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A bill proposed by state Sen. Sam Blakeslee, Republican of San Luis Obispo, to ban personal gifts made by lobbyists and their clients to state legislators died a not-so-quiet death yesterday in the Senate Appropriations Committee, chaired by San Diego Democrat Christine Kehoe.
Prohibited gifts would have included tickets to theme parks, sporting events, theaters, concerts, and racetracks; "spa treatments and other services of a personal nature"; golf, skiing, or fishing trips and other recreational outings or vacations; and gift cards.
The Blakeslee bill had already cleared one Senate committee without dissent. But because the ban would have cost an estimated $204,000 to enforce and administer, it was sent to the Appropriations committee, where it was put in the so-called suspense file.
No member asked that it be brought up for a vote, effectively killing it.
"The score is lobbyists 1, public 0," Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause, told the Los Angeles Times.
“You'd think a Legislature with a single-digit approval rating," Ex-Fair Political Practices Commission chairman Dan Schnur said to the Times, "would be more conscious of the low regard in which the voting public holds them."
As we’ve reported over the years, Kehoe and her colleagues in the local legislative delegation have accepted thousands of dollars worth of gifts from a wide array of special interests. Here are a few links:
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/jul/14/under-the-radar-2/
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/mar/18/under-radar-2/
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2011/may/16/san-diego-airport-authority-gives-free-parking-to-/
A bill proposed by state Sen. Sam Blakeslee, Republican of San Luis Obispo, to ban personal gifts made by lobbyists and their clients to state legislators died a not-so-quiet death yesterday in the Senate Appropriations Committee, chaired by San Diego Democrat Christine Kehoe.
Prohibited gifts would have included tickets to theme parks, sporting events, theaters, concerts, and racetracks; "spa treatments and other services of a personal nature"; golf, skiing, or fishing trips and other recreational outings or vacations; and gift cards.
The Blakeslee bill had already cleared one Senate committee without dissent. But because the ban would have cost an estimated $204,000 to enforce and administer, it was sent to the Appropriations committee, where it was put in the so-called suspense file.
No member asked that it be brought up for a vote, effectively killing it.
"The score is lobbyists 1, public 0," Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause, told the Los Angeles Times.
“You'd think a Legislature with a single-digit approval rating," Ex-Fair Political Practices Commission chairman Dan Schnur said to the Times, "would be more conscious of the low regard in which the voting public holds them."
As we’ve reported over the years, Kehoe and her colleagues in the local legislative delegation have accepted thousands of dollars worth of gifts from a wide array of special interests. Here are a few links:
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/jul/14/under-the-radar-2/
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/mar/18/under-radar-2/
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/news-ticker/2011/may/16/san-diego-airport-authority-gives-free-parking-to-/