Posted on 10/16/2004 11:26:29 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO - In public, California's 28th secretary of state is gregarious and warm-hearted -- a champion of open government, nursing-home reformer and leading critic of faulty electronic voting machines.
With roots deep in San Francisco politics, Kevin Shelley can rouse crowds in waterfront union halls and Nob Hill ballrooms. It comes naturally. His father was a congressman and San Francisco mayor, making the only son a crown prince of the city's Democratic establishment.
But Shelley's reign suddenly has been tainted by a growing crisis, involving possible misuse of federal election money and suspected fundraising abuses. Current and former aides say the controversy has helped expose a private, strikingly different side of the secretary of state: a hot-tempered and sometimes intimidating boss who has sought to turn his relatively obscure office into a vehicle for his partisan ambitions.
They say he can explode without warning, upbraiding an aide one day and hugging her the next.
``It was more like Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde personality,'' said Linda Robertson, who served as his executive assistant for a few months in 2003 in San Francisco. She recalled Shelley yelling, cursing and slamming doors. ``I've worked for men who were tough, but I've never watched anyone in the workplace as unprofessional as Kevin Shelley.''
Katie Farrell, a field representative and press aide who worked in Shelley's Assembly office for about seven months of 2002, agrees. She described the office as a ``pressure cooker'' and said Shelley was ``a time bomb waiting to go off.''
Three other female employees of the secretary's office have filed formal complaints citing times when Shelley flew off the handle, causing them to become agitated and anxious and, in one case, allegedly raising an aide's blood pressure.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Tyrant? That can't be right. He is a Democrat! We all know that the only tyrants are Republicans. /sarcasm
As more crap comes out about Shelly, how long can he last? Obviously the Democratic legislature seemed, absolutely silent on him.
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