The Contra Costa Times has the story, from which I have extracted here.
"With three of the four present Republican members dissenting, the commission disqualified the only other bidder, the Rose Institute at Claremont McKenna College in Southern Californai [sic], late Saturday on the grounds that it failed to fully disclose 10 years' worth of donors."Since when was Claremont McKenna "widely viewed as right-leaning"? And if it were, so what?
The panel sought the names to assess potential partisan influence and conflicts of interest.
Rose Institute director Douglas Johnson is a Republican, and the college is widely viewed as right-leaning, although its bid documents stated that at no time "have the Institute or its team members engaged in any partisan activities or made political contributions that disqualify them "..."
The commission's choice of a mapping consultant came the day after it hired a legal firm following a similar partisan debate.
Full disclosure: I worked at the Rose Institute until I quit because I wasn't making enough money and didn't like the power trip that one of the student managers was on. The Rose Institute had nothing to do with this post.
