Free Republic

No sooner did Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger call for a state investigation of price gouging at the pump than his critics jumped in feet first -- noting that the "no special-interest money" governor has taken nearly $2 million in campaign contributions from the very oil companies he wants investigated. "Arnold's latest slick stunt, pretending to care about soaring costs of gas prices, rings hollower than a Krispy Kreme doughnut,'' said the anti-Arnold labor folks at the Alliance for a Better California. And indeed, records show that the governor -- who has raised $82.7 million since riding into Sacramento on the promise...

SACRAMENTO — A television ad campaign portrayed as an independent effort to help Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been bankrolled partly by a group with deep ties to his political operation. An official with the New Majority, a Southern California Republican group at the core of Schwarzenegger's fundraising apparatus, said its members have given about $1 million to the Washington, D.C., business group that is the public face of the ads: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. By pumping the ad money through the chamber, well-heeled New Majority members have bypassed requirements that their donations be publicly disclosed. And they skirted the...

Teachers union official has just been renamed to Board of Education. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's reappointment of a political rival to the State Board of Education didn't buy him much love in the enemy camp. On Wednesday, the governor gave another term on the board to Joe Nuñez, a longtime teachers union activist and chairman of the organization that battled Schwarzenegger in last year's special election. On Thursday, Nuñez, in his role as the Alliance for a Better California board chairman, filed a five-page complaint with the Fair Political Practices Commission against Schwarzenegger and the governor's old campaign vehicle, the California...

A state appeals court says a campaign committee controlled by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger broke state law by not promptly reporting millions of dollars in expenditures promoting four measures on last November's special election ballot. The 3rd District Court of Appeal, in a decision issued Wednesday, said Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team should have reported the expenditures within 24 hours after they were made during the 90 days leading up to the Nov. 8 election but failed to do so. "CRT ignores that the (Political Reform Act) requires reporting of independent expenditures on a 24-hour basis during an election cycle," a three...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Last year, Sen. John McCain urged his friend, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, to push for campaign finance reforms in California in 2006. But the governor has spent much of his time talking about building highways, levees and schools, not restraining the flow of campaign dollars. On Monday, the Republican senator known for trying to slow runaway political spending in Congress was set to help the governor raise money for his re-election bid at a fundraiser with tickets priced up to $100,000. The closed-door event was being hosted by donors among the entertainment and business elite, including "The...

Our Governor Arnold is having a huge, 2 million dollar fundraising lunch today in Los Angeles and who do you think the keynote speaker to launch his relection campaign is? Sen John McCain of AZ. Yup, the most corrupt senator in history is helping our"embattled" governor launch his relection bid... Arnold is just lucky the dems can only muster two major losers on there side so far - the hits keep on coming.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could find a lot of reasons why the Legislature turned away his public works plan to spend billions of dollars on highways, schools and levees, but Paul Folino wasn't one of them. The wealthy chairman of computer-components maker Emulex Corp. who also is a personal friend of the governor and one of his most generous financial patrons was just one of the administration supporters who called legislators in an ultimately futile bid to secure votes for the massive bond issue. Folino's participation wasn't happenstance. His informal lobbying is just one example of the close and beneficial relationship...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could find a lot of reasons why the Legislature turned away his public works plan, but Paul Folino wasn't one of them. Folino's participation wasn't happenstance. His informal lobbying is just one example of the close and beneficial relationship Schwarzenegger shares with Folino and the rapidly expanding political action committee he helped establish, the New Majority. Members of the centrist group have donated or raised more than $10 million for the Republican governor's political ventures. And the New Majority is pushing to expand its influence. The group, which has about 250 members and funnels roughly $7.5 million...

At a time when he's trying to reclaim his outsider image, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is asking Hollywood and corporate insiders to donate up to $100,000 for his re-election campaign and the state Republican Party. The governor has scheduled a celebrity-studded fundraiser this month in Beverly Hills - headlined by Arizona Sen. John McCain - that could pull in at least $2 million for his depleted campaign account. The host committee includes names from the entertainment and business elite, including "The Terminator" director James Cameron, Interscope Records chief Jimmy Iovine, Yahoo Chairman Terry Semel and Univision Chairman Jerry Perenchio. Supporters are...

<p>SACRAMENTO — A businessman tied to the bribery scandal involving former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham donated more than $70,000 to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign committees and received two gubernatorial appointments.</p> <p>At Schwarzenegger's behest, Brent Wilkes, founder of the government contractor ADCS Inc., resigned Nov. 29 from the Del Mar Fair Board and from another panel that oversees the leasing of state land for racetracks, said Margita Thompson, the governor's press secretary.</p>

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger raised between $2 million and $3 million for his expected special election campaign during a three-state swing last weekend, his chief fundraising consultant said Thursday. The governor said he intends to continue his aggressive fundraising schedule in hopes of pressuring Democrats to negotiate over the various measures he wants to place before voters in November. "Just remember, math says we need around $50 million altogether to fight the hundreds of millions of dollars the special interests and the unions are spending against our initiatives and against our reforms," Schwarzenegger told reporters during a media...