As another indication that it is still not ‘politically correct’ to be associated with an out-of-state energy giant in California, one of the state’s three Republican candidates for governor, William Simon Jr., drew political news coverage this week for his disclosure that he and his family own about $16,750 of stock in El Paso Natural Gas Co.

“Simon Has Stock in Alleged Profiteer” read the headline in Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times. The story noted that a Simon spokesperson said the son of former U.S. treasury secretary does not intend to sell his shares.

A front page article in the newspaper noted that El Paso Natural was a subsidiary of Houston-based El Paso Corp. and was “accused last year of withholding natural gas from the Southern California market to create an artificial shortage that would boost gas prices.”

The Times’ noted that El Paso “vehemently denies the charges” that are part of a pending complaint with federal regulators. And Simon’s campaign manager said that the candidate was unaware of his El Paso holdings until he was reviewing his disclosure statement, required of all candidates running for elected office in the state.

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