by Jack Lee
I heard our recent former Assemblyman, Rick Keene, is going to kick off his bid for the State Senate this Friday in Chico. Was there ever any doubt? We’ve talked about it here for over a year.
Several years prior to Keene being termed out he selected Dan Logue from Olivehurst to be his successor. He then began the long and sometimes tedious process of introducing Dan to all of his deep pocket contributors and his endorsers (One of the reasons for term limits was bypassed…influence peddling). This was a real bonanza for Dan who was a complete unknown to the people of Chico, the place where ultimately this election would be decided. However, it did not come without a price and that price will now be… Logue’s support for Keene.
This kind of quid pro quo formula for winning elections is not new, but it is a growing trend and there is a disturbing side to it. By incumbents picking their own successors they defeat the main reason for term limits (bring in new people with new ideas, not people of the same ilk) and in so doing they foster a sort of political dynasty by handing off the incumbent status and power, but still keeping it within their own tight little circles. They keep the power “in” and this keeps the competition “out”.
When running for election, money often means more than ideas, ethics or hard work. Success is typically obtained by hiring professional campaign consultants who craft the issues and the candidate image. This takes tons of money for radio and TV ads, billboards, brochures, yard signs, etc. Few elections today are won when the victor didn’t greatly outspend the opposition. Money talks…and it buys elections.
You can bet Keene’s ascendancy to the Senate will have a heavily funded campaign war chest, in fact it already is and he hasn’t even announced yet! Wow, well how could that be? Well, you forget that during his 6 years in the Assembly he received a lot of big contributions from special interest groups trying to buy some favors.
He currently has $1,002,775.46 in his “Friends of Rick Keene” election fund. In the first 9 months of 2008 he raked in a whopping $894,210.00, the donors were PACs, insurance companies, unions, land developers, etc. Imagine raising all that money in his last year in office. I wonder if he has assured these big donors that ‘his” man Dan will play ball with them just like he did? The obvious reason one raises that kind of dough as he is heading out of office is because he plans to head right back into office…thus defeating another reason for term limits.
Keene will also have the support of his termed out pal Sen. Sam Aanested. Sen. Aanested has selected Keene to take his Senate seat so Keene will be in a strong position to support him when he runs for Lt. Governor. See how it works folks, sort of like the rich man’s version of musical chairs?
An ordinary citizen like you or me stepping forward to run on our own is long gone, right along with real open and honest elections. Honest, ethical elections are pretty much a fiction here in California and elsewhere where states allow this sort of unethical activity. The quid pro quo election model noted herein is a sure fire winning formula and it’s what almost all the election pros are doing in order to secure their candidate’s place in the sun. Consequently our elections have degraded into something akin to a Machiavellian plot. We have too many little co-conspirators scurrying around behind the big curtain where the wizard lives and this damaging our representative democracy.
Free, fair and open elections…nah, it’s just an illusion. But, what the heck, too many of our voters just play along like these things really don’t go on, that elections are not really “selections” and that we are not really manipulated by the professionals behind the curtain running the show. Life is better that way; ignorance is bliss and all that.