Councilmember Kevin de León is dealing with a tricky reelection marketing campaign due to his function within the racist leaked audio scandal two years in the past. To assist make his case, the veteran Sacramento politician is tapping his state marketing campaign battle chest to pay for self-promoting ads advocating for 3 poll measures.
De León, who got here in second within the March main after tenant rights lawyer Ysabel Jurado, is uniquely in a position to bombard Council District 14 voters together with his mug as a result of he has $3 million in a marketing campaign account he created a number of years in the past for a attainable run for lieutenant governor.
De León is prohibited from transferring cash from his state committee into his metropolis reelection marketing campaign committee, Occasions reporters Dakota Smith and David Zahniser explained. However he can roll that cash into different committees centered on political causes — which he did.
The council incumbent is following a well-recognized playbook. Many politicians, together with Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, have used spending on poll measure campaigns to boost their profiles.
To this point, he’s transferred $600,000 to the Kevin de León Believing in a Higher California Poll Measure Committee, which is able to promote Proposition 3 to affirm marriage equality, Proposition 32 to set an $18 minimal wage and Proposition 33 to develop lease management.
Already the poll measure committee has paid for a glossy “Yes on Prop 32” campaign door hanger adorned together with his image that proclaims “then-Senate President Kevin de León wrote the invoice to boost California’s minimal wage. Now he’s combating to boost it once more.”
As a result of it is a state poll measure committee, reasonably than a metropolis committee, De León has fewer constraints on how he makes use of the cash and doesn’t must report his spending to the town’s Ethics Fee, Politico reported. So long as the poll measure adverts don’t expressly inform folks to vote for him, that is allowed beneath California legislation.
However simply because it’s authorized doesn’t imply it’s proper.
This sort of marketing campaign fund shell recreation sours the general public on profession politicians. As we’ve mentioned, there’s nothing improper with individuals who make a profession out of public service, and on-the-job experience is often an asset. In fact elected officers often use their surplus marketing campaign money to assist get others elected and assist poll measures they consider in, however utilizing it to pay for a barely disguised marketing campaign advert is unsavory and counter to the intent, if not the letter of the legislation.
Whereas in Sacramento De León was in a position to make use of his place as Senate president professional tem to boost gobs of cash from curiosity teams. When he was termed out, he rolled the leftover campaign cash right into a placeholder lieutenant governor marketing campaign account. And now he can use that cash as a backdoor approach to increase his metropolis reelection marketing campaign, along with the city-regulated fundraising and campaigning he’s doing.
California Widespread Trigger, which pushes for transparency in political spending, wish to see extra restrictions on how candidate-controlled poll measure committees spend their cash, comparable to making certain a bigger share of the advert is selling the difficulty reasonably than the candidate. Or the state might require that candidates get donor permission earlier than transferring cash to a poll measure marketing campaign committee.
These are worthy concepts that state lawmakers and the Truthful Political Practices Fee ought to discover. Candidates are going to search for any edge in a aggressive race; the state has a duty to make the enjoying area as stage as attainable.
