San Joaquin County Political Update: We Have A Ding Dong and a Grimace Sighting

Ladies and gentlemen! Grimace is back! The California Republican Party proxy harvester and top Trump Hater also fancies himself to be a political kingmaker. In this case he is taking a dump in San Joaquin County… read on…

So Chuck Winn, the elder Grimace is leaving office and the anointed one is Steve Ding Dong. It looks like we have ourselves a race in San Joaquin County for Supervisor!!!

In case you don’t remember Steve Ding(Dong):

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT… WASHINGTON — Two California House Democrats released a letter requesting a congressional investigation into the work and travel arrangements of a top aide to House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy. Pombo spokesman Brian Kennedy dismissed the request as politically motivated. He defended the arrangement, under which Steven Ding, chief of staff to Pombo and to the Resources Committee, lives in California while making frequent taxpayer-funded trips to Washington. Normally, committee chiefs of staff don’t double as personal chiefs of staff to lawmakers. And, they normally live in Washington, so taxpayers don’t have to pay their travel costs to the nation’s capital. House rules bar reimbursement of commuting and living costs incurred at a staff member’s “duty station.” Ding’s commuting expenses have cost more than $87,000 in taxpayer money during the past three years, according to a news report. But Kennedy said the arrangement was appropriate because Ding works for Pombo’s personal office and for the Resources Committee. “His duty station, as the lingo goes, is now and has always been in Stockton, … and Steve travels to Washington on official business,” Kennedy said. “That is now and has always been a reimbursable expense, so while it’s a unique arrangement in that it does not mesh with the inside-the-beltway mentality, there is absolutely nothing improper about the arrangement.” In a letter to the chairman of the House Administration Committee, which sets House committee budgets, Reps. George Miller, D-Martinez, and Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, disagreed. They attached the news report from last month, which also reported Ding may not have correctly reported all of his outside income as a Republican political consultant, and may have earned as much as $17,000 more than allowed from his outside jobs in the last several years. “The arrangement described in this article is certainly unusual and it may, in fact, be unique,” wrote Miller and Tauscher, who represent Northern California districts near Pombo’s. A spokesman for Administration Committee Chairman Vern Ehlers, R-Mich., declined comment. Ding has acknowledged possible problems with reporting his outside income and has asked the House Ethics Committee for guidance on correcting the errors. Kennedy also released a letter Pombo sent to Ehlers earlier this month defending Ding’s travel arrangement and asking Ehlers to determine whether there was any problem with it. It’s not the first time Democrats have criticized Pombo’s use of his staff time and committee budgets. Two California Democrats who sit on the House Administration Committee, Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Juanita Millender-McDonald, raised a series of questions last year about travel by Resources Committee staff members. For the original source to this news article, click here.

There is an inherent problem with political retreads. They are retreads.