Governor has consumer advocate
ousted from bill-signing

San Francisco Chronicle
August 1, 2005

Matier and Ross
By Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross

Sour note: Rosemary Shahan, head of the group Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, found herself being escorted out of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ceremony for the signing of the Car Buyers Bill of Rights this past week.

Shahan -- who was invited to the ceremony by the bill's author, Assemblywoman Cindy Montaez, D-San Fernando (Los Angeles County) -- was standing in the anteroom of the governor's office when she was taken aside by Montaez's press person, Rocky Rushing, and told that she was not to be invited in.

The order nixing Shahan's entrance was issued by gubernatorial aide Richard Costigan, who said she wasn't on the governor's list of guests -- in part because she hadn't sent in a letter supporting the bill.

But there was a second offense as well. Shahan had told reporters the day before that the governor, who has been getting hit with hard questions about his finances lately, was going to allow only one camera and one reporter into the signing.

Schwarzenegger's office wasn't happy about the calls that followed or the charge that he was ducking the press. Staffers conceded that only one reporter and photographer were going to be let in, but noted that the governor always signs legislation in a smaller room.

Whatever -- as press aide Rushing tells us, "Costigan said she's not coming in. I tell Rosemary she's not coming in, and she doesn't come in. That's the sum total of it."