The best-financed lose in L.A. mayor, school board balloting.
(From the Orange County Register, May 28th, 2013)
By Gloria Romero
David, Goliath, King Midas and Rip van Winkle all were factors in last week’s mayoral election in California’s most populous city, Los Angeles. Analysis of their roles in that election can help empower voters in choosing which of the four cameos will best characterize our legacy in future elections.
Six months after the defeat of Proposition 32, the statewide initiative seeking to curb special interest money and influence in campaigns from corporations and unions, it appears that the spirit and intent of the measure actually may have manifested itself in this election. In the mayoral and school-board races, the candidates touched by King Midas and enjoying the most opulent war chests were soundly rejected by the voters.
Why? After all, money matters in politics. The Davids among the candidates rarely beat the Goliaths. This time, not only did the Goliaths lose, they were handily rejected by an electorate that appears – finally – to be awakening to the adverse electoral influence of special-interest power and money.
One union – the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 – spent $1.65 million on behalf of its candidate for mayor, Wendy Greuel. The local represents employees at Department of Water and Power, who earn significantly higher average salaries than other city employees. One in five DWP workers earns over $100,000. They doled out cash to Greuel, fully expecting pay raises in a new contract.
They weren’t alone. The police officer union spent over $2 million to elect Greuel, who would have been expected to approve pay hikes as part of a a “law and order” platform sold to voters.
Collectively, they sought to defeat the eventual victor, Eric Garcetti, also a labor-friendly Democrat like Greuel, but one who dared to take baby steps toward curbing pensions and scaling back the city workforce.
Greuel became Goliath. The message of Goliath resonated with voters – just not in a way that labor would have preferred.
The rejection of Goliath candidates extended to Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education races. The outgoing mayor unabashedly raised millions to elect his former political aide and keep control of the school board. But an independent classroom teacher with little money and no loyalty to the mayor’s millions prevailed. If ever there was a lesson on how not to buy an election, this was it.
Likewise, a college-board candidate heavily backed with union cash and clout was soundly rejected by voters.
Are voters finally willing to stand up to powerful special interests at the ballot box? Is our political inner David finally having the courage to emerge? Or were the stunning results of this election a fluke? Time will tell as voters in other struggling municipalities and school districts weigh in.
Clearly, we saw a rare happy ending last week when a few David candidates defeated their Goliath opponents, overcoming the power of a King Midas touch in electoral politics. But, alas, the story doesn’t quite end there, for Rip van Winkle may have had the greatest influence on the election. Some 76 percent of the city’s 1.8 million registered voters slept through the election, the lowest turnout since 1938.
Who will we resemble next Election Day? After all, the story of democracy can only be written by us.