#103, October 30, 2002
First came the leaflets. They looked like
brochures promoting Sonoma County tourism—vineyards, scenic woodlands, kids
playing baseball. But that yellow insert titled “Some Facts about Petaluma
Streets” gave it away. “Tell The Truth” had arrived on the Petaluma campaign
trail.
Tell The Truth is a Windsor-based non-profit
corporation that claims to be an impartial proponent of “truthfulness and
accuracy in political and public policy debate.” But the targets of their campaigns have exclusively been
environmental organizations and candidates, admitted Jo Timmsen, TTT’s
executive director. In the last election, they went after Supervisor candidate
Fred Euphrat for his criticism of Russian River gravel mining.
Who funds TTT, a group that pays its canvassers
twelve dollars an hour? Timmsen won’t say. Because of their charter, the group
isn’t subject to campaign disclosure laws. It’s a local variant of the soft
money that has corrupted Washington politics.
"This is a sophisticated tool that is perfectly legal," said
David Menefee-Libey, a professor of political science at Pomona College, quoted
in a Press-Democrat story. "It allows a special interest group to raise
large amounts of money for political purposes without having to tell anyone who
they really are."
TTT’s current attack on Matt Maguire and
Janice Cader-Thompson aligns neatly with the campaigns of these two incumbents’
opponents, Mike Harris and Keith Canevaro. So does the street sign campaign of
The Petaluma Pothole organization. Their signs read, “Support the candidates
who will fix our streets.” A legitimate sentiment, yes. The problem is that
these little signs have been attached to the giant Harris and Canevaro street
signs, further augmenting their Council campaigns, again without disclosure of
the source of funding.
What was merely ugly has turned nasty,
however: first with the personal attacks on Maguire, and last week, with the
arrival Canevaro’s Sacramento-style mailer hitting Maguire. It flings
unsubstantiated generalities and personal innuendos, posing six and seven-year
old editorials, written about the City Council as a whole, as if they were
about Maguire alone. It lists a 1996 letter to the editor as a “Front Page”
story. Candidate Canevaro signed the Fair Campaign pledge, which includes the
following: “I shall not use or permit any dishonest or unethical practice which
tends to undermine or corrupt our American system of free elections.” His
literature proclaims his “honor code”: “Not to lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate
those who do so.”
What is driving this? I can’t imagine that my
fellow citizens’ desire for better streets would generate this kind of
high-price hardball politics. I can’t believe that these young candidates
emerge into public life so cynical as to spontaneously embrace these tactics.
There are some deeper interests at work. A letter writer recently pointed out
how the high-acreage Harris-Canevaro-Thompson signs frequently appear on large
undeveloped parcels. He might have punned: those who invest in big campaign
signs have lots of money at stake. Real estate development is a big business,
and more than any other business, local government holds the key to its
success.
I’m not suggesting these candidates are
corrupt, or that they might personally profit from their decisions. They are
supported by and accept the support of the conservative element of the
development industry because their values are compatible with that element.
Pushing the industry toward ecological sustainability, toward paying its fair
share rather than be subsidized by taxpayers or future generations, may seem
too socialistic to these candidates. But once they are in office, it gets
increasingly hard to go against those who’s money helped put you there, and
whose money could bring you back, or take you to higher office.
Controversy is good, when it’s honest. What I
condemn is the corruption of controversy by money—where the money invested in
government produces returns for the campaign investor at the expense of the
citizens who can’t afford to enter the market. I condemn TTT for the
greenwashed dishonesty of its literature, for not showing pictures of gravel
mines and fresh asphalt. I condemn the introduction of every flavor of
political sabotage and fraud into my home town. Citizens, we all need to vote;
but we need to do much, much more.
Pullquote: Those who invest in big campaign
signs have lots of money at stake.