Oakland To Provide Money to Residents for Campaign Donations

The phrase “Your tax dollars at work” has been used for years as a way to criticize or lampoon government waste. Well, in Oakland, Calif., the city is indeed putting tax dollars to work — for political campaigns. And it is a lesson in why people should carefully read those pesky measures, proposals, and propositions that appear at the bottom of their ballots every election. You know, the ones that use a mind-numbing array of verbiage and are never quite clear on what passing them will mean?

This past election, residents in Oakland overwhelmingly approved Measure W. Everyone over the age of 18, including non-U.S. citizens who have legal permanent residency, will get four vouchers for $25 each every two years. That money is to be used to donate to the candidate of a given resident’s choice for mayor, school board, or city council. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the program, which is called “Democracy Dollars,” will amount to approximately $4 million each election and will come from the city’s general fund. Currently, that fund pays for a program that provides a small amount of funding for local candidates.

One might not be tempted to say that Oakland is in good company, but rather in company with Seattle. The Chronicle reports that Seattle launched a similar program back in 2017. There was a 350% jump in political donations, including donations under $200, which saw a 250% increase. The move reportedly boosted the number of candidates in local races and decreased the chances of re-election for incumbents.

The Chronicle cites a 2020 study by the Oakland Public Ethics Commission that states that there is a large disparity between donations from the city’s more affluent, white suburbs, and those in lower-income communities of color. The study also showed that more than half of campaign donations came from outside the city.

Proponents say that the measure will give candidates a reason to meet with voters and make candidates more apt to care about issues that matter to the local populace. Critics, on the other hand, call the plan a waste of money, adding that it is biased in favor of incumbents. They argue that the city council placed Measure W on the ballot and that there is no way to control fraud. Oakland is a left-leaning city, and this past election also saw the passage of a measure to permit non-citizen public school parents to vote for candidates for school board.

Interestingly enough, the website The Oaklandside reported that in 2019, the Oakland Public Ethics Commission launched an investigation regarding $51,000 in “suspicious” campaign contributions made by companies and individuals that were deemed questionable. Five city council members at the time are alleged to have received some of that money. The site named Lynette Gibson McElhaney, Rebecca Kaplan, Larry Reid, Dan Kalb, and Sheng Thao, who was elected as mayor this year in a ranked-choice vote. The money supposedly came in the form of straw donations from the company California Waste Solutions. The company had been involved in a lawsuit with the city, and the council had been discussing a combination sale and lease of public land to the company.