In the April 14-27, 2009 edition of the Long Beach Business Journal, publisher George Economides offered a “Publisher’s Perspective” entitled:
“Money Talks in 1st Council District Special Election”
I feel compelled to offer a respectful rebuttal.
As Mr. Economides accurately commented, lbpost.com co-founder Robert Garcia has now been elected to the 1st District Council seat vacated by now State Assembly member Bonnie Lowenthal. Mr. Economides seems to attribute Mr. Garcia’s successful run for office more to being “well-connected” than to simply offering a message that rang true with the most voters.
During his quest for that office Mr. Garcia ran what most agree was one of the most professional, effective and, more significantly, ethical, campaigns that Long Beach has seen in quite some time.
Campaign Ethics 102
As we know, objectivity is a key component of effective, accurate and professional news reporting. Accepted standards of journalistic ethics require that any potential conflict of interest be fully and publicly disclosed. This Mr. Garcia did, on the site and in full, in this December 5th lbpost.com article:
“Garcia Leaves lbpost.com, Site Will Not Cover Council Campaign”
Rather than offer the usual disclosures and assurances to its readers that lbpost.com would make extra efforts to remain objective, Mr. Garcia made the amazing decision to step away from involvement in any of the company’s editorial or business decisions. Many in the community who had come to appreciate and respect the leadership abilities and ethical standards of both Garcia and Lumachi felt Garcia’s decision was entirely unnecessary and they roundly protested it.
But Garcia didn’t stop at simply stepping away. He and Lumachi also decided that lbpost.com would not cover either Garcia’s campaign, the Special Election itself or any of the other candidates. To many, myself included, this seemed extraordinary. This editorial policy concerning the Special Election was enacted and then Robert stepped aside to concentrate on his campaign and his professional career. That self-restrictive editorial policy stood inviolate until the results of the special election became available and were reported on LBPOST in the April 8th lbpost.com Column:
“Garcia wins First District Election For City Council”
That policy proved, for me, most unfortunate. I had not yet been offered a column at lbpost.com at that time and from the perspective of a local news and opinion consumer, I had come to rely quite a bit on the exceptional political reporting and perspectives from many of the contributors at lbpost.com. Not being able to rely, at least in part, upon lbpost.com for Special Election coverage proved disappointing.
In this I believe both Garcia and Lumachi went well above and beyond what standard journalistic ethics required under the circumstances and I believe they did so to avoid even the perception of impropriety. This tells me much about Garcia’s personal and professional ethical standards.
Should Mr. Garcia’s representation of the 1st Council District, indeed our entire city, be even half so professional and ethical, the electorate will be well-served indeed!
The Cost of a Vote
Mr. Economides’ analysis of what each vote “costs” a candidate in monetary terms is understandable, but also, in my opinion, overly simplistic and, indeed, dismissive. To attempt to boil down into a dollars-and-cents equation, votes that have been freely and (hopefully) intelligently, cast by the electorate is to minimize and cheapen the true significance of those votes.
Candidates receive funds from supporters that help them finance their campaigns, certainly, but they do not “pay” for votes (well, unless some of those voters have been actively recruited by ACORN, but I digress). While it’s very instructive to determine what people and organizations provide funding to a candidate and at what levels, the reasons a person casts a vote for or against a candidate far transcend that simple evaluation.
In my humble perspective, each vote freely and intelligently cast, in any national, State or local election, cannot possibly be valued. That vote is, in fact, invaluable because the right to cast that vote has already been “paid for”, not by campaign contributions, but by the blood and the lives of many thousands of our citizens, who first earned us the right to cast such free and intelligent votes, and then later, through the process of preserving, protecting and defending that right and, indeed, all of our rights in all the years since.
Rights that many millions of people around the world do not, themselves, enjoy.
What We “Deserve”
In his article, Mr. Economides discusses some things he feels we, as residents, “deserve”. According to Mr. Economides, we “deserve”: “council members who are truly independent and able to present new ideas and new approaches to ongoing problems without being concerned about offending business or union lobbyists” and Council members “who actually take time to read and understand budget items before voting on them”.
I disagree that we “deserve” such effective and ethical representation as a matter of axiom.
In truth we really “deserve” precisely the sort of representatives that are elected, whether that be through our intelligent and active participation in the process or by virtue of our ignorance and our apathy. In truth we only “deserve” the sort of government that we either demand or that we, through our ignorance and our apathy, permit to exist.
Mr. Economides goes on to discuss many complaints that he has with, and many shortcomings he feels are possessed by, some of our elected and appointed Long Beach officials. Fair enough. I join him in many of those complaints.
Unlike Mr. Economides, however, I do not place the ultimate blame for these less-than-optimum circumstances with our “current and recent city councils”. I lay the blame squarely at the feet of the many qualified Long Beach residents who have either: not bothered to register to vote, not bothered to vote, or not bothered to vote intelligently.
According to our City Clerk, there are 15,125 registered voters in the 1st Council District. During the Special Election only 2,368 of those voters bothered to cast a vote (either at a Precinct or by mail). That’s a pathetic 15.7% voter turn out. 15,125 registered voters… and Mr. Garcia was elected by 966 of them. 6.39% of the voters decided the 1st Council District Seat.
6.39 % of the available registered voters elected their Council representative. Expressed more clearly, perhaps, 93.61% did not.
This, my friends, is surely not what the Founders of this Constitutional Republic intended.
And so, good readers, I ask you: If Mr. Garcia proves to be a counterproductive, or even simply an ineffective, Council member, and I do not believe that he will prove to be either, but if he does; whom should we blame?
Should we then blame Mr. Garcia, or the 6.39% of the voters who elected him?
How about the 93.61% of the voters that didn’t even bother to participate?
Do you desire more responsive and responsible elected City representatives Mr. Economides? Then perhaps we all need to work harder at getting more of our fellow registered voters to pick up a pen and fill out a simple vote-by-mail form or, heaven forbid, get off their collective posteriors and step into an actual voting booth.
Unless and until that happens, we “deserve” precisely the elected officials and the government we get.
I very much welcome your questions and your comments.
Editor’s Note: Councilmember-Elect Robert Garcia is a co-founder of the lbpost.com. The lbpost.com will be announcing a new corporate structure before Councilmember-Elect Garcia takes office on May 5th.