Sacramento Bee (California)
Only hours after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reported receiving a $100,000 donation from Chevron, his critics at the Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights are demanding he return the donation.
“If Gov. Schwarzenegger keeps Chevron‘s cash and continues his political silence while Chevron robs California motorists blind, he’s not just a girlie man, he’s Chevron‘s girlie man,” said Jamie Court, president of the Foundation, in a statement. “To take $100,000 from Chevron at the same time as gas prices in California surpassed record highs is to spit in the face of Californians.”
Chevron also reported giving the California Democratic Party $50,000 this week. The Foundation only called for Schwarzenegger’s donation to be returned, but Judy Dugan from FTCR said, “We feel the same way about Chevron giving to the Democratic Party. We just track Arnold’s money more closely.”
“It’s not better. It’s only half as bad because it’s half as much,” she said.
The Chevron donations come as gas prices in California are at all-time highs, according to AAA of Northern California. In Sacramento, prices are peaking at more than $3.43 per gallon today and more than $3.50 per gallon in many parts of the Bay Area.
Chevron, the second-biggest U.S. oil company, has long been a top donor to Schwarzenegger, giving him a maximum $44,600 in his re-election and $21,200 for his election in 2003. The company also gave his ballot measure committee – where the most recent donation was received — $250,000 in 2005, and $200,000 in 2004.
Earlier this week, the Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights launched a petition calling for a special session of the Legislature to deal with the price of gasoline, saying prices are at a “crisis level.”
Dugan said she was “shocked” to see Chevron‘s donation with gas prices at record highs. “Schwarzenegger is taking money from the company causing much of the pain,” she said.
