The Real Ken Cooley

Bringing YOU the FACTS about Assemblyman Ken Cooley

[realkencooley]

PRO Ken Cooley Ads Misleading!!!

Haaland’s opponent has released radio ads touting Mr. Cooley’s dedication to public safety and protecting kids from child abusers and sex offenders, but does it really tell the whole story? Let’s look at the true record of Mr. Cooley and see if any of his claims stand up.

According to the ad, Mr. Cooley authored legislation aimed at “cracking down on sex offenders and other criminals who prey on kids,” but did he really?

Assembly Bill 883 is the only bill relative to his claim and it was VETOED by Governor Brown who stated in his veto message:

“It doesn't provide the criteria or funding necessary for counties to participate or for the Department of Social Services to conduct this pilot program. It may also duplicate efforts that have just gotten underway with the passage of this year's budget to combat and reduce the growing problem of commercial sexual exploitation of children.”

So the Governor thought it was a duplication of efforts and hence vetoed the bill. Can Mr. Cooley really tout his expertise or leadership on this issue in a radio ad? Furthermore, the radio ad states his advocacy for human trafficking issues in the State Legislations, yet his bill does nothing to combat human trafficking.

More troubling, the Governor issued a press release just last month touting the seven bills signed into law dealing with human trafficking legislation and NOT ONE of those bills signed into law were introduced or carried by Mr. Cooley.

Let’s also take a look at his record on public safety issues in general. Mr. Cooley VOTED to LESSON penalties on drug dealers (SB 1010 (Mitchell)); VOTED to SELL prisons instead of refurbishing them to house dangerous criminals and keep them off of our streets (AB 826 (Jones-Sawyer)); and VOTED to WEAKEN prostitution laws in CA (AB 336 (Ammiano)).

Another claim Mr. Cooley makes in his radio ads is his work on the Sacramento Metro Fire District tax that was wrongly charged to residents in Rancho Cordova. The interesting part of this claim, that has not been discussed, is the length of time this tax had been misapplied to residents of Rancho Cordova.

According to news reports this tax had been misapplied since 2009, when Mr. Cooley was a City Councilman for the City of Rancho Cordova. This raises questions as to whether or not then Councilman Cooley knew about this misapplied tax and did nothing to help his own residents until just this year.

Mr. Cooley is obviously bending his record in his radio ads, which makes them tremendously misleading to the voters. It’s time to set the record straight!

[realkencooley]

Wanna really know where Assemblyman Ken Cooley Stands on CA's High Speed boondoggle train idea? It gets no clearer than his own words from the Rancho Cordova Chamber and Community Council Debate! 

[realkencooley]

Assemblyman Ken Cooley is the Million Dollar Man Who’s Bottom Line is He Focused on?

Mr. Cooley has adopted a campaign slogan of “Focused on the bottom line – creating jobs” and in previous releases the Haaland for Assembly campaign has asked whose bottom line is Mr. Cooley watching? It turns out to be a significant question because according to records published by the California State Assembly Rules Committee, the liberal Democrat is on track to spend in excess of $1.2 million of taxpayer funds to operate his Assembly office 13 miles away from the Capitol in Rancho Cordova.

Haaland stated, “He chairs no standing committee, he is chairman of a Select Committee that met once during the legislative session while issuing no report to date as required by Assembly Standing Rules, and he holds the only taxpayer paid “alternate” position on the Assembly Rules Committee. Yet, while his constituents are dealing with the impacts of rising food prices, steadily increasing gas prices, lower household incomes, and more and more taxes that he’s supported, Mr. Cooley joins the ‘Million Dollar Man’ Club using taxpayer money. It’s just one more example of the explanations he should provide to the voters of this district.”

Last year Assemblyman Cooley spent almost $600,000 for his office and various other expenses among them include:

$200,000 to be an “alternate” member of the Rules Committee. It’s common for Committee Chairpersons to receive additional budgetary support, but no other alternate member receives a similar allocation.

Over $100,000 for the Select Committee on Community and Neighborhood Development. This is a NON-policy making committee and sees NO legislation whatsoever. It has met ONCE, over a year ago in August of 2013, and has never released a report on what its hearing actually accomplished nor has it ever held a hearing since. Mr. Cooley was appointed as chair of this committee way back in early 2013.

This year, Assemblyman Ken Cooley is on track to spend $100,000 more than last year, which takes it over the $600,000 mark for 2014 alone and puts the overall total expenditures for his first term in office at $1.2 million and counting. By comparison Assemblywoman Beth Gaines, who resides in Roseville, spent a paltry $300,000 on her office last year and would be on track to spend HALF as much as Assemblyman Cooley who actually lives closer. 

“While Mr. Cooley has let everyone know he’s declined to accept any per diem payments during his term, in addition to turning down his pay raise last year his grand gesture of refusing around $35,000 of taxable income in exchange for $1.2 million of taxpayer cost is hardly the act of someone “focused on the bottom line.” In fact, the $35,000 he ‘turned down’ so publicly won’t even cover the cost of his former boss, Senator Calderon, collecting his paycheck while he awaits his trial in federal court,” Haaland said.

Speaking to the issue Haaland noted, “While families in the 8th Assembly District continue making hard choices regarding their family budgets and our district communities, such as Foothill Farms, North Highlands, and even Rancho Cordova suffer with unemployment rates anywhere from 20 to 45% higher than current state unemployment rate, our representative disregards his own campaign platform. So just who’s bottom line is he focused?”

See the State Assembly Expenditure Reports at www.assembly.ca.gov.

[realkencooley]

Four Debate Invitations Later...No Response! Calderon Connections Hidden from Voters!

