Abel Maldonado and his toady Brandon Gesicki are coming out swinging in the race for Lieutenant Governor against Gavin Newsom. Maldonado doesn’t want Newsom to claim the mantle of being a “green” candidate, so he is trying to muddy the waters with a misleading attack on Newsom – specifically, on holdings in a trust in his wife Jennifer’s name. From the SF Chronicle:
It didn’t take long for Mayor Gavin Newsom’s opponent in the lieutenant governors race to tag the country’s “greenest mayor” with setting “some sort of record for political hypocrisy” after our colleagues revealed his wife had hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in oil companies, including the owner of the deepwater rig that exploded in the gulf oil disaster.
“Though Gavin claims to oppose offshore drilling when the cameras are rolling, his bank account has been swelling due to multiple investments in what he calls ‘dirty’ energy companies who make billions of dollars from off-shore drilling,” said Brandon Gesicki, a spokesman for incumbent Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado. “By criticizing the same companies that he profits from Newsom has set some sort of record for political hypocrisy.”
As the article notes, the issue is that Jennifer Siebel Newsom has some shares in Transocean, the company that built the BP offshore rig that exploded in April, as well as in Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company looking to do some offshore drilling of its own off the South American coast.
But Newsom has no role in administering that trust. It’s a completely lame and misleading line of attack.
It’s also hypocritical. Gesicki and Maldonado are trying to deflect attention from Maldonado’s own abysmal environmental record – including his 2006 vote against AB 32 and votes against helping support the solar power industry.
Gavin Newsom has a strong record as a “green” mayor, and would be a strong environmental advocate as Lt. Governor. Maldonado won’t be anything close to it. Which is why he’s trying to attack Newsom in this way, ahead of a statewide election where California voters won’t want anything to do with Maldonado’s true right-wing views.
In 2009, Maldonado took $1,000 from British Petroleum's PAC. After BP scratched Maldo's back, he scratched theirs. He's done everything he can to oppose AB-32 and otherwise ensure that California's environment is left unprotected from dangerous oil production. Tit-for-tat politics at its worst.
Now let's look at Newsom. His wife's trust–over which he has no control–has oil investments. Let's presume (although we don't know) that Newsom would personally benefit if these oil companies did well. Shouldn't we be happy that even in the face of his own financial peril, Newsom has fought the oil companies to protect California's environment?
Maldonado = Taking $ from BP then fighting for BP's interests. Newsom = indirectly investing in oil companies then fighting oil companies to protect the environment. Your choice.
Hey, I guess when one has nothing else…..
He doesn’t even have the GOP behind him if he can get only 42% in a primary and Arnold backing him. But then again that’s part of his problem .