Skinny

Following the money in the high-stakes political fight over public pensions isn’t as easy as it looks, as veteran Democratic strategist Steve Maviglio has learned. A group called California Foundation for Fiscal Reform refused to identify its money source to the California Watch investigative team, except that it was an out-of-state billionaire. CFFR, which Maviglio said stripped info about its operations from its web site, now directs inquiring minds to a Beltway political group called Campaign Solutions, based in Arlington, Va. That outfit has worked for Tea Party contenders nationally, such as Michele Bachmann, Jim DeMint, et al, and in California it backed Carly Fiorina’s Senate run and Proposition 8. Meanwhile, the billionaire Koch brothers, who were linked to the Wisconsin pension flap, have launched their own anti-public pension effort. Sorting all this out requires a road map and Maviglio, who represents a coalition called Californians for Health Care and Retirement Security, may have one…