The Haaland for Assembly Campaign has received now four invitations for forums and debates and still have received NO confirmation that any of them have been accepted by Mr. Cooley. 

However, continuing our expose on Mr. Cooley's ties to the federally indicted Senator Ron Calderon, we have provided the following redacted (of course) personnel files from the California State Senate and the corresponding request letters that were sent to Senate Rules under the Legislative Open Records Act. If you scroll the documents, you will clearly see Mr. Cooley as working for Calderon. If you look closely at the dates of these actions they seem to be closely related to the June Primary election followed by his return and then again for the General Election followed by his return.

Which further begs the question what was Mr. Cooley doing for Senator Ron Calderon? Why did he not know about the questionable activities of the Senator? Why did he accept campaign contributions and fail to return them? More importantly, why is he not accepting debate invitations to set the record straight? 

It should also be noted that major news outlets have sought information under the Legislative Open Records Act, for other state officials who have been indicted or federally charged with crimes, all or most have been summarily denied.

So if Senate Rules will not provide information it leaves Mr. Cooley as the only one who can.

~ Post Script ~

After looking further into Mr. Cooley's pathway to elected office in the Legislature, we came across a set of questionnaires that ask for occupation information. Notice something missing about what he lists as his occupation and employer?

 and better still, here is his signature from this questionnaire:

Notice anything odd about that? If you don't take a look at the records request from above and if you look at the dates he took a "leave of absence" from Senator Calderon's office (4/5/12) it was well after this document was signed. 

Here's another:

and the signature:

Notice the same pattern? Why did he hide his actual employment from the voters which, according to Senate Rules, was for California State Senator Ron Calderon?

Care to debate now Mr. Cooley?

[realkencooley]

Will Ken Answer Questions About Calderon? Lack of Debates Suggests NO!

California State Senator Ron Calderon has been indicted on 24 criminal charges by the FBI, including allegations that he accepted bribes in order to get two pieces of legislation passed, money laundering and tax evasion. He is currently receiving a salary but has been suspended by the California State Senate. 

We know that Mr. Cooley worked for Senator Calderon as his principal consultant for the banking and finance committee, which was highly criticized by consumer watchdog which stated:

"Cooley is a former legislative counsel for State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Corp. His appointment to advise the committee that has purview over the insurance industry has sparked concerns over potential conflicts of interest."

But Mr. Cooley also served as his Legislative Director during the same time that he was running for State Assembly back in 2012. We have alluded to the various omissions of this information, but we can validate that again from a Breitbart California story back in April of this year:

Before he was Assemblyman Cooley, he was Legislative Director for State Senator Ron Calderon and the principal consultant to the Senate’s insurance committee.

Breitbart CA went on to further reinforce a claim this site made yesterday  that he accepted $7,800 as a campaign contribution from Senator Ron Calderon:

"Project Vote Smart shows that Cooley has accepted $7,800 from the Ron Calderon for Assembly 2014 account..."

"...still lists "Senator Ron Calderon" on his endorsements page for his re-election campaign in District 8."

Following that Breitbart CA article on April 21st, Mr. Cooley's campaign  removed the Calderon endorsement 3 days later...BUT his campaign has yet to return the campaign contribution of $7,800. 

Even one of Mr. Cooley's colleagues, Assemblymember Christina Garcia, has called for Senator Calderon to resign because of his legal problems. Which leaves us with several questions that are posed quite nicely from this article:

"Given the serious corruption charges Calderon is facing, it’s quite frankly surprising that Cooley has continued to be so visibly supportive of his former boss, and has kept the contributions from Calderon’s campaign committee.

Calderon’s refusal to resign, and his choice to continue to receive a taxpayer-funded paycheck, all but guarantees Cooley will spend the rest of his campaign having to answer questions about Calderon and his knowledge of the alleged corruption.

Does he believe Calderon should resign?

What, if anything, did he know about the alleged transactions Calderon was involved in?

Does he believe Calderon should continue to receive a paycheck courtesy of California’s taxpayers?

Will he return the thousands of dollars in contributions he has received from Calderon?

We are still waiting for a response from Mr. Cooley's campaign about debates...maybe these questions are the ones he doesn't want asked! 

[realkencooley]

Assemblyman Ken Cooley has been rather quiet on his connections with federally indicted Senator Ron Calderon.

No wonder...Mr. Cooley used to work for him. 

While he was indeed tapped by Senator Calderon to be a Principal Consultant for the Senate Banking Finance and Insurance Committee (which created more fervor from Consumer Watchdog, as he was a lobbyist for State Farm Insurance), what he never mentioned to tell you back in 2012 and even now in 2014 was his role as the LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR for Senator Ron Calderon...wait for it...WHILE HE WAS RUNNING FOR LEGISLATIVE OFFICE. 

I don't need to remind you of all the corruption stories surrounding Senator Ron Calderon and the FBI, those can easily be found with a simply Google search. But as the Legislative Director Mr. Cooley would have been tasked with monitoring and staffing the Senator's legislative agenda, including said film tax credit, which came under much scrutiny by the FBI and was labeled a catalyst for the indictment.

What role did Mr. Cooley play in Senator Calderon's office? Well we don't know, but maybe he should come out and tell us...

He did after all accept a campaign contribution from Senator Ron Calderon's campaign account in 2012.

Why are you hiding?

[realkencooley]

Speaking of campaign contributions...here was one from 2012 from none other than a Senator Ron Calderon. $7800.00 was the maximum contribution allowed in a single year from a single source.

Here's the full report:

Ken Cooley's Campaign Finances - Project Vote Smart