Column: If the public doesn't finance political candidates, special interests will happily step in

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Voters always complain about politicians being beholden to special interests. If they want to change that, they can support public financing for campaigns.

American politics will never be perfectly clean because politicians represent and reflect imperfect humans.It’s actually more of a hope — even a demand — than an expectation. Citizens have become accustomed to expect the worst because of scandal after scandal.In a recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California, adults were asked whether they thought the state government was “run by a few big interests looking out for themselves” or was “run for the benefit of all of the people.

Look, running for office costs barrels of money, especially in California. The money must come from somewhere. And as I’ve written many times, either the public buys the politicians or the special interests eagerly will — and often do. Brown’s measure required more substantive public disclosure of campaign contributions and spending. But he was afraid opponents would attack it as a scheme to spend tax dollars on politicians. So he wrote into the initiative the current restriction on public financing.

Umberg says he’s not particularly sold on public financing but wants to allow local entities to experiment with it if they choose.

 

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CD11 candidate Darling blocked seemingly everyone who criticized him on Twitter, most of whom were his potential constituency, making a mockery of matching campaign funds. We reached out to the Ethics Commission, and LATimes who endorsed him. Neither responded. You still can.

LA’s Ethics Commission corrupted public financing. They ignored protest, allowing CD11 council candidate WestsideDarling to misappropriate matching campaign funds in blocking literal scores of CD11 voters on social media. Here’s my letter to knightcolumbia on it.

… uh news flash special interest has stepped in for decades legal or not, politicians unless they are sloppy know this and is a unspoken rule

Beware the Cult you attend: Jim Jordan, Tim Scott, Vernon Howell [Waco: 'Koresh'], Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Netanyahu, Jim Jones, Santos, Hitler...Putin; they all are terrible, self-serving people and all sound the same ideas.

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