Posted on 08/03/2005 12:36:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO — Democratic Senate leader Don Perata of Oakland has paid legal defense costs averaging about $115,000 monthly as the FBI probes whether he received outside income for legislative work.
State campaign finance records available Tuesday also showed Perata was $260,000 in debt as of June 30, despite receiving contributions of more than $320,000 since establishing a legal defense fund in February.
Reports filed with the secretary of state's office also showed that:
-Candidates and promoters of the November special election initiatives have raised more than $115 million they can use in campaigns this year and beyond.
-Though Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has raked in millions of dollars, he remains well short of his
$50 million goal for promoting a government-reform package on the Nov. 8 ballot.
developer Ron Cowan of Alameda and Sacramento developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, who donated $50,000 each.
Perata has used the fund to hire Sacramento attorneys and private investigators from Emeryville.
Two other senators from outside the Bay Area have created legal defense funds, as well as Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.
Overall, candidates and promoters of initiatives on the Nov. 8 ballot have raised more than $115 million they can use in campaigns this year and beyond.
Facing the special election he called, Schwarzenegger and his chief allies have amassed nearly $20 million for initiatives he supports. He also collected more than $2 million for a possible 2006 re-election bid in the first half of this year.
His foes, such as unions representing public school teachers, prison guards and other public employee units, are matching the governor's money. They have raised at least $20 million.
But the governor predicted he'd amass as much as $50 million for the campaign. With the special election just over three months away, Schwarzenegger needs to raise $30 million to meet his goal.
The governor called the special election to push measures to alter the way legislative boundaries are drawn, grant governors more power over the state budget, and make tenure harder to get for public school teachers.
The ballot is expected to include as many as eight propositions, though the redistricting measure faces a court challenge.
Voters will decide whether to require parents of girls who are under 18 to be notified before the girls can obtain abortions, to re-regulate the electricity market, to cut prescription drug prices and to restrict public employee unions' ability to fund political activity.
Wire services contributed to this report.
Attention George $oreA$$, send money quickly to PerRatta.
Maybe Err Amerika can loan PerRatta some of the money they stole from the poor in Brooklyn.
Don't you just love when the jackals of the Rat Party, trial lawyers devour the Rats they contributed to.
My fondest wish come true.
Love it.
Nice!
Now if we could get at the MSM...See this:
Documents Tell of Brutal Improvisation by GIs ~~ More effort by Leftist's to attack Bush....
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