Reining in money’s corrupting influence over politicians
Al’s Loupe
Reining in money’s corrupting influence over politicians
By Alvaro F. Fernandez
alvaro@progresoweekly.com
Money plays a vital role in electoral politics. Fat wallets behind a politician improve that person’s chance of getting elected. For that very reason, special interests, at all levels, become an important cog in the elected official’s political machine and his or her reelection.
The system, sadly, fosters and encourages those relationships. What develops is a quid pro quo in the affair between politician and his money enabler — special interests. The positive side of this coin is the interaction between elected official and his/her voting constituency. But the voter’s influence is lessened when few people participate in the (voting) process.
Miami just saw the county commission approve the spending of more than half a billion dollars of taxpayers’ dollars to build the Florida Marlins a new baseball stadium. And down the road in the not too distant future our leaders may also consider a multi-billion dollar project (again using taxpayers’ money) to build a tunnel that will go from nobody still knows where to the Port of Miami.
There is more that can be said of the corrupting influence of special interest money in our system, but these two should do for our purposes right now. Take the baseball stadium, for example. Before approving the financing, which favored the Marlins so greatly that I would refer to it as a politician-approved swindle of Floridians, polls showed that voters countywide disapproved of financing the deal with our money. People favored a new stadium, but NOT with our dollars.
Initially, members of the community suggested that such an expenditure of money should be put before voters for approval. The mayor and most of the commission nixed it. They knew voters would turn down the idea. After months of posturing, and back and forth negotiations (many behind closed doors) and most (probably) out of the sunshine as required by law, commissioners approved the deal.
The tunnel, if built, serves two or three big time developers who have erected now mostly empty, multi-billion dollar condo projects in downtown Miami. These deep-pocketed developers, who know how to grease the wheels of bureaucracy, are bothered by trucks driving in front of their towers. Rumors abound of how the tunnel money is already being divided among the moneyed elite electing our political leaders.
Interestingly, the most affected by the projects, slated to foot the largest part of both, the taxpayers, are left for last on the consideration scale. And if they might stand in the way (of what is sold as progress), a la the baseball stadium, they are simply ignored and told a political story where the money in question is designated for specific purposes and therefore cannot be used for what is most needed in Miami.
Jackson Memorial Hospital comes to mind. Miami’s only public hospital plans to lay-off more than 4,000 workers and close down its satellite hospitals in the north and south ends of the county because it’s — out of money… Oh! And we’re now being told that the class size amendment that was mandated by voters in 2002, limiting the number of our children in public school classrooms, will have to be put by the wayside — again, not enough money to implement the plan.
The fact is that so few of us are voting that the politicians don’t respect us — at least not as much as those folks who fill their coffers come election time.
Last month the U.S. Supreme Court, in a landmark 5 to 4 decision, again voted in favor of more money in politics. Creating a situation where as caring citizens we must look for new solutions.
Let’s start by suggesting term limits. Refreshing the ranks of our elected officials is good, I believe. Because lately, if they don’t turn crooked, with time they tend to go stale. It is also much harder for special interests and lobbyists to keep up with a constantly changing group of new leaders who will decide their future fortunes with a vote.
Finally, as voters we can throw in the towel. Or, come to the realization that the only thing that will combat the millions of dollars spent daily influencing politicians is our vote. Large voter turnout is the silver bullet against a system where money talks and backed by the highest court in the land.
Lastly, what follows is a list of some of South Florida’s elected officials (who keep getting reelected, most with the help of special interest money) and the year they were elected (and in some cases named) to their current political office: At the federal level: U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (1990); U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (1992); U.S. Rep. Carrie and U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek (mother and then son since 1992); U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart drew his own custom-made district while directing the redistricting process and then won it in 2002. At the county level: Commissioner Javier Souto (1993); Commissioner Natacha Millan (1993); Commissioner Dennis Moss (1993); Commissioner Dorrin Rolle (appointed in 1998); Commissioner Bruno Barreiro (1998). By now, I am convinced, most of these people feel entitled to the positions they hold.
So our only solution may be to vote in large numbers. If we can demonstrate that power, then we can demand term limits. For starters, I would limit congressional seats to a maximum of 12 years. At the county level, two terms of four years each (8 years) would be more than enough. By the way, we must make those new rules retroactive.
