Free Republic

Vice President Biden snickered during last week's debate at the suggestion there was waste, inefficiency or cronyism in the 2009 stimulus bill. If he can stop cackling for long enough, Biden, the self-proclaimed "stimulus sheriff" should sit down with the IRS officials and the federal inspector general who are investigating a solar company owned by leading Obama donor and subsidy recipient Elon Musk. Musk, as he cashes in on his solar investment by taking his company SolarCity public this month, had to make an awkward admission in his financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Internal Revenue Service...

“The most troubling transaction: a $465 million loan to California’s Tesla Motors. Tesla received a loan rate of 1.6% from DOE to manufacture an all-electric car that will sell for nearly $50,000. It will not exactly be the people’s car. Tesla also builds luxury sports cars that retail for $103,000 to $128,000. Tesla also is no simple new age car company. It is owned and financed by big donors to the Democratic Party and to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Tesla’s principal owner is Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal. He has an estimated personal wealth of $672 million. His...

The "green" loan scandal grows to include yet another seemingly hopeless company. The resignation of Jonathan Silver, the U.S Energy Department’s top loan officer, over the Solyndra scandal may be the tip of the iceberg. He supervised a much larger DOE loan program that suffers from the same problems as Solyndra: over the last 18 months, the Department has awarded more than $9 billion in below-market loans to auto companies under its Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program. The most troubling transaction: a $465 million loan to California’s Tesla Motors. Tesla received a loan rate of 1.6% from DOE...

The Obama administration bypassed procedural steps meant to protect taxpayers as it hurried to approve an energy loan guarantee to a politically-connected California solar power startup, ABC News and the Center for Public Integrity's iWatch News have learned …The Energy Department in March 2009 announced its intention to award Solyndra Inc. a $535 million loan guarantee before receiving final copies of outside reviews typically used to vet such deals. ...The loan guarantee, the administration's first for a clean energy project, benefited a company whose prime financial backers include Oklahoma oil billionaire George Kaiser, a "bundler" of campaign donations. Kaiser raised...

Steve Westly's career has long straddled the worlds of progressive politics and alternative energy. Now Westly's roles bankrolling green-energy-firms such as Tesla Motors (TSLA) and alternative energy-friendly politicians such as President Obama have drawn questions about whether the former eBay (EBAY) executive and Democratic state controller's investments unduly benefitted from his political connections. An investigative report this week by the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C., and ABC News suggested that after Westly raised $500,000 for Obama's presidential bid, cleantech firms backed by his Menlo Park venture capital firm clinched more than a half-billion dollars in federal aid....

One of President Obama’s top fundraisers has been rewarded with more than half a billion dollars in stimulus money for “green” projects and a coveted adviser position at the federal agency that regulates his highly profitable business ventures. It’s the very cycle of money, influence and access that Obama vowed to break when he came to Washington, according to the investigative journalism group that broke the story this week. Not only has the president’s money man benefited from the astounding sums of cash the administration has dedicated to “clean energy” startups, he also has extraordinary access to the White...

When the White House announced the federal government would loan $465 million to Tesla, a California start-up company with plans to develop an all-electric sedan, President Obama called it an "historic opportunity to ensure that the next generation of fuel-efficient cars and trucks are made in America." The loan also represented a lucrative opportunity for Steve Westly, a major investor in the car company who had raised more than $500,000 for the president's campaign. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy lent more than half a billion dollars to companies backed by Westly's California venture capital firm. In 2010, the...

Keep an eye on former state controller and multimillionaire Steve Westly - I think he might run for governor again. Westly spent a lot of money running in 2006 only to lose the Democratic primary to Phil Angelides. I have got to believe that Westly, and maybe some other Democrats, are not going to allow the primary to just be a two-way race between San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Jerry Brown. The feeling out there is that Brown probably caps out at 35 to 40 percent with voters while Newsom has yet to break 20 percent. So...

