EDITORIAL MONEY POLITICS PUBLIC SHORTCHANGED BY INFLUENCE OF SPECIAL-INTEREST CASH.

GIVEN that the primary job of most elected officials' aides is to make their politician-bosses look good, we shouldn't be too alarmed by reports that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger uses campaign funds to supplement some of his key aides' state salaries.

Call it honesty in employment. The apparatchiks are doing campaign work anyway; they might as well get some campaign cash for doing it. Hopefully, they limit such activities to when they're off the taxpayers' clock.

Far more concerning than how campaign funds and other private donations are spent, though, is how they're raised -- and what contributors expect to get in return.

Schwarzenegger is hardly the first politician to blur the line between government and campaign business, or to lean heavily on private contributors to bridge the interaction between the two. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, for example, tapped various special interests to finance his efforts to take over the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In some ways, this beats the alternative: better the mayor or the governor use private cash, and not the public's, for political purposes.

But there is a downside: Villaraigosa's political career will likely rise or fall depending on what he does with the LAUSD -- meaning he may very well owe his political life to those who bankrolled his efforts, all of whom have their own motives for their generosity.

Last week, Villaraigosa collected a $1 million donation for the shadow school district he's running in anticipation of his LAUSD takeover. This was the second such donation, the first coming from telecommunications giant Verizon. The source of the second million, though, is a mystery, as the donor is being kept anonymous.

Technically, this secrecy is legal, because the donation in question didn't go to an official political campaign per se. But even if it's legally legitimate, it still seems ethically unseemly.

Some moneyed interest is investing in Villaraigosa's political future, an investment that will inevitably result in access to the mayor. And the taxpaying, voting public has no idea who or why.

Even when such contributions are disclosed, as is the case with the funds Schwarzenegger's using to enrich his aides, the practice is still worrisome.

Taxpayers spend billions to finance our politicians' operations, their lobbying and their staffs. Yet for most taxpayers, the amount of direct access to our elected officials is nil. Special interests, on the other hand, pony up just a few million, and their access -- to say nothing of their influence -- is unlimited.

Schwarzenegger's aides surely do well from their contributor-financed moonlighting. And Villaraigosa has certainly boosted his political career with his side arrangements. Countless special interests, no doubt, also appreciate the opportunity to curry favor with powerful politicians.

In the money game that is modern politics, there's something for everyone -- except the public.