Cali politics breaks bad on both sides of aisle

California is thriving in spite of itself. In spite of its political leadership.

Tax referendums put in place by the voters have all but restored education, cash flow and a general state of virtual insolvency that scared the good sense out of many concerned Californians.

It’s been a long time since any state, let alone a mega-state like California, saw a supermajority in its midst, where one party had complete control of all houses of government and the executive office.

Was it fear of truly going bankrupt in California that drove the ouster of all Republican leadership? Did the gridlock that crippled this state for so many years lead longtime Republicans and many more moderates to move toward the Democrats en masse?

The death of any conservative leadership in California has killed any real challenge to the governor, and that has proved to be the perfect foil for the criminal exploits — allegedly — now plaguing the Legislature today.

A co-worker popped his head into my office the other day and asked if I needed a column idea. “Sure, what do ya got?”

The idea that “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” he said, as he proceeded to tell me about state Sen. Leland Yee’s federal corruption and gunrunning charges that broke earlier Wednesday.

Like many in this state who are either conservative, moderate, fiercely independent or simply sitting on the fence leaning away from the Democrats and some of their most vested positions and ideals, my co-worker was making the reference to Yee being a symptom or an extension of the dangerous position the California Legislature finds itself in today as it functions with near impunity as a supermajority, with Dems in control of the Senate, Assembly and the governor’s office.

It make sense to go in that direction: it’s the direction the Republican caucuses in California are going today, the message the minority leadership in the Legislature is trying to spread as it attempts to regain some foothold against the Democratic tide swallowing it.

If only it were that easy. In fact, if it were that cut-and-dried, it would be less troubling than just saying the California political system is broken beyond repair, nothing more than a full-time fundraising vehicle for perennial candidates and special interests willing to pay them.

Term limits, one could argue, have further complicated matters by making the dollar amounts and criminal indiscretions — allegedly — more grievous as the window narrows for politicians to get theirs and lobbyists to do the same.

Yee’s situation, unfortunately, is so ridiculous it’s difficult not to overshadow everything and everyone. A man who just last week was lauded by the Society for Professional Journalists for his commitment to transparency and who has fought to get stricter gun legislation passed, stands accused of federal gun trafficking. It boggles the mind.

Yet the San Francisco politician stands alongside fellow Democratic Sens. Rod Wright of Inglewood (convicted of perjury and voter fraud) and Ron Calderon of Hollywood (accused of accepting bribes) as an example of corruption, made even more partisan by a Democratically led Senate that refuses to allow attempts to expel the convicted Wright from office.

This helps further that idea that “absolute powers corrupts absolutely.”

It’s not a partisan thing, though. It’s a money thing. It’s a campaign finance thing. It’s a term limit thing.

Aside from a good showing in committees and press releases touting legislation, what does an Assembly member have time to do during a two-year term? An assemblyman is in a nearly constant state of campaigning, raising money and taking meetings from interested donors and legislating when he has free time.

California’s campaign finance laws are too loose, its politicians’ pay too high and its sense of urgency too low to overcome the public’s perception, and quite possibly the ability for high-profile criminal situations — allegedly — to occur over and over again.

This is not about the Democrats who are dirtying up the process this week or next, because Republicans have had more than their fair share of bad seeds, like Randall “Duke” Cunningham.

This is a systemic problem with no good solutions, and even less trust. California has somehow emerged from the quagmire of financial disaster on the backs of deep cuts, fee hikes and self-imposed taxes, but it has yet to emerge from the muck of the men and women leading it and whom we elect.

This column first appeared in the Imperial Valley Press, March 28, 2014.