Consider the odd journey of Julie Su, deputy mayor of New York City for “economic justice” under Zohran Mamdani — and former Secretary of Labor in California.
Su oversaw California’s Employment Development Department — i.e. the state unemployment department — during the coronavirus pandemic, when fraudsters stole tens of billions of dollars.
Earlier this week, as The California Post noted, the U.S. Department of Labor launched a special investigation into that fraud, which — as the EDD itself admitted — involved at least $20 billion being paid to criminal fraudsters.
The federal investigation is just one of several inquiries that will target fraud in California, which is believed to be widespread.
The state’s leaders, from Gavin Newsom on down, have shown little interest in stopping it — and, in fact, have legalized various behaviors that might be recognized as corrupt in any other jurisdiction.
The practice of “behested payments,” for example, allows politicians to tell donors to contribute fortunes to charities they have established on the side. Newsom’s own wife, “First Partner” Jennifer Siebel Newsom, runs a nunprofit that has received such funds.
In the one-party run state that is Democrat-dominated California, such payments are seen as the cost of doing business. Laws are passed — or executive decisions made — that funnel money to favored groups, which then help re-elect Democrats, who keep the cycle going.
And when fraud happens, those who fail to stop it are not held accountable, but are actually promoted.
Julie Su did not leave public service after tens of billions of dollars was stolen from her department, Instead, she became the Acting Secretary of Labor under President Joe Biden.
From there, she made her way to the Mamdani administration, where “economic justice” apparently demands raising property taxes on working people in New York, increasing rent and the cost of living.
What Su knows — and what Democrats have shown, from Newsom’s California to Biden’s Washington to Mamdani’s New York — is that there is no punishment for fraud on the left.
That is why federal intervention is necessary. But when the truth emerges about fraud in this state, and the facts are known, it will be up to Californians to ensure that the rot can never return.
