Calif. Lt. Gov Cruz Bustamante, who opposes Davis’s recall while campaigning to replace him, generated a firestorm of protest by accepting millions of dollars from Indian tribes whose gaming concerns are regulated by the state. Although these contributions allegedly did not violate recent campaign finance reform legislation, they clearly violated its spirit and were embarrassing enough that Bustamante has now been moved to do something.
According to a post today in Daniel Weintraub’s valuable California Insider blog at the Sacramento Bee, what he did was shift the money to a committee fighting Proposition 54, the Racial Privacy Initiative. As Weintraub concludes,
[t]he ads Bustamante buys with the money from casino interests and public employee unions, which far exceeded the $21,200 limit on contributions to candidates, will still promote him, just not directly.
Say it taint so, Cruz!
