Road to the poorhouse

Two weeks ago the South Bay Expressway, run by a subsidiary of Australia’s Macquarie Infrastructure Group, filed for bankruptcy, a victim of high gas prices and generally recessionary times. But before it went officially broke, the highway, which runs from Otay Mesa to Spring Valley via EastLake and Chula Vista’s Otay Ranch, furnished some local politicos with last-hurrah cash. According to a state disclosure filing, dated last April 20, the expressway operation gave $1000 each to assembly members Marty Block and Mary Salas, both Democrats, and to Republican state senator Dennis Hollingsworth. Democrat Mary Hayashi’s state assembly campaign got $500. Last year the now-bankrupt highway company spent a total of $36,606.38 on the lobbying firm of Aprea & Micheli.