CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2013, OR THEREAFTER
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2013, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“CAMPAIGN FINANCE DISCLOSURE SHOULD BE TOP
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITY”
Democrats are feeling their oats this
month, enjoying a sense they are unstoppable because they now enjoy one-party
rule in Sacramento, including two-thirds majorities in both houses of the
Legislature and a Democrat securely in the governor’s office, looking like a
lock for reelection if he chooses to run in 2014.
But as they contemplate restoring some
programs they’ve reluctantly helped cut over the last four years of deep budget
deficits, they should not lose sight of the rare opportunity their majorities
give them to make California politics the most transparent in the nation.
One thing they will do if they’re as
reform-minded as they claim is revive some form of an idea that failed when
proposed as a ballot initiative in 2002: Require all advertisements for
propositions to list the three largest donors behind those ads in type as large
as the biggest anywhere else in the ad.
That measure would pass constitutional
muster because it doesn’t restrict anyone’s free speech rights, but it would
also make voters who often don’t read the fine print at the end of political TV
commercials aware of who’s behind the messages they’re seeing and hearing.
Some Democrats clearly want to do
this. They were stung last fall by an October-surprise $11 million in donations
from an Arizona non-profit that paid for scores of commercials opposing Gov.
Jerry Brown’s tax increase measure and backing another that could have greatly
reduced the political clout of labor unions.
The state Fair Political Practices
Commission (FPPC) quickly sued to compel disclosure of the true sources of that
money, but was ultimately stymied when the nonprofit, Americans for Responsible
Leadership, revealed only that it got the money from another Arizona nonprofit,
which in turn got it from a nonprofit in Virginia. Even now, no one is sure
whose money it was, as the secondary groups’ names – Americans for Job Security
and the Center to Protect Patient Rights – are bland titles signifying little.
The furor, of course, ultimately
helped Brown’s measure win and did nothing for the anti-union proposition. But
for anyone interested in electoral openness, it’s vital to identify the sources
of this type so-called “dark money.”
Because over the last 40 years
Democrats have been far more active than Republicans in seeking to identify
real campaign donors – Brown sponsored and helped write a landmark initiative
on the subject in 1974 – their new supermajorities give some hope for progress
here.
One measure
proposed in the Legislature’s short December meeting would revive the essence
of the 2002 proposition, forcing the top funders behind all political ads to
list themselves in those ads. Passing this requires a two-thirds vote in both
houses of the Legislature, as it amounts to a revision of Brown’s 39-year-old
Political Reform Act.
Even with Democrats in charge, two-thirds support is far from
assured. Plenty
of Democrats are just as interested as Republicans in disguising their donors.
It remains to be seen whether they'll rise above those selfish interests.
But if Democrats are smart and if they
can stay unified (something they've rarely managed in either Sacramento or
Washington, D.C.), they’ll pass campaign reform quickly, making sure new rules
are in effect long before the next primary election in June 2014.
“Without disclosure, voters are easily
fooled,” says the California Clean Money Campaign. That group names as
particularly deceptive the ads for last fall’s Proposition 33 insurance rate
measure, which listed neither of its primary sponsors, Mercury Insurance and
its chairman George Joseph, on its website, in TV commercials or even in its
ballot argument.
Yet, when a disclosure measure came up
in the last legislative session, Republicans voted against it unanimously. One
GOP assemblyman, Don Wagner of Irvine, objected to the bill’s requiring
sponsoring company logos to appear on advertisements, agreeing with businesses
that this might somehow dilute their brand image.
The answer to that complaint: If
public knowledge that a company backs a political measure could hurt sales, maybe
that company ought to think twice about what it’s backing.
Even without legislative action, the
FPPC has already voted to require groups that spend more than $100,000 for an
initiative petition to reveal their backing on the measure’s organization papers.
That falls far short of forcing any group to list itself on actual petitions,
the only place most signers would see any listing. But at least it’s something.
The commission will also require
candidates and committees to identify themselves when sending out mass emails.
But those IDs can be meaningless committee names.
Taken together, it’s clear that
without a major upgrade to the Political Reform Act, big donors will continue
trying to pull the wool over voters’ eyes. For any legislature at any time,
preventing this kind of dishonesty through omission or evasion should be a top
priority.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski
Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign
to Squelch It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more
Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
No comments:
Post a Comment