Arizona's First Political Blog

E-mail Anonymous Mike at zonitics4-at-yahoo.com

By Anonymous Mike, pseudonymously.

 
Shine A Light on Me

Let's do a thought experiment....

Person applies to lead a program at a non-profit or public institution. Person is not only hired for the position over several more qualified applicants, but the person in question lacks some critical experience. To top it, the successful applicant's starting salary is about 30% above the advertised maximum for the position. The applicant then quickly turns the position as a major resume builder for a run for public office.

It "turns out" that a major financial benefactor of the program in question is the applicant's father. Both the father and the program's parent institution deny any shenanigans; the father claims he would still contribute to the program even if his child wasn't hired and the institution claim that the applicant was the best qualified for the position. To top it all off, the applicant denies any prior knowledge that the father was backer for the program.

I am of course talking about Laura Pastor who applied to head a program at Maricopa Community College District. The program has been funded to the tune of millions of federal dollars in earmarks arranged by her father Congressman Ed Pastor.

We are asked to believe that an unqualified person is hired over the head of better qualified candidates and awarded an extraordinarily high salary for a position that her father was heavily involved in supporting, but that no favoritism was involved. We are asked to believe that Ms. Pastor was unaware of the fact that her father has steered millions of dollars to the very program she was applying to head...

... yeah right.

This is hardly a case on par with the corruption of Cunningham and Murtha, just a stream of coincidences that involved a daughter benefiting from the earmarks issued from a powerful father. There were probably no phone calls or e-mails made on Ms. Pastor's behalf, no meetings or probably not even a helpful hint dropped in the right ear. No trails to follow, no comebacks.

All Ms. Pastor had to do was announce her name and the connection would be made and even the most obtuse interviewing officer would understand what needed to be done

Twisting other people's arms is for the weak. Getting people to twist their own arms on your behalf... that's power my friends.
posted by Anonymous Mike at 8:58 PM