Buying the Vote

Yesterday we reported that the City Council members who take special interest money (Hamilton, Robinson, Voigts) voted against an ordinance that would limit the amount of money they can take. Councilman Robinson suggested that if we prohibited the amount of money going directly to candidates, some people would still get him his money, but they would use more hidden ways (e.g., PACs and IEs). That may be true, but it wouldn’t hide the money from public scrutiny. And it would reduce the money from special interests, even if it might not eliminate it.

Let’s face it, the “bribe” and the “payoff” are entrenched in our culture, but the more difficult we make it for special interests to buy influence, the less we will have to worry about it. So we can dismiss Robinson’s rationale for why he takes special interest money.

Let’s see what Hamilton said.

BEWARE OF PEOPLE BUYING ELECTIONS

At the meeting Hamilton bemoaned the fact that he isn‘t a “wealthy” person and claimed that he needed to take special interest money so that he could compete against wealthy citizens who tried to "buy the election." Enviously mentioning the fact that he thought I had a nicer car than he had, and a nicer home, Hamilton singled me out as an example of a wealthy person trying to buy an election. But Hamilton’s green-shaded example is a poor one. Here are the State required Form 460 reports for the 2014 election showing how much Hamilton, Voigts, and I spent -

• Gardner - $12,640
• Hamilton - $21,476
• Voigts - $33,686

The facts show that Hamilton and Voigts outspent me by nearly 2 or 3 times. And this is just the campaign committee money according to the Form 460. If you consider the Political Action Committees (PACs) and Independent Expenditure Committees (IEs) that also contributed to Hamilton and Voigts, the differences are even greater (e.g., the developer Meritage spent $10,000 on a mailer for Voigts and Hamilton. That money isn‘t included in the amounts listed above).

Bottom line - far more money was spent by Voigts and Hamilton than I spent. If anyone was trying to win by putting more money into the election it was Hamilton and Voigts.

Of these monies, I ultimately contributed about $8,000 of my own money to my campaign. Voigts and Hamilton contributed $0. It cost me $8,000 of my own money to run and it cost Voigts and Hamilton $0 to run.

The votes for the three of us were remarkably close -

• Voigts – 6,706
• Gardner – 6,292
• Hamilton – 6,068

On a cost per vote basis, I spent about $2 for each vote while Hamilton and Voigts spent significantly more ($3.54 and $5.02 without factoring in the PAC and IE monies).

The point is, Hamilton didn’t need to take special interest money to defeat a supposedly wealthier candidate who was trying to buy the election. It’s Hamilton and Voigts with their special interest money who are buying the elections.

Hamilton’s argument is not only ridiculous in the face of the facts, he never mentioned the 2016 election of Mayor Pro Tem Basile, who was outspent in the 2016 election by tens of thousands of dollars, and nonetheless overwhelming defeated the “fat cat” Robinson. Robinson with special intyerest money, dramatiucally outspent Basile, who nonetheless outpolled him. The same was true in 2014 - Hamilton dramatrically outspent me, and I outpolled Hamilton.

SUMMARY

Robinson’s defense for taking special interest money simply isn’t true. Hamilton defense that he doesn’t vote 100% of the time for special interests has no evidence to support it, and lots of evidence to show that what he says isn't true. Hamilton’s idea that wealthy people are trying to buy the election and he needs special interest money to compete is not merely untrue, it hides a darker truth – Hamilton and his Gang use special interest money to buy the elections. Without special interest money, Hamilton would have no chance at being elected, and he and his gang need the special interest money to squash the average voter from getting involved

Next time we’ll look at the rest of the arguments for taking special interest money.

BTW - The developers have generously established a fund called "Help Andy Buy a Better Car". If you want to contribute, Click Here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be on May 20 at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.