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Sacramento -- The Democratic Party's decision to file a wide-ranging ethics complaint against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week probably signaled the end to any chance of a bipartisan compromise on the fate of the November ballot initiatives.
The fact that party Chair Art Torres signed the complaint filed with the Fair Political Practices Commission, not some state senator or Assembly member, shows where the decision was made, said Bruce Cain, a political science professor at UC Berkeley.
"That tells you that this is all part of an effort to make sure Arnold Schwarzenegger has a very long day on Nov. 8,'' he said. "(Democrats) believe they can prevail in November and put the governor in a deeper hole.''
In the filing, Democrats accused Schwarzenegger of arranging for $8 million in illegal payments from American Media Inc., which publishes a pair of body building magazines that, until last Friday, had the governor as their executive editor.
The payments were illegal honoraria and unlawful gifts to a public official, said Lance Olson, the Democratic Party attorney who filed the suit. The filing also said the governor had violated state conflict of interest rules when he vetoed a bill that would have banned high school athletes from using dietary supplements, aiding the industry that's the biggest advertiser in both Flex and Muscle & Fitness magazines.
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