Schwarzenegger pays former chief of staff for ‘campaign consulting’

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Arnold Schwarzenegger had one final parting gift for his chief of staff on his way out the door of the governor’s office. New campaign filings show Schwarzenegger paid Susan Kennedy $50,000 out of his “Dream Team” ballot measure committee earlier this year.

The payment to Kennedy is filed as an expenditure to a “campaign consultant,” according to records from the secretary of state. The committee worked to fight last year’s Proposition 23, an effort to repeal the greenhouse-gas law signed by then-Gov. Schwarzenegger in 2006.

Schwarzenegger often padded payments to top staffers with campaign dollars. The final payment to Kennedy came less than one month after Schwarzenegger left office, and after he had appointed her to a new commission that will oversee the implementation of the federal healthcare law.

Kennedy now works for the law firm Alston & Bird, a powerful force in Washington that counts former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole and former Rep. Billy Tauzin among its lobbyists.

-- Anthony York in Sacramento