On cookie jars and trust

Begin with the news in the February Dan Walters column (Sacramento Bee) that our California lawmakers, "... (are paid) ... the highest-in-the nation salaries, cars, staffs and hefty 'per diem' payments ..." A Capitol Alert column from the Sacramento Bee reported that Sen. Ted Gaines rejected the per diem paid to senators who live in distant cities. This altruistic rejection came after his prior six-year-long acceptance of per diem, while in the Assembly, came to light and was being used by his political opponents. He said that he gave perhaps two-thirds of the per diem he received to charity. This is why politicians get a bad name. It's my money he's donating, not his. He just acts like it's his. To his credit, after having the issue brought to light, the lid was put on that cookie jar, and Senator Gaines has refused to accept any per diem while serving as senator. Right now his per diem payments are a settled issue. What's not settled is the future possibility that candidate Beth Gaines, if her dream of an Assembly career comes true, will be in a position to do the same thing. Lessons learned across the kitchen table will dictate that she will reject any per diem. But why take the chance that she may find a cookie jar of her own? The first question we should ask about any candidate for Assembly is, "Can we trust them with the purse strings of the state treasury?" Before we ask for their conservative or liberal or republican or democratic credentials, we should ask, "Can they be trusted with our money?"There is one candidate who has lived and almost died by the creed, "Duty, Honor, Country." An Army officer, helicopter pilot, shot down and POW'd for five years; returned home with honor; served a full post-military career as a civil servant and now knows that it's time to give back to the country. I'd trust candidate Michael O'Connor to keep his hands out of any new-found cookie jar.Denis Golemis, Rocklin