Op-Ed: Lessons learned during a run for state Assembly

“Special interests” is a term frequently bandied about in political talk but infrequently explained. Like a bogeyman, “special interests” are understood to be bad, but that’s about it.

As an outsider to business-as-usual politics, I have had quite an education as a candidate for state Assembly, and many of the lessons are more useful in the hands of you — the voters — than they are in mine.

Lesson No. 1: Donors and voters are not usually the same people.

Much of the money that candidates raise for their campaigns comes from outside of the district they are looking to represent. Many candidates make monthly trips to Sacramento years ahead of the election. To get a head start on policymaking? Not quite. To make commitments to lobbyists in exchange for financial support of their campaigns. Ironically, political insiders spend a lot of their time with outsiders to our community.

Of the campaigns in this Assembly race raising the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed to fund these efforts, mine has the highest percentage of contributions coming from residents who live within this Assembly District.

It’s not easy to raise such obscene sums 50 bucks at a time, but it’s the only way to do it without making promises to anyone other than the voters. So, in my view, it’s the only way to do it.

Lesson No. 2: Endorsements aren’t free.

If you’re like me, you probably assumed that a candidate earned an endorsement from an organization because their values aligned with that of the organization’s. Sadly, that’s rarely the case.

These organizations ask candidates to answer questionnaires where they are typically expected to adopt only the most extreme position of an issue. In fact, often there are only two possible answers permitted: Support or Oppose.

Nuance is a vice here. It should help explain why so many rational proposals that make such common sense to you and me are so elusive in Sacramento — most who get there did so with the support (money) of organizations that exacted as a price for that support an allegiance to the most ideological version of their position.

Some organizations don’t even concern themselves with candidates’ policy preferences; they look for the candidate who they feel is most likely to win (in a case of dizzyingly circular logic, this is often based on other endorsements) and support that candidate, hoping their money will buy some allegiance later on.

Our campaign prefers to take money from real people — not these political organizations. By comparison there are other candidates who have raised 21% 40%, or more of their campaign cash from non-individuals — largely outside groups.

We want our commitments to be to our community. That’s why we post our thoughts on issues facing our community and California on our website where everyone can see them. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Call me on my cell phone: (818) 970-0129 or shoot me an email at aj.blumenfeld@gmail.com.

So what to do?

Aside from massive campaign finance reform — which we desperately need — an individual voter can help back against these perversions of our democracy by refusing to let them be successful. Candidates spend their time raising this money and earning these endorsements because they believe that’s what it takes to win.

Prove them wrong.

Ask candidates what they had to say to raise more than $200,000 from people and organizations many miles from our community. Submit your own questionnaires to candidates on the issues you want to hear from them about. Don’t substitute an endorsement for your own judgment about a candidate’s character and their commitment to our community — those endorsements don’t always mean what you think they do.

And consider making a small contribution to the candidate of your choice, the ones that refuse to let their path to Sacramento be paved with outside dollars.

Two-thirds of donors to our campaign have come from first-time political donors; these are people just like many of you, who have never before written a political check.

But they did so because they believe that their voice should matter; that their elections are theirs to decide. They believe people should come before money. I do, too.

--

ANDREW BLUMENFELD, a product of La Cañada Flintridge and a fifth-grade teacher, recently completed service as a member of the La Cañada Unified School District Governing Board and is running to represent the 43rd State Assembly District.