Did Gavin Newsom Buy Maxine Waters' Endorsement?

I'm not Gavin Newsom
but I would like to be!

Many have told us that it’s well known within political circles that there is a price to doing business with Rep. Maxine Waters. Specifically, the price is high to get a coveted spot on Rep. Waters’s slate mailer.

Just ask Rocky Delgadillo and Mike Feuer. In 2001, according to the LA Weekly, “Feuer got on the first, primary mailer for $10,000. He was then asked for $25,000 to get into round two. Feuer’s people offered $15,000, and the next thing you knew, the better-funded Delgadillo’s people ponied up $35,000 to replace the councilman on the Waters slate-mailer roster.”

The LA Weekly goes on to say… “So it would appear that, in this specific case, the election was really for sale. And, in a sense, sold. But this appears not to have been the only runoff race in which Waters’s mailerites tried to pull a shakedown. In at least one other city-election race, Waters also tried to put on the bite for a five-figure enhancement from the leading candidate, who asked not to be identified (it turns out that few, if any, politicians want to rankle Maxine Waters). That candidate, however, refused to be hustled. The Waters people then took their money from the candidate’s opponent, who (one wants to say “justly”) lost.”

It gets better… The LA Times reports, “Well-known politicians such as former Gov. Gray Davis, and state Treasurer Philip Angelides have been charged tens of thousands of dollars. Others have paid nothing. A school board candidate paid $250. Al Checchi, a wealthy businessman and political novice who ran for governor in 1998, paid L.A. Vote the most: $171,000.”

And… “Indian tribes have been particularly good customers for both the slate mailer. Since 1998, they have paid $170,000 to the slate mailer operation and $126,000 to her firm for community outreach on gambling initiatives, their campaign reports show. Meanwhile, Rep. Waters has backed the tribes' ballot measures and defended tribal gambling interests in Washington.”

And because of Rep. Waters’s sleazy tactics, the nonpartisan watchdog organization, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), has repeatedly named Rep. Waters to their “Most Corrupt Members Of Congress” list.

Oh look, on May 26th, Mayor Newsom announced the endorsement of Rep. Waters! Something tells me, he'll be on Waters's next slate mailer.

SO WE POSE THE QUESTION TO MAYOR NEWSOM – HOW MUCH DID YOU PAY FOR REP. WATERS’S ENDORSEMENT? We suspect that the next finance report will show a hefty sum forked over to the Waters’ slate mailer.