Democratic candidates spend time in church The Democratic candidates for governor went to church on Sunday and prayed for victory, as well they might in a race that is neck and neck heading into Tuesday's primary. Steve Westly, who made his fortune at eBay, and Phil Angelides, a wealthy former developer, have been battering each other with nasty television ads for several weeks. Analysts say voters may respond to the negativity campaign by not voting. Westly, the state controller, appeared with Rep. Diane Watson, D-Los Angeles, at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, which he joined three...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger holds a solid lead over either Democratic challenger in a head-to-head battle in the November election, at least among those who have a preference, but 30 percent of likely voters remain undecided, according to a nonpartisan poll released today. The survey, by the Public Policy Institute of California, is wide ranging but a theme emerges: The news is good, or at least better, for the governor on virtually all fronts - and it's clear his two Democratic challengers have a lot of work to do. One-on-one, Schwarzenegger holds an 8 percentage point advantage...

Governor Must Immediately Replace Reiner Strickland: “Controller needs to freeze Reiner funding and conduct immediate accountability audit” Sacramento, CA– Taxpayer Advocate Tony Strickland today called upon Governor Schwarzenegger to “immediately replace Rob Reiner on the First 5 California Children and Families Commission. His term has expired and nothing prevents the Governor from selecting an appointee who will restore the transparency and credibility to taxpayers when it comes to how government spends their tax dollars.” The firestorm of controversy has continued unabated since a Los Angeles Times story on Monday exposed a series of abuses orchestrated by Reiner and a small...

PALO ALTO — State Controller Steve Westly released a decade of his tax returns Monday, showing the former EBay executive received nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in income during the 10 years, mostly from selling stock in the online auction house. Westly's release of tax returns is designed in part to pressure Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Treasurer Phil Angelides to do the same. Westly is facing Angelides in the June 2006 Democratic primary for governor, and Schwarzenegger, a Republican, announced last week that he would seek reelection. Anyone who runs for governor needs to be open and...

Sacramento -- Democrat Steve Westly, who officially jumps into the 2006 race for governor today, said in an interview Friday that his high-tech background and problem-solving skills as state controller make him most qualified to take on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Everybody understands that we have to prepare for California's future," he said. "We have to create more jobs and reform the schools. I have a track record in the high-tech world, as a classroom teacher, and as controller innovated ways to bring new money into the system." But before Westly can take on Schwarzenegger, he must convince Democrats that he...

State Controller Steve Westly has just pumped $10 million of his own money into his still-undeclared campaign for governor -- serving notice to fellow Democrat Phil Angelides that he has every intention of competing big time for the party's nomination next year. "This is just the first,'' said Westly's campaign manager, Jude Barry. "We know we are going to have the resources to win -- and probably more than Phil.'' Westly is the former eBay vice president who just three years ago was elected to his first public office as the state's chief financial officer. He's said to be worth...

Westly Environmental Plan Protects California from Bush Rollbacks; Westly Plan Promotes Clean Air, Takes on Big Oil and Protects Coastline SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 5, 2004--California State Controller and new State Lands Commission Chair Steve Westly today announced a comprehensive environmental agenda for 2004 designed to help protect California from the Bush Administration's rollback of environmental protections. In his fiscal year 2005 budget proposal, President Bush requested a 7 percent cut at the Environmental Protection Agency and cuts the National Ocean Service by 35 percent. He has already decimated enforcement at the EPA, relaxed air pollution rules and opened our public...

<p>SACRAMENTO - As Democratic state Controller Steve Westly stumps side by side with the celebrity Republican governor for two budget ballot initiatives, the former eBay executive is navigating a fine political line, with occasionally awkward results.</p> <p>Last week, he apologized to Democrats for siding with Schwarzenegger, without warning, over the car tax cut. A few days later, at the Democratic state party convention in San Jose, Westly denounced the governor’s budget as "True Lies II" -- then promptly went on the campaign trail with Schwarzenegger. In a conversation with the governor’s chief of staff this week, Westly then joked about his "tough speech" on the budget.</p>

<p>SACRAMENTO - In the race for the state's chief financial officer, California voters have a clear choice between a tight-fisted career politician and a Silicon Valley businessman and multimillionaire.</p> <p>Both candidates -- GOP state Sen. Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks and Democrat Steve Westly, a former eBay executive from Atherton -- promise to be independent watchdogs of state spending. But each would bring a distinct experience and style to the job that is little known among voters, but critical at a time when California is facing a double-digit budget deficit.</p>