http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/19/BAGKDBE2PV1.DTL
His quitting makes testimony less likely, Democrats say Christian Berthelsen, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Sacramento -- The chairwoman of the legislative committee investigating Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's handling of federal voting act funds Friday formally dropped her demand that Shelley testify next week, a marked change from last month when she threatened to subpoena him before he resigned.
Before he agreed to leave office, Democrats sought an agreement from Republican counterparts that Shelley would not have to testify if he agreed to leave office. Shelley's desire to avoid testifying before the committee was said by his associates to be a driving factor in his decision to resign.
Republicans never agreed to the overture, but Democrats suggested privately Friday that Shelley's departure from office made it less likely he would ever appear as a witness.
Shelley resigned Feb. 4 under an avalanche of criticism over everything from his treatment of employees and management of the federal Help America Vote Act to questionable contributions to his 2002 secretary of state campaign.
The California state auditor said Shelley's office may have misspent as much as $1.9 million in HAVA funds -- which were intended to modernize the voting infrastructure but were used to hire Democratic partisan consultants and associates of Shelley. The Joint Legislative Audit Committee began holding hearings into the matter in January.
The chairwoman of the committee holding the hearing, Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford, said she had made "no final decision" about whether Shelley would need to appear and said she had not ruled out calling Shelley as a witness eventually.
But there are other rifts developing between Republican and Democratic members on the committee, particular over the future scope and focus of the hearings.
Democrats have focused on making sure the federal funds are safeguarded. As Parra said Friday, her focus will be on "where are we now and what do we need to do" to ensure that California receives continued funding for voting system modernization.
Republicans, on the other hand, want to focus on how the funds were handled and who was responsible.
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Translation,, We DEmocRATs, caught with ourhands in the till, need to delay, deny and divert as much atention form the open abuse of federal voting funds in a partisna manner.
Democrats have focused on making sure the federal funds are safeguarded. As Parra said Friday, her focus will be on "where are we now and what do we need to do" to ensure that California receives continued funding for voting system modernization.
What a whopper. The democRATS want to make sure federal funds are safeguarded..
Oh, tell me more, Nicole... I got a few spare sutures to stitch my sides back together, Let her rip..