Less than a month after
announcing a $287 million stock offering to raise cash to build a
Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant in the Western United States, a
company owned by Texas energy mogul T. Boone Pickens pumped a quarter
million dollars into Arnold’s campaign tank last Wednesday. One week
before the contribution arrived, Arnold’s bill signing ceremony for the
greenhouse gas legislation was met by protesters angry about the Gov’s
support for LNG projects, which are controversial because of safety and
security concerns.
Pickens has already given the Gov more than $650K and millions more
have come into Arnold’s reelection committee this year. But that’s not
where last weeks’ cash went. Arnold’s reelection campaign is
constrained by campaign finance laws so donors can only give $22,300.
To get around the law, Pickens’ company — Clean Energy of Seal Beach,
California — gave $250k to Arnold’s virtually defunct political
committee known as the California Recovery Team. During the first nine
months of the year, the Recovery team only received 7 contributions,
averaging about $15k each. The energy company cash — 11 times more
than campaign finance laws allow donors to give to a candidate — may
mark the beginning of a new round of above-the-limits special interest
donations to Arnold. Campaign reform initiative Prop 89 closes that
loophole and subjects all committees controlled by politicians to
strong contribution limits.
With the IPO expecting to bring in a quarter billion dollar investment
in Pickens’ energy firm, this quarter million investment in Arnold is
slim for Pickens.
