SOLOMON'S CHIEF OF STAFF GOT GOLDEN PARACHUTE

By Juan Montoya
We wondered why Denise Blanchard, chief of staff of deposed U.S. Representative Solomon always has a smile on her face, even toward the end of the perennial congressman's 28-year reign.
Now we think we may know why.
In fact, there may have been more than 6,000 reasons why Denise had such a cheerful countenance toward the end.
According to http://www.legistorm.com/salaries/house_bonuses_by_member.html, nearly 1 in 10 House members paid at least six-figure bonuses to their staffs last year after a hard-fought election. Most who paid such bonus packages were defeated in the election or retired (as was the case with Ortiz) - with most of those departing being Democrats, of course, given the election tilt toward the GOP.
The site states that the House of Representatives does not publish staff bonus data per se. Instead, bonuses must be inferred based on the increased salary payouts made in the fourth quarter of the year, when bonuses are traditionally given for House member and committee staff.
For example, for the last quarter of 2010 (10/01/10 to 12/31/10), Denise received $36,420.00
compared to 30,420.00 for the previous quarter.
The latter figure was more or less the same as the previous quarter (04/01/10 to 06/30/10) when she received $ 31,590.00.
But even then, that was a nice increase from the quarter before that (01/03/10 to 03/31/10)
when she was paid $ 28,600.01 for her troubles.
It is interesting to note that when the new guy (Blake Farenthold) took over the district office, Blanchard's minions had stripped it clean not only of furniture and office equipment, but also of any files or records of constituents being helped by the office.
Could it be that Denise was miffed that her gravy train had stopped and took it out on the residents of Ortiz's district?