California Nurses Association Living High on the Hog While Funding Efforts to Attack Democrats

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

I wonder how many of the hardworking rank-and-file members of the California Nurses Association know that the organization pays Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro $207,403 plus another $10,333 in expenses -- and has made a $75,000 "gift" to the nonprofit Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights that is being used to attack Democrats in favor of health care reform?

Somehow I don't think they'd be too pleased their dues were going to their leadership's pockets instead of fighting for health care form.

DeMoro's sky-high salary is accompanied by a bloated payroll that also includes $126,811 for its Government Relations Director Donna Gerber (a former failed Assembly candidate). Gerber was the only person to testify against AB 8, the Nunez/Perata health care plan supported by nearly all legislative Democrats.

CNA's expense report also includes expenses at fancy hotels such as the Beverly Hills Hilton, Seascape Luxury Resort in Aptos ("Like Having Your Own Beach Home on Monterey Bay"), Millennium Biltmore in Los Angeles, and the cozy Villa Rosa in Santa Barbara. Thousands more were spent on several public relations and advertising consultants.

CNA's gift to the Foundation (which refuses to provide a list of its donors), is reported in a filing with the U.S. Department of Labor. It comes as the two groups have been running a smear campaign against Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. Both the CNA and FTCR have been prominently quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Sacramento Bee, and in the Associated Press attacking the Speaker for his spending of campaign funds.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. The expense report is an eye-opener.

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Image courtesy Seascape Resort on Monterey Bay.