Arnold's campaign loan deemed illegal

Jobber of the Week · January 30, 2004

This is quite possibly the biggest spin I've seen in a long time.

A $4.5 million bank loan Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used to finance his own campaign is illegal, according to a Superior Court judge, but the Republican governor said Tuesday the decision was "fantastic" in a statement that contradicted his position in court.

Judge Loren McMaster's decision late Monday found that Schwarzenegger violated Proposition 34, which prohibits a candidate from receiving a loan of more than $100,000. At the Sacramento Press Club on Tuesday, Schwarzenegger said the decision was OK with him because he always intended to use his own money to repay the loan.

Lawyers who sued the governor were highly skeptical of his delight and said he was changing his mind after losing an important campaign-finance case.

The law is written so that candidates cannot get large loans for their campaigns and repay the money through contributions raised after an election. Campaign finance watchdogs said voters needed to know all of a candidate's contributors before an election.

Schwarzenegger on Tuesday contradicted weeks of statements by his staff members, who repeatedly said the governor had not made a decision about how to pay off the loan. But the governor said there was never any doubt.

"First of all I said to myself, 'This is great this decision, it's fantastic,' " Schwarzenegger said. "We never intended to pay back the campaign debt that we had. We never wanted to raise the money to pay it back. I myself paid for that."

The statement raised an immediate question about why Schwarzenegger spent months defending himself in court after he was sued by Bill Camp of the Sacramento Labor Council, which has strong ties to Democrats. Lowell Finley, a Berkeley lawyer who represented Camp, said if Schwarzenegger was delighted with the judge's ruling, "he is on some kind of medication that I would like to have a prescription for."

"I don't buy it," Finley said of Schwarzenegger's statement. "I think he held out hope of being able to pay himself back and only changed his mind when the judged ordered him to."

Schwarzenegger was asked Tuesday why he simply hadn't written himself a check instead of getting a loan. He said he needed "the money very quickly, and I was out on the campaign trail, so I wasn't there to write those checks. I am a hands-on guy when it comes to money."

Schwarzenegger, who reportedly is worth at least $100 million, obtained the loan from a bank without collateral and with a low interest rate.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...MNGQ04JCK81.DTL

Yes, that's right, he's genuinely DELIGHTED that his money trick was considered breaking the law.

Firestarter · January 30, 2004

I really don't see $4.5 million even coming close to breaking Arnold Schwarzenegger's bank account. He's worth way more than $100 million. Hell, I think his biceps are probably insured for more than that.

Spicy McHaggis · January 30, 2004

Yes, that's right, he's genuinely DELIGHTED that his money trick was considered breaking the law.

Please. Call me when BustaMECHA is investigated for his "sovereign nation" bs.

Jobber of the Week · January 30, 2004

Yes, that's right, he's genuinely DELIGHTED that his money trick was considered breaking the law.

Please. Call me when BustaMECHA is investigated for his "sovereign nation" bs.

He used money tricks too to get around campaign finance limits, but when they were deemed illegal, he gave them to other political causes....

Who used the money to make ads...... Featuring him.

Lightning Flik · January 30, 2004