What would happen if all candidates were limited to spending
twenty thousand dollars in a San Diego City Council election
The primary election for San Diego City Council will be here in about six months.
Like horses at the trough, candidates are pulling hairs over campaign bounty. When
special interest, political action, and personal donations are all included, the
winning candidate will spend over one million dollars. Any American would call
this an obscenity. Yet, the voters buy and accept this as business as usual.
Political payback is clear corruption. Organized labor will donate untold amounts
of cash in order to achieve a quid pro quo. This affects public policy and hence our
city deficit. What is more alarming however, is the fact that any citizen can skirt
campaign limits by simply opening a personal political action committee in favor
or against any candidate. This tactic was used in the last District 2 San Diego City
Council election by the mayor and his cronies to swing the election in favor of
their desired outcome. But it’s legal. Most if not all voters are oblivious to all
these unethical shenanigans. The cycle of deceit continues every four years. This
must stop!
Those citizens who wish to serve the public and their city as non-career politicians
with no fundraising and no glamour marquee endorsements are viewed as
unacceptable by media elites. Lower tier candidates with tons of visionary and
fiscally prudent ideas are ignored and even ridiculed as losers. Voters take no
initiative to research the websites of these contenders, everybody likes a winner
and nobody likes a loser so it’s a vicious circle.
A good metaphor in all this social campaign finance injustice is the WWII
capitulation of Poland to Germany in thirty days. Poland fought on her knees
without allied support but never lost her moral conscience despite annihilation. The
citizens of San Diego must refute candidates who pile on campaign money higher
and deeper. The residents of this city are better served by objective minded leaders
who have no pollical favors to pay back and thus not prostituting public policy.
If we instituted a twenty-thousand-dollar limit on political contributions,
candidates would be relegated to virtual hand to hand combat. Walking door to
door, campaign forums, media events, and personal contacts would take on new
meaning. Public policy would be purely defined and truth would prevail. Voters
would be forced to see and digest the ideas and vision of all candidates. Parity,
justice and honesty would rise to the top and all citizens would be heard without
prejudice.
Dan Smiechowski is a candidate for District 2 of the San Diego City Council.