Another California Strategies consultant, Gary Hunt, is Schwarzenegger's campaign finance chairman. Hunt arranged for the governor to be present when his client, the Tejon Ranch real estate development company, announced an agreement with environmentalists in May to preserve up to 240,000 acres.
Tejon Ranch contributed $25,000 to Schwarzenegger in July. Barry Zoeller, a spokesman for the company, said the donation was to support Proposition 11.
"We think that redistricting reform is important in California, and so we processed a check," he said.
The initiative campaign also received $100,000 from Haim Saban two months after Schwarzenegger attended the naming of a health clinic after the Los Angeles media mogul and his wife. The governor spoke at an energy symposium in May sponsored by the New Majority, a coalition of moderate Republicans that gave nearly $500,000 this year to the redistricting campaign and $100,000 to one of Schwarzenegger's political funds.
Advocates for a campaign finance system funded by the public say that big donors now command a disproportionate share of elected officials' time and attention.
"They want to be able to have that access," said Julie Rajan, executive director of the nonprofit California Clean Money Campaign.
Money raised by Schwarzenegger fulfills a variety of needs. His California Dream Team political account has paid for consultants and petitions, funded his private plane rides to campaign events and contributed to the drive for Proposition 11.
Donors have also paid for elaborate conferences, including the governor's global climate summit at the Beverly Hilton in mid-November. In August, Schwarzenegger hosted a three-day conference for governors of U.S. and Mexican border states at Universal Studios at a cost of $3.5 million. These are theatrical, well-catered affairs, consistent with Schwarzenegger's vaunted showmanship, and they're expensive.
Until this year, corporate sponsors of such events were largely kept secret. Schwarzenegger's Los Angeles-based fundraiser, Renee Croce, solicited contributions for a nonprofit group called the California State Protocol Foundation, with ties to the California Chamber of Commerce, which had refused to disclose the donors.
But under a law that took effect in July, the governor now must reveal the donations, such as the $10,000 given by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers to the Border Governors Conference on Aug. 25. A week earlier, Schwarzenegger had appeared via video to help the group launch a program called EcoDriving, meant to teach techniques for conserving fuel.
