Schwarzenegger Using Half Billion Dollar a Year School Program to Bribe Clergy

Excerpt LA Times article "Gov. Courts Black Clergy With Aid From Prop. 49"

Money is available this year for the first time under Proposition 49, in the amount of about $500 million. Schwarzenegger promoted that initiative in 2002, laying the groundwork for his entry into the recall campaign the next year.

In recent months, the governor's staff has been approaching black churches to help them apply for some of the funds. A Schwarzenegger aide even enlisted one appointee to a state board to give advice to black clergymen on how to submit successful applications.

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"It sounds like it's walking right up to the line of buying endorsements with public money," said Ned Wigglesworth, policy advocate for California Common Cause. "It sounds like Gov. Schwarzenegger is trying to smooth the way for approval.

"When Arnold Schwarzenegger went to the voters in 2002 and asked them to vote for Prop. 49 after-school funds," Wigglesworth said, "voters had no idea these funds might later be used to facilitate Schwarzenegger's reelection candidacy in 2006. What you have is a public figure using the ballot measure process to create a pot of public money that they then use to pursue their own political agenda."

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At First AME Church in Oakland on Sunday, Mayberry said from the pulpit that the pastor of another church, which he did not identify, told him a representative of the governor had offered day-care money to that church.

"Why didn't he deliver the money before he started to run for reelection?" Mayberry asked the congregation.

In an interview, Mayberry said: "If the governor is that interested in helping people who need day care and the assistance of the government, why not come up with all these bright ideas prior to the election?"
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Brown said he is co-chairman of a group of 14 Bay Area churches bidding for Proposition 49 money. He said they have gotten assistance from Sandra McBrayer of San Diego, appointed by Schwarzenegger in March to a state advisory committee on before- and after-school programs.

Smith said he has attended two meetings in which McBrayer gave advice on submitting a convincing grant application. When she was still part of Schwarzenegger's state staff, Fortune had urged McBrayer to meet with black religious leaders and talk about the after-school funds, according to Schwarzenegger campaign officials.