Swift Boat Backer and Texas Oil Billionaire, Republican Developer Both Dump $100K in Schwarzenegger's Sinking Partisan Redistric

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Another out-of-state billionaire that funded the Swift Boat veterans campaign against Sen. John Kerry has dumped $100,000 into Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's partisan attempt to eliminate minority seats in the legislature. He was also joined by a Republican real estate developer who contributed an equal amount.

Texas oil profiteer T. Boone Pickens made his six figure donation into the Schwarzenegger fund this week. Pickens is one of President George Bush's largest backers, with a long history of donations to his state and national campaigns. In 2004, he contributed $3 million for Swift Boat ads. He also has been a player in other Republican independent expenditure efforts.

The Pickens donation is in addition to another $250,000 Schwarzenegger raised from another out-of-state billionaire, New York City Mayor Bloomberg.

Oh -- and that's not the only 100k donation made to the campaign this week. Real estate developer Rick Caruso also chipped in a cool 100K himself. Caruso has given more than $500,000 to Schwarzenegger's campaigns and officeholder accounts over the last four years as well as more than $130,000 to the California Republican Party.

I can't wait to hear how Common Cause justifies these eye-popping six figure donations from special interests trying to influence the California legislative process. Funny how this so-called "good government" group has been amazingly silent about the six figure contributions it once fought to regulate, isn't it?