RepresentUS and the Goal of Removing Money From Politics

I am the only candidate running for Redwood City City Council that is currently a member of RepresentUS, a movement to end corruption in government. (All candidates are welcome to join.) The movement understands that money is controlling politics. As their website states:

“The American Anti-Corruption Act is model legislation that sets a standard for city, state and federal laws that prevent money from corrupting American government. It fundamentally reshapes the rules of American politics and restores The People as the most important stakeholders in our political system. An Anti-Corruption Act has three primary outcomes:

• Stop political bribery by overhauling lobbying and ethics laws
• End secret money by dramatically increasing transparency
• Give every voter a voice by creating citizen-funded elections

Represent.Us is building a movement to pass Anti-Corruption Acts in cities, states, and federally. Each Act is uniquely tailored to meet the needs of locales across the country.”

However, the reality is that to run for any office today you need money. A campaign to get elected is no different than trying to sell a product. People must know about the product if they are going to buy it or in the case of politics vote for it. Whether you are an incumbent or a new candidate, you need money for all kinds of things including filing fees; writing, printing and mailing flyers; advertising; making signs and for example t-shirts. These things cost money and if you want people to get to know you, you need to reach out to them.

While it would be nice not to have to worry about money, the reality is that we aren’t there yet. Citizen funded elections in the future could mean that an electoral committee would distribute a flat equal amount to all candidates. But for now the candidate who doesn’t raise any money cannot win. He or she will simply not be heard. But raising money takes time and is akward. Another truism in raising funding is that it takes the same amount of time to raise a small amount of money as it generally takes to raise a larger amount of money. So generally, if you have a supporter that is willing to help with a larger amount that can be the difference between focusing on the issues and getting known in a timely manner instead of just focusing on raising money.

While the candidate who raises the most money doesn’t always win (note that in fact in the last election this was the case and that in this election the top candidate in terms of money has raised more than double the amount of money I have); the candidate who doesn’t raise enough money never wins. Candidates that don’t raise a certain minimum amount of money within a certain compressed period are deemed not to be viable and so not only is it necessary to raise the right amount of money but to do so in a timely manner. Some supporters don’t have the money to support a candidate financially or can only afford to make small donations. Some supporters are almost insulted to be asked for money believing maybe but clearly erroneously that there is an election fund that supports elections. So a candidate is faced with the delicate task of identifying the supporters that both have the immediate means and the inclination to financially support his or her candidacy.

Recently an article in the press made an issue of my funding sources. To the realtor who wrote that I was caught because I didn’t disclose; no the information I disclosed and have been disclosing got published in a local paper. If you would like to follow the disclosures as they come in please check the Redwood City website (www.redwoodcity.org\departments\city-clerk) periodically. Given that I decided to run and got approved to run the day before the deadline, I have barely been campaigning for eight weeks. So far, I have received contributions including in kind contributions from 16 different individuals and one group, GrowElect, a group which helps Hispanic candidates get elected. Not to mention because it isn’t in the bank, the supporters that have told me that they will donate but need to wait for another paycheck or two or some particular source of funds to become available. Timing is everything.

To the person who thinks I am a puppet. Don’t worry, I am not. Although I have received a maybe disproportionate amount of money from a single source, maybe it is because some people who support me are not as wealthy and able to contribute or need more time to plan their campaign contributions. Moreover following your line of thinking what about the candidates that have raised a disproportionate amount of their funding from multiple sources that all represent the same industry, they must then be puppets of that industry. So why didn’t that newspaper focus on that?

Nice segue into my last point for today: the fact that when reading about elections coverage in the news the general public doesn’t always consider that coverage of candidates that are supported or endorsed by a particular publication is going to be materially different from the coverage of those candidates that are not supported or endorsed by the publication.

I certainly want to change the way our elections are funded but until we have done so if I want to win, I need help. For example maybe I should send another direct mail piece or email or place another ad. In closing anyone who would like to help me do that or anything else to get my name and platform out there is welcome to donate at www.taniasole.com . And if you can’t help financially but want to help in a different way like for example either precinct walking or phone banking don’t be shy reach out!