Campaign financing, not texting, is the real lobbyist problem in Sacramento
On his first day as speaker of California's Assembly, John Perez promised to stop lobbyists from sending text messages to legislators during bill debates. While Perez deserves credit for recognizing the problem of special-interest influence in Sacramento, his proposed solution falls short.
Stopping text messages during deliberation and voting ends the most intrusive form of contact between lobbyists and legislators. However, the real problem is that legislators feel the need to listen to lobbyists, period, while turning a deaf ear to constituents. The root of that problem is not technology; it's money.
Even with a texting ban, lobbyists would still contact legislators during debates via e-mails and hand-delivered memos. They would still send calling cards to members during floor sessions, asking that they come to the lobby. And they'd still meet with legislators, exchange phone calls, and take them to dinner and vacations using clients' funds.
In the past decade, California's legislators raised more than a billion dollars for campaigns, most of it from special interests who hire lobbyists. As long as legislators can win re-election only by raising huge sums from private interests, they will continue to listen to those interests and do their bidding.
For example, why did John Perez introduce a bill written by Enterprise car rental lobbyists, which he eventually didn't support due to its inadequate consumer protections? Enterprise contributed $2,500 to his campaign committee shortly after he introduced the bill, which suggests that fundraising pressures entice lawmakers to do favors for lobbyists and their clients.
After Maine enacted a program of public financing similar to Proposition 15, its Senate president said, "When I'm walking the halls of the legislature and I see lobbyists from major corporations or even small organizations, I know that I get to make decisions that think about all the people in my constituencies, all the people in my district and not just specific interest groups."
Like Maine, California needs politicians out of the fundraising game to focus on our priorities. We face serious problems: schools, budget problems, a stressed health care system. Rather than solving problems, politicians are busy raising money for their campaigns. If California decides that candidates should run for office using public funds, then legislators would be free to ignore texts, e-mails and phone calls from lobbyists, and they would be free to govern in the interests of voters.
On June's ballot, voters have the chance to try out a system of public financing for secretary of state campaigns with Proposition 15.
Jack Gualco, who heads a lobbyist trade association in Sacramento, doesn't like the plan to stop his members from texting legislators, but he is more concerned about Proposition 15. His group filed three unsuccessful lawsuits that tried to prevent voters from considering a change in how political campaigns are funded.
The lobbyists' stated objection to Proposition 15 is that their fees to register with the secretary of state will be raised from $12.50 to $350 a year, which is less than what doctors pay. Their real fear may be that if Proposition 15 proves successful, then legislators will send lobbyists' texts and e-mails to their spam filters and send their phone calls into voice-mail oblivion.
If Perez is serious about curtailing the power of special interest lobbyists, he should focus on the real source of power, not the technologies used to exercise that power. Ultimately, that means a shift from private financing of campaigns to one of public financing. Passage of Proposition 15 is the first step in that shift.
DEREK CRESSMAN is the western states regional director for
Common Cause, a non-partisan good government organization.
He wrote this article for this newspaper.
See the article on San Jose Mercury News website
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)