{"id":4598,"date":"2009-02-15T15:41:48","date_gmt":"2009-02-15T23:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/?p=4598"},"modified":"2009-02-15T15:55:49","modified_gmt":"2009-02-15T23:55:49","slug":"the-riehl-world-carlsbads-money-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/?p=4598","title":{"rendered":"The Riehl World: Carlsbad’s Money Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blackburn\"<\/a>How much does it cost to buy a seat on Carlsbad\u2019s city council? If you\u2019re Keith Blackburn, it comes to $100,932 in donations from supporters, plus another $11,875 in loans he gave his own campaign, according to the city clerk\u2019s office. That\u2019s a record for city council campaigns, coming to about six dollars a vote.<\/p>\n

It pays to be an incumbent. Anne Kulchin spent only $32,411, or $1.58 per vote, to retain her seat on the council.<\/p>\n

Farrah Douglas missed capturing a seat by coming in third. She spent $83,787, or $4.38 a vote. She left another $1,462 remaining in her campaign chest, vowing to keep her options open for future elections. She lost to Blackburn by only 1,321 votes. Makes you wonder if she\u2019d be on the council now if she\u2019d spent the money she saved.<\/p>\n

What this all means is that Carlsbad has entered the big leagues in campaign spending. Mayor Bud Lewis\u2019s $65,000 campaign in 2006 set a record. That seems a paltry sum compared with the 2008 big spenders. And history shows political corruption grows when it\u2019s generously irrigated by big money. Illinois\u2019 impeached ex-governor Rod Blagojevich\u2019s attempt to sell President Obama\u2019s senate seat is the latest example.
\nThe two city council candidates who spent the least on their campaigns got the fewest votes. Glenn Bernard and Evan Delaney Rodgers didn\u2019t have to report campaign donations, since they collected less than $1,000. Rodgers refused donations on principle. But unlike Bernard, Rodgers showed she really wanted to win, launching an impressive website to outline her positions on a wide range of issues to promote her campaign theme: A Clean Carlsbad. She finished last in the race.<\/p>\n

Is Carlsbad in danger of becoming the Chicago of San Diego County politics? Probably not. But Rodgers could learn something from the Obama campaign that she could use in future campaigns. I suspect we\u2019ll hear more from her. I hope we do. But instead of refusing all contributions to avoid even the appearance of being corrupted by big donors, she might welcome donations of a limited amount. Obama used the internet to solicit contributions of as little as $5. He wound up raising a huge amount of money, and, most importantly, a huge number of supporters, without being beholden to a few fat cats.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s pretty clear that non-incumbents are at a big disadvantage in any election. And Carlsbad\u2019s latest city council race also shows how the size of a candidate\u2019s war chest separates the winners from the also-rans. Reform candidates like Rodgers will be able to level the playing field only if they find a way to raise the money required without compromising their principles.<\/p>\n

Richard Riehl writes from Carlsbad. Contact him at rj4riehl@yahoo.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How much does it cost to buy a seat on Carlsbad\u2019s city council? If you\u2019re Keith Blackburn, it comes to $100,932 in donations from supporters, plus another $11,875 in loans he gave his own campaign, according to the city clerk\u2019s office. That\u2019s a record for city council campaigns, coming to about six dollars a vote. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4598"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4604,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4598\/revisions\/4604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.carlsbadistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}