(EXCERPT)
Charles Valdes has been so mired in debt that he twice failed to complete repayment plans ordered by the bankruptcy court.
His precarious personal finances, however, likely will not keep Valdes from winning re-election to a sixth four-year term on the board of the nation's largest public pension fund, the California Public Employees' Retirement System.
By Monday, some 1.4 million CalPERS members - from college professors to city park groundskeepers - must mail in ballots with their choices for the pension fund's 13-member board.
Valdes, who has five challengers, has secured key labor endorsements. He handily won re-election eight years ago in the face of reports in The Bee of his personal bankruptcies.
Recently contacted in person and by letter, Valdes declined to be interviewed for this article. In 1997, he told The Bee, "I'm not trying to run away from my debts."
--snip--
Too bad he didn't try and runaway from the free lunches instead of being first in line at the paid for buffet.
Pingaroo
SW, when ya running for CalPERS? ;-)
Just another product of government and corporate pandering to unions. GM failed. Airlines are failing. Automotive industry parts suppliers are failing. The state of California is a socialist tax-and-spend cesspool that is on its way to failing....
-- all for the same reason. The building of union welfare states at the expense of the taxpayer or consumer. When will these fools ever learn? Maybe never, until they are stopped cold.
I've seen the candidates list and read their blurbs. They're all stiffs. Doesn't matter if you vote for an incumbent or challenger, it's the SOS.
Your tax dollars at work and play.