Big Spenders Head to Polls
Source: Richard Park/Bay Citizen
As voters head to the polls Tuesday – or, for the most part, stay away – the lasting message of this desultory primary season seems to be this: A shot at the governor’s mansion costs roughly $100 million. The price of securing an energy monopoly is $46 million. And a chance to win a Senate seat comes relatively cheap: $5.5 million.
The influential role of money in politics is obviously not a new discovery, but the naked spending by billionaires and interest groups to win votes in this election has been especially glaring, set against the backdrop of a $20 billion budget deficit that has left the entire state reeling.
By the time the first vote is cast Tuesday, the candidates and interest groups will have spent more than $225 million. The sad irony – candidates spending millions while, at the same time, calling for fiscal responsibility – has subjected the state to a carpet-bombing of negative advertising while offering little insight into how we will get out of this mess.
“Has any of these candidates told the California voter what has to be done to balance the budget?” asked John Ellwood, a political science professor at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy. “Nobody’s talking about it.”
Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is the likely winner of the GOP nomination for governor. She’s spent nearly $100 million, more than half of it on radio and television ads that have saturated the Bay Area and Southern California. Whitman has vowed to cut taxes and slash state spending while also investing in education. She has said little about the Los Angeles Unified School District’s $640 million deficit, the second largest in the nation.
To an unprecedented degree, nearly every race Tuesday has been defined – and perhaps decided – by money.
The Democratic frontrunner for governor, Attorney General Jerry Brown, amassed a war chest of more than $20 million, driving the out-gunned Gavin Newsom out of the race, into a run for lieutenant governor. Brown is now gearing up for a battle against Whitman in the general election. But he has yet to offer a detailed plan to relieve the pain of the 11 California cities with unemployment rates of 15 percent or more.
Of course, there is a reason for this: the strategy works.
“Nobody’s out there saying, ‘Let me tell you about the school teachers we’re going to fire,’ or, ‘Let me tell you about the taxes we’re going to raise,’” Ellwood said. “If they told you the truth, you’re not going to vote for them.”
And it’s not just the candidates: special interests and corporations have used the political process to try to buy themselves greater control over consumers.
Mercury General, the insurance giant, has spent $16 million in support of Proposition 17, a measure that would offer financial incentives to drivers who switch their coverage to the insurance company. At the same time, the law would allow Mercury and other insurers to impose surcharges, which have been illegal under a previous measure, Prop. 103, for two decades.
And in an attempt to purchase what is essentially a statewide energy monopoly for private companies, including and especially itself, Pacific Gas & Electric Company has contributed $46 million in support of Proposition 16. The law, singlehandedly funded by PG&E, would require two-thirds voter approval for cities and counties to set up a public electricity option to compete with a company like PG&E.
The opposition has raised $80,000.
The following is a look at the races to watch Tuesday:
Governor
Whitman is the frontrunner on the GOP side, polling more than 20 points ahead of her rival, state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.
Whitman, a 53-year-old billionaire, has shelled out more than $80 million on the campaign. She has said she will spend $150 million to win the election. Poizner has spent about $24 million. Spending heavily early on, Whitman once led Poizner by as much as 50 points in some polls. After a series of attack ads from Poizner criticized her stance on immigration and her ties to investment firm Goldman Sachs, Whitman has tried to brand herself as a Republican’s Republican – far to the right of where she started her campaign. Although Poizner cut the spread to single digits, Whitman has since opened up a comfortable lead.
The Democratic side has been quiet, mostly because Brown is a lock. Looking toward November, Whitman is expected to move back to the center against Brown, a former governor with a shifting political persona. Brown will have to use all of his funds – more than $20 million at last count – to fight Whitman’s aggressive ad machine. The most salient issues for this campaign, and what the public and the media have not yet heard much about, are the economy and joblessness.
Read More: www.baycitizen.org/june-8-election/story/big-spenders/