Prop. B--a Welcome Half-Step

The city of Los Angeles limits what individuals can contribute to candidates for mayor and the City Council. Los Angeles County has no limits, with the inevitable result that most campaign money is raised from special interests that naturally expect special consideration in return. The same big donors exercise disproportionate influence in election after election. Developers, oil companies, Metro Rail contractors, parking lot operators, big law firms, to cite just some that depend on the county for much of their business, are there with the big bucks when supervisors and other elected officials come calling. This corrupting system is long overdue for reform.

Proposition B takes at least a half-step toward correction. It aims to reduce the influence of special interests by setting limits on what an individual can contribute to a candidate--$200 for each primary election campaign and $200 for each general election campaign--and encourages voluntary limits on campaign expenditures. A candidate who agrees to a voluntary spending cap can accept individual contributions to a maximum of $1,000. Voluntary spending limits are based on a per capita formula: 75 cents for each resident of a supervisorial district, and 25 cents for each resident in countywide races.

The bundling of contributions--combining small donations from, say, members of an employee group or a trade association--is prohibited. So are contributions from political parties. Proposition B somewhat narrows the window during which fund-raising can take place, to no earlier than 18 months prior to a primary or general election for countywide office and 15 months for supervisors, and no later than six months after a primary or general election. That’s no hardship, especially for incumbents, since it effectively allows a fund-raising season of up to 29 months out of a 48-month term. But anticipating passage of state Propositions 208 or 212, which restrict fund-raising in state and local elections, some incumbents are taking no chances. Last week Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who has more than $600,000 left in her election coffers after being reelected last March without opposition, had a fund-raising birthday party. At least two other supervisors--Mike Antonovich, reelected in March over token opposition, and Gloria Molina--are planning to host big donors too. As Oscar Wilde once remarked, nothing succeeds like excess.

Proposition B is clearly flawed and heavily tilted toward protecting incumbents. It nonetheless marks an improvement over the complete absence of financing rules that gives special interests such unhealthy influence over Los Angeles County’s elective officials. Could the supervisors, who put this measure on the ballot, have done better? Of course, and they should be held to account for not doing so. But Proposition B is still better than what the county has now, which is nothing. The choice of voters should be yes on Proposition B.