Via the LAT: Gov. to Be Paid $8 Million by Fitness Magazines

Two days before he was sworn into office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger accepted a consulting job paying an estimated $8 million over five years to “further the business objectives” of a national publisher of health and bodybuilding magazines.

The contract pays Schwarzenegger 1% of the magazines’ advertising revenue, much of which comes from makers of nutritional supplements. Last year, the governor vetoed legislation that would have imposed government regulations on the supplement industry.

Lovely.

You know, I think that people who get into politics have to recognize that for the time that they are in office, they are going to have to eschew making a lot of money that they might otherwise be in a position to make. (And that goes for huge book deals, too).

There is no doubt that Arnold could have made this deal sans being elected governor, but now it puts him in the position of possible conflict of interest (as noted above), not to mention the perception of cashing in on elected office.

The situation may well be legal, but still: if one is going into public service, go into public service. Maybe if politicians could only make what they make in office then they wouldn’t stick around in politics as long as they do. To wit:

The law allows governors and other elected officials to keep outside jobs. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) has been paid $35,000 a year by the Voter Improvement Program in Los Angeles, a nonprofit organization created by the former president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.