a Democrat representing the 9th senate district
from Oakland East Bay. He was elected to the California Assemblyman
in 1996, and became a senator in 1998. In 1986, he began a two-term
stint with the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. He was also
a hard-working teacher.
According
to Perata's website, "From 1966-1981,
he taught a generation of students Civics, English, History,
and a sense
of civic responsibility. His former students include policemen
and women, staff members to local and state elected officials,
school board members, teachers, musicians and members of the
Governor's Cabinet."
As in most
legislative bodies, real authority lies in who is the speaker,
and who runs the powerful committees. Perata is
the chairman of both the Elections and Reapportionment Committee,
and the Select Committee for Bay Area Transportation.
And this is where some of the intrigue may reside:
1.. Gov.
Schwarzenegger sounds serious about placing the issue of
reapportionment before the voters, and is incensed with an
intransigent legislature and an inability to change the political
composition of a statehouse dominated by uncompromising Democrats.
Last voting season, not a single state legislative office
changed
party hands.
2.. Perata,
and son Nick, have been accused of improprieties involving
contracts awarded to BART, and
dad now chairs an essential
transportation committee.
The situation seems to be getting messier both for the Perata's
and for Democrats in the senate. They don't want to appear overly
aggressive in an explosive investigation that may be politically
motivated, and they don't want a hobbled leader at a time when
Schwarzenegger appears willing to go over their heads with initiatives
for a part-time legislature, and another for redistricting gerrymandered
and secure voting districts.
Perata has
made constructive statements that sound contradictory to far-Left
Democratic orthodoxy. He has
publicly acknowledged
that California's middle class feels ignored by Democratic politicians
who are more concerned with driver's licenses for illegal immigrants
and gay marriage, and he believes that the party needs to reclaim
their confidence. He's talking economics, and "raising kids," bread-and-butter
issues, and self determination.
Perhaps Perata
has irritated certain legislative interests who don't want "one of their own" to
discredit narrow social engineering objectives.
Or perhaps there are Republican interests behind the FBI investigation.
And who knows, maybe Perata is guilty of misconduct, but either
way, we need to assume that he is innocent until the justice
system determines the outcome.
An Ugly History and Selective Enforcement of
the Law
Who should, and who should not, be aggressively investigated
for alleged violation of the law? Well, that depends. If you're
Kevin Shelley, our present Secretary of State, you're probably
safe in a state sympathetic to Democrats, and especially a Democrat
responsible for the administration of elections.
Former Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quakenbush, a Republican,
wasn't so lucky, and he deserved what he got back in 2000 when
he was forced to resign after it was found that his department
had transferred insurance settlement funds into several department-managed
foundations that benefited Quackenbush politically.
Steven Hayward,
a Bradley Fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington and
the author of Churchill on Leadership,
writing
in Reason Magazine back in 1997, said this about one of California's
ultimate power brokers, former San Francisco mayor and former
assembly speaker Willie Brown, a man who once described himself
as "the Ayatollah" of the legislature:
"Under Brown, the lobbying community became known as the "third
house," since lobbyists were a de facto branch of the legislature.
The biggest statist interests-the trial lawyers, the teachers'
union, and other labor groups-enjoyed a stranglehold on the legislature.
Membership on "juice" committees-banking, insurance,
natural resources-was highly coveted because these committees
allowed you to generate more campaign cash.
"Brown's
whole apparatus worked so smoothly; in fact, that widespread
rumor has it that when the FBI investigated
political
corruption in Sacramento in the mid-1980s, Willie was their main
target. The Feds never laid a glove on him. Two Republican legislators
went to federal prison instead."
Yes, in California politics, it may be in many instances that
enforcement of the law depends on who you are, and what you stand
for.
Hopefully the missing pieces to this story will surface soon.
We need a senate leader who is focused on the legislative priorities
of the state, not one who is worried about the next time the
FBI will burst into a house looking for a smoking gun.
In the meantime, the charade that is California government continues
along its ineffective path. With all this distraction, who has
the time and focus to concentrate on the fundamental duties of
state? I sincerely believe that Gov. Schwarzenegger is attempting
to do just that.
It would be nice if he could get some assistance from that madhouse
in Sacramento, a place where more time is spent watching out
for backstabbers and bogeymen than doing what is best for increasingly
disillusioned voters. CRO
Patrick
Mallon is a political journalist and author of California
Dictatorship: How Liberal Extremism Destroyed Gray Davis.
[read an excerpt]. Patrick
is a regular guest on talk radio programs throughout
the state
and nationally. He can be contacted at patrick@patrickmallon.com
copyright 2004 Patrick Mallon
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