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Politicians and Evil Oil Companies! Why Is This Not Making News????

Remember how George W Bush was raked through the coals (pardon the pun) because he was a Friend of Ken Lay”/ And Dick Cheney is evil because of his ties to Halliburton?

Hello California state Senator Michael Rubio, friend of the San Joaquin Refining Company.

This has all the trappings of a wonderful example of the corrupt ties that Republicans have to the wretched oil industry. The Republican got a nice bit of financial aid from an oil company exec, not only to help finance his campaign, but he also got money from the company to help him buy a $651,000 five bedroom home with four fireplaces and a swimming pool! The company exec also bought Rubio’s Bakersfield home for $185,000, which was appraised and valued under $100,000 at the time of the sale. Here are some of the details concerning  the buying and selling of these homes.

Before resigning to head California governmental affairs for Chevron Corp., Democratic Sen. Michael Rubio participated in two real estate deals with a Kern County oil executive who has contributed to his campaign.

The Fair Political Practices Commission is deciding whether to open an investigation into the transactions, which involve Rubio’s current and former homes, to determine if they amounted to an improper gift to an elected official.

Rubio, contacted Wednesday night, said the dealings with an investment firm owned by Majid Mojibi, president of the San Joaquin Refining Co. Inc., were done by the book.

He said that Mojibi last year properly loaned him money to buy a $681,000 home in El Dorado Hills after a bank turned him down for a conventional mortgage. Two months later, still unable to get a conventional loan, he gave the house to Mojibi and is now renting it, he said.

DCM Assets Management, a company registered to Mojibi, also purchased the Bakersfield home Rubio had to put up for a short sale in 2011. The company paid $185,000 for the two-bedroom house, according to records.

The real estate website Zillow.com estimated that the Bakersfield house was worth less than $100,000 at the time of the sale. Rubio said the site undervalued the home based on a dispute over the updated square footage after renovations.

Rubio had to move from that home during his 2010 campaign, after it was discovered that the property was not in the 16th Senate District he was seeking to represent. Local election officials had mistakenly included the address in the wrong Senate district.

Rubio said the company purchased his former house for another Mojibi family member after the home, which he bought for $270,000 in 2004, was put on the market through a real estate agent.

“They didn’t get it for a dollar more or a dollar less,” he said. “It went through every normal process consistent with any normal real estate transaction that was approved by the lender we were doing the short sale on.”

After the short sale, Rubio was unable to get a loan for the five-bedroom home in El Dorado Hills. Rubio made $95,291 a year as a state senator and his wife, a dental hygienist, also made less than $100,000, according to a financial disclosure form filed last year.

He said he was anxious to move his wife, daughters and in-laws to the area so they could spend more time with him when he was in Sacramento for legislative work.

I’m stunned this isn’t all over the news as yet another example of the rampant corrupt ties between the oil companies and Republi….

Oh. My mistake. Michael Rubio is a Democrat. No wonder this hasn’t made national news. And I just did a search on MSNBC’s web portal. As of this moment… Nothing.