Even If Ms. Whitman Ignores Demands to Quit

the Gubernatorial Race, Her Candidacy Is Doomed

"Unsolicited Advice" Column

By Bobby Reyes

‘Delicadeza’ is a Spanish derivative, which means a sense of propriety, sensitivity and responsibility to resign from a position of trust when proof is shown that the office holder has committed a violation of law or abuse of power.

M eg Whitman, the Republican Party nominee for governor of California, must abandon her candidacy in view of the accusation that she hired an illegal alien as cleaning lady and maid for her home for nine long years. There is no way that she could not know that the person that she hired was not authorized to work in the United States.

Ms. Whitman’s allegation that she hired the maid, Nicandra Diaz Santillan, from a placement agency is a stupid, if not a laughable, defense. Why? Placement agencies collect directly from the employer and pay (less the agency’s fee) the worker assigned to that employer only for three to six months, a year at the most. Thereafter, the worker gets paid directly by the employer – with the worker no longer obligated to pay the placement agency’s fee. Or at the start of the hiring process, the employer pays the placement agency a hefty placement fee and pays directly the worker hired from the first pay period.

Meg Whitman, the employer, should have known that the cleaning lady cum maid was an illegal alien after she started to pay her directly. How? Because Ms. Whitman has the legal obligation to pay the employer’s share of Social Security contributions for that employee and to collect and remit the employee's share of the FICA. The Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax is a payroll or employment tax imposed by the federal government on both employees and employers to fund Social Security and Medicare.

If she or her staff remitted to the government office Ms. Diaz’s contribution pursuant to the FICA rules, then Ms. Whitman or her staff would be notified by the authorities that the Social Security number presented by the maid was fake. There is no way for Ms. Diaz to obtain a valid Social Security number.

If Meg Whitman continues to insist that she never knew for nine years that her maid was an illegal alien, then she must have paid her employer’s share of the FICA and collected the employee's contribution to the tax. Thus, if Ms. Whitman cannot produce the evidence that she paid the FICA, it compounds her problem, as it is a criminal offense for employers not to pay their share of the FICA and remit the same to the proper government agency.

T he position of Meg Whitman insofar as hiring an illegal alien to clean her home and serve her and her family as a maid totally makes her again a liar. She and her campaign office have been lying about the track record of her opponent, Jerry Brown. She has been touting to her conservative supporters by even saying during the first gubernatorial debate with Mr. Brown these forceful words: “We do have to hold employers accountable for hiring only documented workers, and we do have to enforce that law.”

Thus, if Meg Whitman has any sense of propriety at all, a sense of responsibility left in her and sensitivity to the issues, then she must abandon her candidacy. No amount of justification or expensive public-relations and/or cover-up efforts will mask the fact that she violated federal and state employment laws. She does not deserve to be the nominee of the Republican Party, which strictly abides with the principles of law and order. # # #

Editor’s Note: Please read another article published in this website about Meg Whitman: Top-Ten Reasons Why Meg Whitman’s Candidacy Is a Losing Proposition