It's harder to fool a well-informed state electorate

Published online on Sunday, Jul. 05, 2009

When the 120 members of the California Legislature were running for election the last time, did you hear any of them promise voters they'd duck every major issue facing California and do their best to drive the state into bankruptcy?

And not one of them said they'd take their marching orders from the public employee unions, the Chamber of Commerce or the other special interests that prowl the lobby of the California Capitol.

Voters in their districts only heard all the many ways the candidates would make the Golden State better. So they were elected, and then went to Sacramento and forgot who they were representing.

Now we have this budget mess, as well as a state water system that hasn't been upgraded in a generation. Call the roll on the other major issues -- health care, fixing our deteriorating road and highway system, improving our public schools -- and you'll see once again that the Legislature has done nothing.

Wouldn't it be great if you could actually point that out in some bold way the day after the election? While the lawmakers were patting themselves on their backs for getting re-elected, I'd hang a giant banner from the Capitol roof that explained what the politicians really thought of Californians re-electing them: "You were really, really stupid to vote for us."

In my four decades in the news business, I've never seen a bigger gap between what candidates promise on the campaign trail and what they do when they get elected.

Check the campaign pledges made by the candidates you voted for and then match them up with their records.

I sure didn't hear Assembly Member Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, promise to spend more money than the state takes in when she was running for re-election.

But a few weeks ago, the Assembly budget chairwoman was saying just that when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cautioned that the state needed to live within its means.

Check out Evans' response:

"Well, there is this mantra out there -- 'live within our means' -- and while that sounds really nice, and it sounds really responsible, it's meaningless," Evans said during a legislative hearing. And she heads the budget committee.

But while Evans' statement has gotten a lot of attention from anti-tax groups and others, her colleagues in the Assembly and Senate feel exactly the same way.

They're just not brazen enough to admit publicly that they'll spend taxpayer funds however they see fit and then check later to see if there's enough money to cover the bills.

There are a couple of reasons that lawmakers can get away with this. The first is a disengaged public. Californians don't follow issues closely so they can't sort out bogus campaign claims at election time.

They know more about the "Jon and Kate Plus 8" reality TV show than they do about how the Endangered Species Act affects farm water deliveries to the San Joaquin Valley.

The other is the redistricting system favors the party holding a legislative seat so it's difficult to remove incumbents because district boundaries are drawn to protect them.

That will change when redistricting reform takes effect for the 2012 legislative elections. But until then, we must contend with lawmakers who have a terrible track record.

And they still think the voters aren't on to them. Many are running for higher office.

In the Valley, Democrat Sen. Dean Florez of Shafter and Republican Sen. Jeff Denham of Atwater are running for lieutenant governor. Republican Assemblyman Mike Villines of Clovis is running for insurance commissioner. Some, including Villines, even scheduled fundraisers during the budget deadlock.

Isn't it time to show politicians that they won't be promoted to higher office if they bungle the current one they are in? But that would require voters to pay attention.