During a discussion about the California budget crisis on the July 8 edition of MSNBC's Morning Meeting, host Dylan Ratigan interviewed former Rep. Tom Campbell (R-CA), but at no point disclosed that Campbell is a Republican. Ratigan introduced Campbell as “a former California state budget director” and “currently an economics and law professor at Chapman University,” and also stated that Campbell has “the best budget familiarity.” During the segment, on-screen text also stated that Campbell is “considering running for governor of California”; indeed, Campbell is currently seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination.

According to his website, Campbell “served in the Reagan Administration as Director of the Bureau of Competition, at the Federal Trade Commission from 1981 to 1983.” Campbell served as a Republican congressman from 1989 to 1993 and from 1995 to 2001. In 2000, he was the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, losing to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). He was also director of the California Department of Finance in the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) from 2004-2005.

Ratigan began the discussion by purporting to host “some folks who are very familiar with California's situation,” but both subjects he interviewed were Republicans; Campbell appeared alongside Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), whom on-screen graphics identified as a Republican congressman “known as [a] tax-cut crusader.”

From the July 8 edition of MSNBC's Morning Meeting:

RATIGAN: Welcome back. Big to-do yesterday with Michael Jackson. One of the aspects of that story was the spending on the state's part. Four million dollars, they claim, for security and other services around that particular funeral. Now $4 million in a state that is billions in the hole doesn't amount to much, but it is a flash point politically in that state for the bigger problem, which is, why is California sending IOUs, and why is it $26 billion in debt? Well, we asked some of the folks out west what was going on, and some of the best journalists out there work over at the San Jose Mercury News, and they actually did a little bit of work for us. I want to present it to some folks who are very familiar with California's situation. Tom Campbell going to join us, for one. He's a former budget director -- a former California state budget director, excuse me, currently an economics and law professor at Chapman University. Tom Campbell, nice to see you. We've got Tom and Tom for this conversation, by the way. Tom McClintock is the California congressman -- one of the California congressmen -- and I would argue, Tom, one of the most famous tax cut crusaders in the state.

I want to begin this conversation with the two of you on the spending side, and then I'll come back for the tax collection side, but I want to start with how Governor Schwarzenegger has spent California's money, and the San Jose Mercury News argument that there is an additional $10 billion that is being and has -- continues to be spent above and beyond the rate of inflation, above and beyond the rate of population growth in that state and that $4.1 billion of that, as you can see here again, is prisons tied to their -- to California's three-strikes law, that incarceration in that state is just an incredibly expensive undertaking. The second one, health care, which is a conversation we all know and love. Fun to give away, no one wants to talk about who's going to pay. And then political expediency with the vehicle license refund, $2 billion, $200 to everybody in California, but they have to replace that revenue, and that's breaking the state. Tom Campbell, again, you have the best budget familiarity. Is the San Jose Mercury News, of the excess spending California because of incarceration costs, because of health care costs, and because of politically expedient decisions like giving drivers refunds on their licensing fees -- is that a fair characterization as to why on the spending side California has the problems that it does?