Did Congresswoman Doris Matsui have a hand in Inspector General Gerald Walpin’s termination?

For those who live out side of “The Belly of the Beast”; Sacramento, California, first a short introduction to a few new players you need to be familiar with.

Doris Matsui is the current placeholder congresswoman for the Democrat Party, after her late husband, Robert Matsui, passed away while in office. Robert was a political insider, while Doris is as outside as you can get. She was encouraged to replace Robert in the March 2005 election soon after her husband died.

Angelo Tsakopoulos, along with his daughter Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, are the owners of AKT Development in Sacramento. When it comes to real estate, property and commercial development in the Capitol City, it starts and stops with the Tsakopoulos Family. They are heavy political contributors, as they have maxed out in contributions to Mayor Kevin Johnson, President Barack Obama, Congresswoman Doris Matsui and the DNC.

The Tsakopoulos Family is so entrenched with the Obama Administration that Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis has been mentioned for an Obama nomination to an ambassadorship this year.

Consider the Kevin Johnson, St. Hope Academy investigation for a moment; who would stand to lose the most from a ruling against the sitting Mayor of Sacramento, who prohibits the city from receiving millions of dollars in stimulus funding? Can you say a developer?

The Tsakopoulos Family is one of the top fund raisng families in the entire state of California. In Sacramento, they have numerous items before the city council that involve economic development with union workers, another incentive to keep the flow of “shovel ready” stimulus rushing to Sacramento.

In 2005, Tsakopoulos helped Congresswoman Doris Matsui make over $175,000 with a real estate deal. Mastui told the Sacramento Bee, ”Matsui recalled Friday that she said as much back then to major Sacramento developer Angelo Tsakopoulos, whom she has considered a friend for three decades.”

“Everybody when they get together at parties talks about their real estate, about how much more your house is worth than it was two years ago,” she said.

“It was probably at one of these party situations where … I mentioned it to him. I said, ‘Well, my stocks are going down.’ And we were talking about real estate, so he said, ‘Well, you know there are all kinds of opportunities,’ because he does things.” That conversation led to Matsui’s 2003 investments in two Tsakopoulos-controlled land partnerships, Valley View in El Dorado Hills and Greenbrier in North Natomas.

According to a document released to the Bee on Friday by her campaign, Matsui sold the properties in late January for a $214,000 profit – $178,000 after taxes – to more than double her $150,000 investment in a two-year span.

Do you think Congresswoman Matsui ‘owes’ Tsakopoulos a favor?

Would you pick up the phone and ask your Congresswoman to do something about the loss of $8-10 million of development money flooding to your backyard, all because of a mayor’s good intention accounting miscues prohibiting the Obama handout?

You have lived your entire life in Sacramento, you’ve contributed thousands of dollars to the statewide Democrat Party, as well as local and national candidates, and here you are…on the cuspid of getting something in return and a rookie mayor holds up your cash offering. Wouldn’t you ask for a favor, something?

If you’re looking for the ‘real reasons’ for Gerald Walpin’s termination, look no further than Sacramento. The answers rest with Congresswoman Mastui, and the need for money to satisfy the blueprints for Sacramento’s ‘shovel ready’ development plans.

In case you have never met Congresswoman Doris Matsui…