In the field of political corruption, it would be difficult to find a more experienced and brazen group of practitioners than the Los Angeles City Council, but this time they’ve really outdone themselves.
Last week, the Los Angeles City Council advanced a proposal to establish “Democracy Vouchers,” a program to enable residents to donate money to city candidates even if they don’t have the money to do so.
The motion approved by the council orders a study of the feasibility of providing four million Angelenos with vouchers that they can donate to the candidate of their choosing. The vouchers would then be redeemed by the city for actual money that the campaigns can spend.
The motion stated that in the 2020 election, the “vast majority of itemized contributions” came from people “who are not representative of the city’s racial and socioeconomic demographics.” The council instructed the city’s legislative analyst and other departments to conduct an analysis, “neighborhood-by-neighborhood,” of donors in city elections.
Follow the logic: apparently because the City Council is bought and paid for by campaign donors, people living in poverty don’t have a fair chance to be well represented, so taxpayers must give them money to buy a City Council member, just like the wealthy donors do.
Four L.A. City Council members have recently faced corruption charges, with three convicted so far. If the L.A. government runs on pay-to-play, maybe it’s no surprise that the council would support an effort to ensure that ability to pay is no barrier to paying.
—The Editorial Board, Southern California News Group
