She's Not A Real Kennedy Either

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Nov 30, 2005 - 02:10 PM

She's Not A Real Kennedy Either

by Carmen Balber & Jamie Court

The Gov's announcement today that Susan Kennedy, Gray Davis's Cabinet Secretary, will be his chief of staff is all too consistent with the Schwarzenegger agenda of turning the keys of state over to Big Business. Kennedy may be a Democrat, but she's no friend of the people. At the Public Utilities Commission, at the behest of telecom companies, she led the drive to repeal the Cell Phone Bill of Rights. One of her closest allies is sleazy Sacramento lobbyist Darius Anderson, who had Gray Davis wired for back room blunders. And the shady deals she and Gray engaged in - including the Oracle pay-to-play scandal that helped push Gray out the door - provoked the very recall that swept Arnold and his alleged broom into office.

Kennedy's sense of conflict of interest is hardly keen. While serving on the PUC, she also served on the California Bay Delta Authority and voted as a PUC member to give it more control over resources at the expense of ratepayers. Making those decisions appears to conflict with California law which prohibits any person from holding two or more incompatible offices simultaneously. (Read more on Kennedy's conflict of interest.)

If Conan's hoping the addition of another Kennedy to his clan makes him looks less like big business's barbarian, then he's once again asking Californians to not look past the spin. Bipartisan isn't about meeting the lowest common denominator for common corporate interests in both political parties, it's about doing what's best for the public regardless of what those corporate donors have in mind.

ArnoldWatch is a project of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a non-profit, nonpartisan organization. FTCR does not endorse or oppose candidates.