Taxpayers pay the price for Fiona Ma

California Treasurer Fiona Ma has worked in government for most of her adult life. Accordingly, she knows how to spin as well as anyone.

Last Friday, a civil suit against Ma by former state employee Judith Blackwell set to go to trial next week was suddenly dropped. Blackwell, it turns out, had reached a $350,000 settlement with the state of California. Blackwell had accused Ma of, among other things, sexual harassment.

Ma’s attorney declared the dropping of the case “a complete victory for the treasurer.” Ma likewise issued a message through her campaign for lieutenant governor that she was “now, more than ever … committed to championing the values we hold dear and driving meaningful change across our state.”

The resolution of the case is hardly a victory worth celebrating. For one, it came at great expense to California taxpayers. And second, it’s not like Ma came off particularly well in the process.

Last year, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Christopher Krueger rejected Ma’s attempt to have the case dismissed. Judge Krueger noted that “Ma’s own exhibits evidence that she called [Blackwell] into her room while half-dressed on three separate occasions and climbed into bed with her on a fourth. While Ma may dispute this at trial, her attempt to reframe these instances as isolated incidents of ‘unannounced’ entries that typically occur in shared living spaces is not supported by her own evidence.”

Ma apparently argued that “the four incidents…[which] were not sexual, unremarkable in a shared living space, each lasting only a few minutes” and were “random, isolated incidents that do not constitute sexual harassment as a matter of law.”

We don’t know about you all, but this is all a bit strange  and doesn’t instill much confidence in Fiona Ma’s ability to make sound decisions on a basic interpersonal level.

We question Fiona Ma’s decision to continue running for the position of California lieutenant governor. With this and her lengthy history of being on the wrong side of major policy issues (see: her championing of the California high-speed rail boondoggle), Fiona Ma should step aside and find something more productive to do with her life.