As the 100th day of the Arnold
Administration approaches next Tuesday, campaign finance reports show
the Governor who said he didn’t need anyone else’s money will have
raised more than $100,000 per day for every day he has been in office
— ten million dollars total.
On Day 100, Arnold won’t be in California but high above Central Park
in the residence of Robert Wood Johnson IV raising as much as $500,000,
from New Yorkers who likely have a special interest in buying and
marketing a piece of California, or at least its $15 billion debt.
The governor, who ran on a platform of sunshine in government, owes the
public a guest list for the 100th day dinner at One Central Park West.
That would be a better return policy for the public than
Schwarzenegger’s recent return of a $100,000 contribution to an oil
distributor who Arnold purportedly perceived as too pushy about his
policy desires at a recent Sacramento fundraiser. Arnold’s clearly
concerned that his prolific fundraising has too high a profile, but a
1% rebate on his $100,000 per day habit is a little like Caligula
turning away a virgin at the doors to the orgy.
The Gov. is desperately trying to show that there is no relationship
between his fundraising and his pending policy decisions, but tell that
to the more experienced kahunas in Arnold’s $100K club like Pfizer,
Inc. which paid for its membership yesterday. That’s the same day the
pharmaceutical giant announced that it would stop selling its drugs to
online Canadian pharmacies that re-import to America; and of course
Pfizer is also against two recently introduced bills, one by Senate
Leader John Burton, that would allow Californians to re-import drugs
from Canada.
Shouldn’t Pfizer’s 1% be returned, too? The company could use that cash
to pay its share of the $1.3 billion that the pharmaceutical industry
owes the state, according to a recent Bush administration audit of
California’s Medi-Cal program. The "Collectinator" has yet to even ask
Pfizer for that check.
