The more California Democratic politicians get caught acting unethically, the more obvious it becomes that the Democratic-run Legislature has zero interest in oversight and accountability.
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For example, Democratic Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara drew heat from reporters last month when he skipped a hearing on the insurance crisis that he has largely avoided addressing for most of the past six years, only for news to leak that he was at a conference in Bermuda instead.
When he agreed to attend another hearing not soon after, news leaked that he had treated his office as a personal travel bureau, traveling to at least 46 countries during his tenure, taking mostly trips for which his office has struggled to provide documentation or even legitimate purposes, and on the taxpayers’ dime.
Instead of showing any concern for the obvious ethical lapses, the Legislature simply shrugged.
When Susan Rubio, the Democratic chair of the Senate Insurance Committee who appears to have her own ethical issues, was pressed on whether Lara should have attended the skipped hearing instead of traveling to Bermuda she replied “It’s not for me to say.”
Oh really? She can’t say whether the insurance commissioner should attend a hearing you called on the state’s insurance crisis?
And if there’s any concern over Lara’s taxpayer-funded jetsetting, I haven’t seen it. No public comments, no calls for an audit, no oversight hearing. Really, nothing that might appear that lawmakers are taking their jobs seriously.
No wonder there’s an insurance crisis.
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.
This week we learned that state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond made as much as $330,000 in side jobs (on top of his $200,000 state salary) since assuming office in 2019 by working for nonprofits to which he was also steering contributions from donors.
This is the same Thurmond who has been criticized for being an absentee officeholder, for creating a toxic work environment and for steering a cushy, dubious job to his longtime buddy who lives 3,000 miles away from the office.
Was there a conflict of interest with his side jobs? It certainly appears that way, but we’ll never know for sure because the Legislature won’t ask.
Seemingly desperate not to upset fellow Democrats, the state really has no checks and balances. Why do Californians have to wait for the feds to investigate bad behavior to get any accountability?
It’s not just ethical breaches. Basic policy oversight is largely abdicated as well. Earlier this year Gov. Gavin Newsom called the Legislature into a special session to approve aid for Los Angeles’ wildfire recovery efforts. While lawmakers were quick to hand the city a check, it avoided considering the many apparent policy failures in the city’s response to the fires.
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