Hypocrisy 101

Florida Governor Jeb Bush has mastered the art of political hypocrisy. His positions on campaign financing, the citizens initiative process, and ending partisan redistricting are so at odds with each other that it makes even the most jaded observers’ heads spin.

For starters, Jeb thinks that more money in candidate elections is generally a good thing. He just signed into law a bill that dramatically increases the amounts that candidates can spend under Florida’s voluntary spending limits program from $6.7 million to $20 million. This will allow future candidates backed by big money to outraise grassroots opponents and prevent adversaries from receiving matching public funds that would level the playing field. Bush won his last campaign spending $10 million, but he no longer feels that is enough.

Jeb Bush, like most politicians, feels that when people give money to campaigns, that is an indication of their political support for the ideas the candidate is promoting. The money basically serves as a proxy for the donor’s political speech, or so the theory goes.

But, when it comes to ballot measure campaigns, Jeb thinks that money has ruined the party. Jeb and the Florida Chamber of Commerce are trying to roll back the process by which ordinary citizens can bypass the legislature and pass laws on their own. They say that it is susceptible to abuse by wealthy out-of-sate interests who “place their pet projects into Florida’s Constitution through well-financed ballot initiatives.” So, big money is good for candidates, but bad for citizen initiatives.

But, Jeb doesn’t think the money is so bad in other states’ initiative processes. In fact, Jeb recently headlined a couple of events to help California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger raise money for a package of three ballot initiatives that he is backing. Bush helped raise some $3 million dollars from out-of-state interests in amounts ranging from $1,000 to $50,000. Hmm. Big money is bad for some ballot initiatives, but good for others.

Perhaps Jeb differentiates based upon the substance of the ballot measure. After all, some policies he agrees with, and some he doesn’t. One of Schwarzenegger’s key ballot initiatives would take the process of drawing legislative and congressional districts out of the hands of politicians and give the job to a non-partisan panel. Politicians often abuse this process by drawing up district maps that unfairly advantage one party or the other. In California, where Democrats controlled the redistricting in 2000, Arnold is trying to change that.

There is a similar reform initiative in Florida. It would take the process of drawing legislative districts out of the hands of self-interested politicians and give the job to a non-partisan panel. But, in Florida, where Republicans control the Legislature and thus the redistricting, Bush does not support the effort. So, in Jeb’s logic, fair redistricting initiatives are good in places where his enemies can rig elections, but not so good in places where his friends rig elections.

The crown jewel in all this hypocrisy lies in Jeb’s answer when he was confronted with the apparent inconsistency in opposing independent redistricting and ballot initiatives in Florida, while at the same time helping raise big out-of-state checks for an independent redistricting ballot initiative in California. The Florida governor said that he didn’t have any idea what ballot measures his fellow California governor was supporting, he just wanted to help Arnold out.

What’s that? Bush didn’t know the ideas that he was helping raise money for? This truth exposes the big lie that big money in politics begins with – that donors are giving money to help speak for ideas that they support. If the fat cats don’t even know what those ideas are, it’s pretty hard to justify campaign contributions at all, at least at levels that are so far beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.