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“People who have more money should be free to buy more cars, more homes, more vacations, and more gizmos than the rest of us. They should not be able to buy more democracy." -Bill Moyers |
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December 7, 2005 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
We're writing you in regards to Brent Wilkes, your fundraiser, campaign contributor, and appointee to the Del Mar race track Board (2004) and State Race Track Licensing Commission (2005). Congressman Randy Cunningham of the 50th Congressional District, a decorated former fighter pilot for the U.S. Armed Forces, recently resigned after pleading guilty to tax evasion and conspiracy to commit bribery. In the plea agreement, Cunningham admits to receiving some $2.4 million from several co-conspirators in exchange for using his office to assist them in obtaining hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts. A lawyer for Brent Wilkes has indicated that Wilkes is the unnamed co-conspirator #1 in the government's indictment against Cunningham. According to Cunningham's plea agreement, he received more than $600,000 in cash and gifts from Wilkes in return for Cunningham's assistance in procuring defense contracts for Wilkes and his companies. Brent Wilkes was also the co-chair for fundraising for San Diego County for your 2003 election campaign. Mr. Wilkes, his wife Regina, and his company, ADCS, have contributed $77,400 to your candidate committees and California Recovery Team, including $21,200 to your 2006 candidacy. In light of Cunningham's plea and the role Wilkes played in bribing a U.S. Congressman to rip off the United States, we call on you to give any money you or your political committees received from Wilkes or any of his companies - money very likely obtained fraudulently from the taxpayers of the United States - to a veterans organization. We also call on you to remove Mr. Wilkes from the Del Mar Race Track Board, to which you appointed him in April 2004, and from the State Race Track Licensing Commission, to which you appointed him in March 2005. The people's faith in democracy is shaken when elected officials sell their offices to the highest bidder as Cunningham did. We ask you to help restore that faith by returning these dirty donations and firing the man who gave them. Sincerely, ____________________________
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