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Schwarzenegger to address panel on political reform

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With time rapidly running out on his time in office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will appear before the Fair Political Practices Commission Monday to make the case for political reform -- something the governor says he has aggressively championed since taking office in 2003.

Monday’s meeting is the first of a new panel that will examine overhauling the state’s campaign finance disclosure laws. Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said Schawrzenegger would not embrace any specific reforms Monday, but offer general support for the commission’s efforts. ‘He’s not going to try to steer this commission in any way,’ McLear said. But McLear did note that Schwarzenegger has called for eliminating fund raising during peak budget periods.

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Marc Lifsher reported this weekend on one of the people appointed to the commission by FPPC Chairman Dan Schnur. Sacramento lobbyist, fund raiser and placement agent Darius Anderson was picked for the board, despite his recent agreement to pay $500,000 in a New York state investigation into pay-to-play practices involving that state’s pension fund. Anderson admitted no wrong doing as part of the settlement.

Schwarzenegger has championed a variety of changes to the state’s political system with mixed results. Efforts to change the way the state draws its political maps and reinstitute nonpartisan legislative and congressional primaries have been ratified by voters. Other efforts to change the state’s term-limits law and limit the political influence of labor unions were rejected by voters.

-- Anthony York in Sacramento

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