Environmental Watchdog Group Asks Poizner to Reveal Source of $1.5 Million From Out-of-State Interests Opposing California Term Limits Reform Prop 93

[Editor's note: The following letter was sent to Poizner who heads the opposition to Proposition 93 from Susan Smartt, Executive Director of the California League of Conservation Voters. No answers to the questions she has asked have been received. California voters deserve to know this information and we wait.]

November 28, 2007

Mr. Steve Poizner
Insurance Commissioner

Dear Commissioner Poizner:

The Contra Costa Times reported last week that a Virginia-based organization gave $1.5 million in contributions to your campaign committee against Proposition 93 but refuses to disclose where the money came from. You have claimed to support political reform but now you’ve accepted $1.5 million in campaign contributions from an out-of-state source that refuses to say who gave the money or why.

The article lays out how a wealthy New York developer, Howard Rich, used a web of nonprofit organizations to contribute $15 million to various political campaigns around the country without ever disclosing the real donors of the money. An excerpt from the Contra Costa Times article says: “Critics complain that Rich and his colleagues are abusing the initiative process by using their nonprofit status to hide the identity of a handful of wealthy conservative businessmen and large corporations pursuing various anti-government causes aimed at freeing industry from regulations and taxes.”

We think you owe Californians the answers to the following questions:

• Who contributed $1.5 million to US Term Limits, Inc. that was then funneled to your “Alliance for California Renewal”?
• Why were the true donors of this funding not immediately disclosed?
• At the end of 2005, the last year that records are available, US Term Limits, Inc. was $300,000 in debt. How and when did US Term Limits, Inc. raise the money to contribute to your campaign committee?
• Why has US Term Limits, Inc. not yet filed their tax forms 2006 which would disclose the source of their money? When will this document become available?

Voters need this information to make the best, most informed decision when they vote in February.

Sincerely,

Ms. Susan Smartt, Executive Director
California League of Conservation Voters

The California League of Conservation Voters works to elect the best environmental leaders, keep them accountable, and implement strong environmental laws in California. Candidates know that their endorsement is one of the premier environmental endorsements in the state, because their endorsement process is so rigorous. (CLCV routinely elects over 90% of the candidates it endorses.) When CLCV advocates for strong environmental laws, legislators and public officials take note of more than three decades of success and the more than 20,000 CLCV members who stand behind their work.

Comments

Posted by: anon at November 30, 2007 12:42 PM

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