Here's something you might be interested in.
When last we checked in on the Independent Voter PAC, the political fund run by David Takashima was helping to the advance the agenda of Proposition 30, the successful November 2012 tax hike by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K9chLGt49Q&feature=player_embedded#t=0
It was also spending money on mailers for Republican George Plescia in his ultimately failed attempt to beat out incumbent Democratic Assemblyman Marty Block for a senate seat.
Takashima, one-time associate of ex-Democratic state Sen. Steve Peace and former employee of Pacific Gas & Electric, told us he was just trying to help further the agenda of free speech by accepting cash from opposing special interests.
$125,000 came from the Reform California Now Independent Expenditure Committee, described by the Sacramento Bee as a "'stealth group of corporations' funding Republican state Senate candidates that is being coordinated by Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable.”
“Chevron has contributed $1.25 million to Lapsley's program," the Bee reported. "The California Real Estate Association has given $625,000; Phillip Morris, $250,000; and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, $250,000. Other key donors include Sempra Energy, Farmers Insurance and Anthem Blue Cross. Charles T. Munger Jr., a Stanford University physicist, has contributed $750,000."
On the other side of the political aisle, Takashima’s so-called independent voter PAC got $100,000 from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the state prison guards' union.
Since then Takashima has departed San Diego for presumably greener political fields, becoming a staffer for San Francisco mayor Ed Lee, according to Peace.
But the political committee is still in business here, and late last month reported that it had raked in $65,000 during the first half of this year from San Diego's own mega-utility, Sempra Energy.
The entire amount was spent by the fund on the services of IVC Media, LLC, for “Design of Internet Communications Regarding AB 327.” The legislation, if a website by IVC is to believed, has something to do with changing how residential utility rates are charged.
None other than Chad Peace, son of Steve, the politically peripatetic former legislator who has been busy been taking apart California’s political party system, among other endeavors.
Chad is also founder of the non-profit Independent Voter Network, an online news and opinion operation.
And Steve runs the non-profit Independent Voter Project, which throws an annual fall bash for lobbyists and California legislators on the island of Maui that has drawn national media scrutiny for its practice of mixing fun and alleged influence peddling far from prying public eyes.
Neither of those is financially connected to the Independent Voter PAC, notes the elder Peace, who himself is controversial in some quarters for utility reforms passed during his time as a legislator.
When last we checked in on the Independent Voter PAC, the political fund run by David Takashima was helping to the advance the agenda of Proposition 30, the successful November 2012 tax hike by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_K9chLGt49Q&feature=player_embedded#t=0
It was also spending money on mailers for Republican George Plescia in his ultimately failed attempt to beat out incumbent Democratic Assemblyman Marty Block for a senate seat.
Takashima, one-time associate of ex-Democratic state Sen. Steve Peace and former employee of Pacific Gas & Electric, told us he was just trying to help further the agenda of free speech by accepting cash from opposing special interests.
$125,000 came from the Reform California Now Independent Expenditure Committee, described by the Sacramento Bee as a "'stealth group of corporations' funding Republican state Senate candidates that is being coordinated by Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable.”
“Chevron has contributed $1.25 million to Lapsley's program," the Bee reported. "The California Real Estate Association has given $625,000; Phillip Morris, $250,000; and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, $250,000. Other key donors include Sempra Energy, Farmers Insurance and Anthem Blue Cross. Charles T. Munger Jr., a Stanford University physicist, has contributed $750,000."
On the other side of the political aisle, Takashima’s so-called independent voter PAC got $100,000 from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the state prison guards' union.
Since then Takashima has departed San Diego for presumably greener political fields, becoming a staffer for San Francisco mayor Ed Lee, according to Peace.
But the political committee is still in business here, and late last month reported that it had raked in $65,000 during the first half of this year from San Diego's own mega-utility, Sempra Energy.
The entire amount was spent by the fund on the services of IVC Media, LLC, for “Design of Internet Communications Regarding AB 327.” The legislation, if a website by IVC is to believed, has something to do with changing how residential utility rates are charged.
None other than Chad Peace, son of Steve, the politically peripatetic former legislator who has been busy been taking apart California’s political party system, among other endeavors.
Chad is also founder of the non-profit Independent Voter Network, an online news and opinion operation.
And Steve runs the non-profit Independent Voter Project, which throws an annual fall bash for lobbyists and California legislators on the island of Maui that has drawn national media scrutiny for its practice of mixing fun and alleged influence peddling far from prying public eyes.
Neither of those is financially connected to the Independent Voter PAC, notes the elder Peace, who himself is controversial in some quarters for utility reforms passed during his time as a legislator.