Dan Walters has been covering Sacramento politics for decades. In California, state senate seats larger than congressional seats create a reality where the most populous state is the most expensive state when it comes to campaigning.
Last week, a solid measure for re-districting died in the legislature. The big money, special interests have a strangle-hold on Sacramento and won. Dan Walters wrote:
Redrawing their own districts to fix elections and insulate themselves from voters’ whims is generally and accurately regarded to be the most cynically self-serving act that state legislators can perform.
However, strangling redistricting reform after months of pledging to place it before voters and thus elevate the level of lawmakers’ civic standing may be even worse — and that’s exactly what California’s legislative leaders did late last week.
The comic-opera end to the redistricting saga — leaders of the Legislature’s two houses pointing fingers at each other while continuing to insist that they really wanted reform — confirmed anew that even the most jaundiced view about the petty, self-interested motives of California legislators is merely realism.
It should be evident to any even halfway objective observer that the Legislature is an abjectly dysfunctional body, chronically incapable of responding effectively to the issues that arise from a fast-growing, fast-changing state. That malaise has many roots, but one of them is the essentially closed nature of legislative politics, which are disconnected from the socioeconomic reality of the state and driven by the wishes of a relative handful of powerful interest groups.
If government assigns value to money, we have an auction. If goverment assigns value to people, we have a democracy. That is the goal behind clean money, the reason for Proposition 89. Prop. 89 ends the fundraising madness with constitutional limits so regular voters aren’t drowned out by big money. To return democracy to the voters and stop the Sacramento auction, Proposition 89 bans contributions from lobbyists and state contractors.
But more importantly, Proposition 89 levels the playing field so new candidates can win on their ideas, not because of the money they raise. With Proposition 89, candidates who agree to spending limits and to take no private contributions qualify for public funding.
Proposition 89 stops candidates from hiding behind negative ads and punishes politicians who violate the law. Prop 89 makes wealthy self-funded candidates disclose the amount of personal funds they will spend. Under Proposition 89, publicly financed candidates must engage in debates. Prop. 89 imposes mandatory jail time and provides for removal from office of candidates who break the law.
Sacramento is broken, even long time observes like Dan Walters are disgusted by what is going on. It isn’t the same-old, same-old — things have gotten worse.
This fall, we can reform Sacramento by passing
Proposition 89.
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Yes on Proposition 89 ~ Proposition 89 Blog
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