Patch Blog: Limits on Campaign Spending may Make City Hall More Honest

One of the the main parts of any election happens to be getting campaign funds. We saw that billionaire Meg Whitman dug deep to put some large amounts of cash into her own campaign for governor, using over $119 million of her own money. Whitman's total spending was at least reaching the $140 million mark in the month before the election, according to the Huffington Post. Jerry Brown's campaign raised over $33 million for that same job that pays out relatively little in comparison to getting it.

L.A. political candidates have campaigns that turn into very expensive crusades about getting into—and staying—in political office. This is true from the mayor down to the council members and, as we see in the news lately, even in the more obscure county tax assessor's office, where John Noguez raised more that $1 million and his strongest challenger reporting $50,000 of campaign funding. Now, Noguez is under investigation for corruption involving the donations to his campaign. (See "Raids in 2 states expand corruption probe of L.A. County assessor," April 26, 2012, by Jack Dolan and Ruben Vives, Los Angeles Times.)

What we will see in our L.A. city elections for 2013 is about half of the City Council seats up for grabs in the odd-numbered districts. Some of the Council members have been termed out and many refugees from the state legislature are swooping in to try to find a home within the city council, where a salary of $15,000 a month is higher than every other city council in the country—and higher even than that of most state and federal office holders.

Campaign reform might be one way to try to keep our elected officials honest. At least it's an idea to start with, as former L.A. Daily News editor Ron Kaye examines the issue in his blog, "Ron Kaye L.A.,"  in an article titled, "Money Matters: Campaign Finance Reforms Will Help End the Corruption and Incompetence at City Hall," posted April 25, 2012. Ron points out the recent and local election example in CD-14, where incumbent José Huizar's campaign collected donations from 201 persons living in CD-14, and more than 1,000 persons living outside the district. The total was almost $900,000.

An extra $100,000 was taken by Huizar from the public money in matching funds, something of an overkill when you consider that challenger Rudy Martinez's campaign reported contributions of $213,000 of his own money, with just $88,000 more from other people.

Ron's article continues with more examples, and points out what we get now in campaigns in the city elections, where only 13 percent of the registered voters bothered to vote last year. People and organizatons don't make large donations because they're well-wishers or nice guys. It's more of an investment for those with money to get their way when it comes time to make decisions about what's important to "special interests."

It happens on as well for statewide office holders, but we are keeping this discussion local. Some proposals for "campaign finance reform" have been made, which can affect how the city election may produce results, giving a more balanced footing among candidates instead of watching the candidate with the most money overwhelm opponents in sheer ability to spend for radio, television and print ads as well as afford to hire the most campaign workers.

As usual, the ideas that Ron covers will not win over those who most benefit from the system as it is, and are quite satisfied with it. Yet, the decision will be made by the Ethics Commission in June and could be enacted for the 2013 elections if people put pressure on the Council members to make the changes.  Phone calls, emails, letters, faxes petitions, resolutions and speaking out where pubic comment is available are all ways to express views to Council members.

Ron Kaye's blog is where you can find more information on topics that City Hall occupants might not be too excited to share with you. Some of the information might make you wonder, "Why is this going on?" It's going on, in most cases, because no one is accountable to take the blame. It's part of the system.

We can change that, but not all at once. It takes some work and people getting together to each take on a part of the task needed. I know Ron and find I am in agreement with him about most of the things he brings up. The other issues he raises present a viewpoint that I still have to consider, with my own assessments applied to size it all up. Please do meander through some of those past topics on that blog. You might be surprised about what really goes on downtown on Spring Street. And it's probably not going to be "pleasantly suprised," when you consider it's City Hall we are talking about.