A Guest Post By Eric Ohlsen-- Cleaning Up Sacramento

Eric Ohlsen is the progressive candidate, endorsed by Blue America, running for the Antelope Valley state Assembly seat occupied by Tom Lackey, the last Republican in the Assembly from Los Angeles County. One of his top priorities is to help clean up corruption in Sacrament by getting corporate sewer money out of the electoral process. Please consider contributing what you can to his grassroots campaign by clicking on the state legislative 2020 thermometer below.

I want to mention that though the Democrats control both houses of the state legislature-- and by very big margins-- corruption is still rampant in Sacramento. Though there are no good Republicans-- not one-- there are both good Democrats and bad Democrats-- plenty of bad Democrats-- serving in the state legislature. Most of the most conservative, corporate-friendly Democrats happen to also be the most corrupt ones. That's the nature of conservatism and the nature of the kinds of individuals who embrace conservatism. Based on the research from California's Courage Campaign, there are 15 Democrats who have been graded failures ("F"), based on their alignment with the corporate interests that exploit Californians. Here's the list, from bad to worst (with their 2019 vote scores):

• Al Muratsuchi (Torrance, Redondo Beach, Gardena)- 54
• Joaquin Arambula (Fresno, Coalinga)- 50
• Freddie Rodriguez (Ontario, Chino, Pomona)- 48
• Jacqui Irwin (Oxnard, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks)- 47
• Patrick O’Donnell (Long Beach)- 42
• Tim Grayson (Vallejo, Concord)- 39
• Tom Daly (Santa Ana, Anaheim)- 36
• Brian Maienschein (Rancho Santa Fe, Poway)- 32
• Sharon Quirk-Silva (Fullerton, Buena Park)- 32
• Ken Cooley (Citrus Heights, Rancho Cordova)- 27
• Sabrina Cervantes (Corona, Jurupa Valley)- 27
• Rudy Salas (Bakersfield, Hanford)- 18
• Jim Frazier (Vacaville, Fairfield, Antioch)- 11
• Adam Gray (Merced, Los Banos)- 9
• Jim Cooper (Elk Grove, Lodi)- 9

The Corruptive Effects of Lobbying
by Eric Ohlsen

When we think about the topic of corruption in our political system, it is easy for the mind to focus on the overt acts of corruption and abuses of power that come from the White House in a steady torrent. And we are not wrong to be concerned by that. However, that type of bald faced corruption is not the only kind that should concern us.

Moneyed interests use their leverage on our politicians every day in an effort to subvert the will of the people for their own financial gain. That is what cooperate lobbying is, and it is an activity that is corrosive to our democracy. Now, to be fair, it doesn’t have to be corrosive; there are groups, causes, and issues that deserve an opportunity to be heard, but the problem is that corporate lobbying has the money and influence to drown out the worthy types of lobbying, allowing their interests to overpower all others.

During the 2019 legislative year, lobbyists in Sacramento spent $219.4 million. That is a startling $2 million spent every day that the State Legislature was in session. It is a figure that has continued to rise. Corporate lobbying has increased 24% over the last 4 years and shows no sign of slowing down. Some of the most concerning lobbying efforts have come from the energy industry. During the 2018 election cycle, the petroleum industry lavished $19.2 million into California politics. Republicans have traditionally been the most welcoming to contributions from the oil industry but they are not the only place that the oil industry directs its effort.

The petroleum industry has been working hard to push their agenda by aiding conservative Democrats who are amenable to their cause. In 2018 there was more than $853,000 in direct contributions split between 47 Democrats who were in races for both Assembly and Senate, plus another $2.8 million to help Susan Rubio, $343,000 campaign supporting the re-election of Democratic Assemblyman Rudy Salas of Bakersfield, and $160,000 to a committee that campaigns for "business-friendly"-- meaning BIG business-friendly-- Democrats.

The thinking is that since the Republican Party has waned in California in recent years, the energy industry should try to reshape the type of Democrats that are getting sent to Sacramento. By helping to elect conservatives from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party, the oil lobby hopes to slow the momentum of progressives who will not be willing to kill or water down environmental legislation at the behest of big money donors.

Also, let’s not limit the energy industry’s lobbying efforts to just the oil and gas sectors, this is true too for Pacific Gas & Electric which spent more than $10 million in 2018 to buy political influence. And while the numbers have dropped some, they have still spent more than $6 million on lobbying this year as well. Meanwhile PG&E has continued to pour out $4.5 billion in dividends to its shareholders rather than conducting the necessary maintenance needed to prevent fires. It is a bald faced effort to buy their way out of accountability for failing to maintain the system that California rate payers have paid them to maintain. And as the legislature begins to revisit the rules around the role of utilities to prevent wild fires in the future, you can bet that PG&E’s spending on lobbying efforts will ramp up.

It is not just the energy industry trying to buy its way into our legislative decisions. There was, of course, recently California had the opportunity to provide a single-payer Medicare option to all Californians, only to have the bill blocked by Democratic members of the Assembly who were bought off by the lobbying efforts of the health insurance industry. They managed to get SB-562 killed at the last moment.

Another area where there is a concerning amount of money trying to purchase influence is around the issue of education. If ever there is an issue that we, as a community, a State and a Nation that we need to get right, it is education. However it took a yeoman’s effort for the California Teachers Association to get Assembly Bill 1505 passed which gives local school districts necessary control over the expansion of charter schools. Charter school groups spent about $900,000 on lobbying and even more poured in by other outside groups. These charter schools cost the same amount as public schools, while providing fewer services and not producing any better results, but because they are backed by interests seeking to privatize education they are able to funnel money into efforts to avoid necessary oversight by local school boards.

And finally I want to talk about the lobbying efforts of the NRA. This is the most infamous and insidious lobby, and it really is worth considering the NRA as a meta issue about lobbies and not as a discussion of the Second Amendment. However you may feel about gun ownership rights, when you look at the methods, tactics, and money that the gun lobby throws at legislatures around the country it is clear that they have managed to subvert the will of the people in a way that has been both incredibly successful and unbelievably dangerous. It is not just about getting their way, the greater problem with their lobby is that they have poisoned the water on having a meaningful debate about how to manage and regulate guns in a sensible way, to ensure public safety. The most egregious example of this is the gun lobby and their allies in Congress managed to block the CDC from even studying gun violence as a public health issue.

Ultimately, when you look at all of these points, the problem becomes clear, that while lobbying does not have to be inherently bad, the way that it is currently regulated tips the scales to those with the most money. And whenever money is such a decisive factor in democracy, then it becomes extremely difficult for the legislature to pursue the interests of the people.