Yesterday, the Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert blog pointed out what has to be one of the better displays of Republican hypocrisy in recent months.
Michael Ward tops redistricting commission in per diem pay
Commissioner Michael Ward received the most compensation for time served, $68,400 in per diem, while Commissioner Maria Blanco pocketed the least, $35,100, records show.
The disparity between Ward and Blanco represents 111 more days in which the former reported that he had conducted commission business between late 2010 and this month. The panel is scheduled to shut down July 1.
For six of the first seven months in 2011, Ward reported averaging more than five days per week on commission business. In each of his two busiest months, he reported working 28 days and receiving $8,400 in per diem each month.
Mike Ward, the only Orange County representative on the CRC, is known to us as the most partisan member of the Commission. It appears that his mission, which he chose to accept, was to set the stage for Republican challenges to the boundaries drawn through the process they pushed trough in a 2010 ballot initiative. Ward notoriously complained, in a ProPublica story, that commission members had conspired in secret to manipulate the lines to ensure democratic partisan gains. At one meeting related to Orange County boundaries Ward complained, while discussing the boundaries for the 34th Senate seat, that the Santa Ana/Anaheim Community of Interest (i.e. Latinos) already had a Congressional and Assembly seat, and needed to allow other communities of interest to “have a turn”, without specifying which Community of Interest wanted a Senate District from Belmont Shores (Long Beach) to Downtown Anaheim.
You got to love it when the people who hate government the most are the ones who eat more at the government trough more than anyone else. A Republican eats the most, and a Democrat eats the least. Priceless.
jeez louize. Most people dont make that much ion their day to day 9 to 5 jobs. These commissions and boards which are old age nurseries for termed out legislators need to be abolished. I cringe everytime some termed out assemblymemebr is appointed to a commission for something they havent got any experience in. Carol Migden for example got put on the sanitation commission for the sate at nearly 100K annula salary and benefits. WTF does that lady know about sanitation or trash handling?
Maybe he worked harder and longer than any other commissioner.
Are you saying that none of the other commissioners had a partisan bone in their body?
As someone involved in the redistricting process, he was working hard at one thing, trying to screw over Loretta Sanchez. The beautiful thing of transparency, all the transcripts and line drawings make it clear. His perdiem time was no doubt spent working with GOP insiders to take out Loretta Sanchez. Your tax dollars at work Junior. Spent trying to defeat her. Once again they failed. She will never be taken down.
Oh – I see – there was NO dem partisanship involved in the redistricting process – I see – thanks for informing me.
I would agree with you that attempting to redistrict out Loretta would be a waste of time.
I think that by redistricting and breaking up Santa Ana and Anaheim, it would have made the districts more competitive and in essence more responsive to a more diverse community;
• The candidates would have had to appeal to a broader and diverse community by focusing on the issues the Community of Interest values (job creation; economic growth, education, energy security, fiscal stability etc);
• This would not have allowed the candidates to “win” by focusing on ethnicity, nor allowed them to feel “entitled” to “their” seat, while they ignored other constituents or the issues.
Please see my post at the OC Register of May 28, 2011:
“My turn: Redistricting for a Diverse Community”
http://oclatinolink.ocregister.com/2011/05/28/my-turn-redistricting-for-a-diverse-community/
Paco Barragan
Junior, I am not part of the party who tries to always play the innocent victim. YOU ARE! You are the Republican, the political party who always cries victim while doing the exact same thing they accuse Democrats of doing. I never said Democrats were perfect angels. You on the other hand repeatedly throw the accusation at Democrats and look the other way or make excuses when Republicans do the same thing. Those people are know as HYPOCRITES.