Over at the Bee, they have compiled a complete list of every gift ever given to a legislator since 2002. That’s a lot of gifts, valued at over 2 million dollars.
On a larger scale, what is the role of gifts given to legislators, nd how concerned should jbe about this practice. If you check out the list, it isn’t like these are mostly just gifts from friends. They are mostly from big lobbying organizations. I’m not saying that the American Council of Life Insurers doesn’t really, really enjoy hanging out with Sen. Vargas, but that isn’t what this is about. These are gifts given to sway votes, and it is access that most constituents just don’t get.
So, what is the role of a gift, and how concerned should we be about this list? What are your thoughts?
and see all the mundane gifts that are reported. Amongst my favorites are:
CALIFORNIA CITRUS MUTUAL Patricia Wiggins State Senator Oranges – 146 crates to 109 recipients @ $6 per crate California Citrus Mutual 1/1/2008 $6.00
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2009/09/…
If you look at the original (http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/PDFGen/pdfgen.prg?filingid=1328052&amendid=1) you can see that there’s a definite pattern of favoritism. Wiggins only got one $6 crate, but the director of Cal-EPA got three crates, worth $18. Abel Maldonado got 2.
If you’re an elected official, you not only have to declare gifts from lobbying firms, but any gift from anyone in your jurisdiction but not in your family, including birthday and wedding gifts.
As soon as I have a minute, I’m going to review my locals’ gifts. If I were a legislator, I’d have a meeting about that list with my staff, and make sure we all like how the official comes across on it. I hope they do that.