On the eve of President Bush’s campaign visit to Los Angeles last Monday, internal documents from Enron to a California state legislative investigative committee have revealed that the two leading Republican state legislators last year sought campaign donations from the Houston-based energy company as it was beginning to spin out of control toward its eventual bankruptcy filing, according to a front-page report in last Monday’s Los Angeles Times.

At issue is a memo from Enron’s Sacramento lobbyist, noting that the energy giant gave $50,000 to the Republican leaders in the state Senate and Assembly. State records verified that the donations showed up last August as the legislature was completing its 2001 session, the LA Times reported.

No one is alleging any legal wrongdoing, but since Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, was criticized by three Republican gubernatorial candidates in this year’s earlier state primary election for accepting $120,000 in political contributions collectively from Enron over the past four years, Democratic state legislative leaders are now releasing the information from an Enron internal memo as it pertains to their political rivals.

This latest report adds further fuel to the political fires between the two major political parties over the handling of the state’s continuing energy controversies. Democrats have a majority in both houses of the state legislature and hold most statewide elected offices including the governor’s office.

Joseph Dunn, the head of the state Senate special committee investigating alleged wholesale energy price manipulation, which has subpoenaed a lot of information from Enron and other major generator/suppliers, has accused his Republican colleagues of being influenced by Enron’s past political contributions. The Republican leaders, Sen. Jim Brulte and Assembly member Dave Cox, have denied the charges, according to the news report.

For now, Dunn has refused to elaborate on documents the LA Times obtained, noting that he is in the process of reaching an agreement with Enron on “resolving confidentiality conflicts,” and after that is done he intents to publicly disclose evidence that the GOP lawmakers were influenced by Enron, the news report indicated.

©Copyright 2002 Intelligence Press Inc. Allrights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republishedor redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without priorwritten consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.