Abuse of Power

Today, California Common Cause lauded San Francisco’s ban on government officials soliciting behested payments from “interested parties” in the wake of a string of controversies involving those payments. The first-of-its-kind ban in California, which went into effect last week, was adopted in response to a massive corruption scandal that was exposed in 2020 involving multiple city departments and high-ranking city officials. Behested payments appear to have played a significant role in the scandal. California Common Cause touted San Francisco’s behested payment law as a model for other jurisdictions and the state to follow.

San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego are among hundreds of rallies taking place in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

Kati Phillips, a spokeswoman for California Common Cause, said the index shows there’s work still to be done in the Golden State. “We’ve worked to drain the swamp in California, but we still have our share of alligators,” she said.

In 2014, the California Legislature made a big deal of calling for a constitutional convention to overturn the Citizens United ruling, which allows unlimited corporate and union spending in campaigns. Now, in 2018, some legislators are pushing a bill that critics say will open the floodgates to special interest money in legislative races, as soon as the November election. It’s not only hypocritical, it’s a bad idea. Assembly Bill 84 should get a quick death before the Senate Elections Committee on Tuesday.

The practice of allowing corporate interests and labor to make unlimited contributions to help legislators with legal problems is troubling to Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause.