Hidden away on the June primary ballot is Proposition 15, titled the California Fair Elections Act. While the measure has not received a lot so attention so far, it is a classic example of the law of unintended consequences.
Disclosure: I am one of the ballot pamphlet signatories opposing this measure. I signed the rebuttal argument for a couple of reasons. This is a system of public financing of elections placed on the ballot by the legislature, ostensibly to test public financing in the Secretary of State’s election, beginning in 2014.
However, the authors conveniently forgot to tell the voters that hidden away in the measure is language repealing the currently existing prohibition on public funding of political campaigns. It took a lawsuit to get this fact onto the ballot label.
The ban on public finding dates to an initiative measure more than 20 years ago. We might well have a debate over whether this is good policy, but the authors of Prop 15 did not want that. They are instead trying to sell this measure as "a voluntary pilot program to provide limited public financing for Secretary of State candidates in the 2014 and 2018 elections."
Leaving side the sleight of hand trickery of getting public financing of campaign approved without anyone knowing it, let’s look at the main thrust of Proposition 15: the public funding pilot program.
It only applies to the Secretary of State’s race in the next two election cycles. But this is an office with the least amount of campaign activity. Over the past 100 years there have been almost no serious campaigns for Secretary of State; that may be because few voters have any idea what the office does (oversee elections and some business activities). From 1910 to 1970, the office was held by Frank Jordan, father and son, who almost never faced serious opposition. When the last Frank Jordan died in 1970, Jerry Brown ran for the office and served one term, using it as a springboard to run for governor in 1974. That led to 20 years of March Fong Eu, who tried to use the office to involve herself in international commerce (her husband’s business.). After she retired, Bill Jones ran for the office touting his authorship of the three strikes anti-crime initiative. He was succeeded by Kevin Shelley, who became embroiled in scandal and was forced to resign. Interim appointee Bruce McPherson was defeated in 2006 by the current incumbent Secretary of State Debra Bowen.
Interestingly, this is the one office in California where no elected incumbent has ever been defeated – each of the above elected secretaries retired, resigned or was term limited out of the office. So it makes no sense to run a public financing pilot project for an office that has been traditionally an electoral backwater.
Additionally, it is quite fascinating to look at who would be eligible for public financing were Proposition 15 in effect for this election. Incumbent Democrat Debra Bowen is probably in little danger of losing; she is a member of the majority party which is huge advantage for a nearly invisible office, and she has done nothing to irritate the voters.
The Republican establishment is behind Damon Dunn, who has never held public office, and in fact never voted until recently. But his primary opponent is one of the most fascinating candidates on the ballot this year. Her name is Orly Taitz, and she is America’s leading "birther," a firm believer that President Obama was really born in Africa and is illegally occupying the office of president.
Here is what Wikipedia says about candidate Taitz: "Regarding Obama, ‘I believe he is the most dangerous thing one can imagine, in that he represents radical communism and radical Islam: He was born and raised in radical Islam, all of his associations are with radical Islam, and he was groomed in the environment of the dirty Chicago mafia. Can there be anything scarier than that?’
"Other Obama-related rumors Taitz has repeated include: a number of homosexuals from Obama’s former church have died mysteriously; Obama has dozens of social security numbers, and his passport is inaccurate. Taitz claims that a person who was cooperating with the FBI in connection with Obama’s passport died mysteriously, ‘shot in the head’; a Kenyan birth certificate with the name ‘Barack Obama’ is authentic. Obama’s first act as president was to donate money to Hamas, which she claims will be used to build Qassam rockets."
It is no surprise that Republicans have banned Taitz from candidate events, but she is a qualified Republican candidate for Secretary of State. Were she the nominee and were Proposition 15 in effect, this is the woman our tax dollars would support for Secretary of State.
Liberal reformers insist that public financing will cleanse the system of corruption and lead to cleaner politics, but that’s not been the history. The presidential public financing system collapsed in 2008 because then-Sen. Obama had so much private money he did not want the federal spending limits.
In Arizona, which has a public financing system, the Phoenix New Times recently reported that one publicly financed candidate used her taxpayer dollars to buy computers, a monitor, desktop, and laptop, plus a full set of software at a cost of $2,409; and a $709 camera and $1,323 in office supplies. She had no chance to win, but was able to keep her new electronics after the campaign.
If Proposition 15 passes, doubtless Orly Taitz will be back in 2014 to use her tax dollars to prove that Barack Obama was really born in a cave in Kenya, and maybe get a free computer in the process.