LA TIMES story about Governator- "Gifts Flow, as Does the Access"

[Beaverhausen]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lobby7nov07,0,7940218.story?coll=la-home-right1

Gifts Flow, as Does the Access
The governor's staff gets around limits on special-interest perks. The largess is routine.

By Miriam Pawel and Peter Nicholas, Times Staff Writers

SACRAMENTO — When Richard Costigan resigned as lobbyist for the Chamber of Commerce last November, the business group chipped in for a $589 farewell gift, a wood-and-glass model of the domed Capitol where Costigan went to work for Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It was the first of many gifts. Over the next few months, the chamber wined and dined Costigan, the governor's chief liaison to the Legislature, along with his staff. Other corporate interests also lavished gifts on the aides, who shape the governor's legislative agenda: $246 tickets to eat, drink and watch the Sacramento Kings' NBA playoff game in BP's corporate box; a $199 pass to Disneyland; $324 worth of tickets to Disney on Ice, courtesy of SBC; and dozens of meals and drinks at receptions sponsored by groups such as the California Bankers Assn., Miller Brewing, the California Farm Bureau and the California Building Assn.

Over 10 months, Costigan's staff accepted more than $5,100 worth of gifts, and the chamber reported spending so much on Costigan that the amount raised a potential conflict of interest for the governor's advisor.

Costigan's team are among many key Schwarzenegger administration officials routinely enjoying corporate largess from special interests seeking to influence state decisions.

A Times review of thousands of lobbying reports filed since the recall election found that large corporations and business groups, many with strong ties to the administration, account for virtually all of the tickets to sporting events, dinners and receptions handed out to Schwarzenegger aides.

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[Maat]

1. I never backed the guy.

n/t