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Monday, February 8, 2010

Do politicians bite the hands that feed them?

The role of money in politics has been on people's minds lately because of the Citizens United decision, and this weekend, the Inquirer had an interesting local case study of the dynamic at work. Councilman Bill Green, Patrick Kerkstra writes, is viewed as a reformer ... but he's raised a lot of money from big, "entrenched interest groups" and "veteran power brokers" ... but he has taken numerous stands that appear to threaten his donors' interests. For example, he's taken money from unions, but advocates a "paperless government" that could result in layoffs. Green says he answers to no one but himself and the public.

It seems to us that to evaluate whether a politician is really challenging his donors interests you'd have to ask two things: 1) Whether the donors view the politician's proposals as a realistic possibility or a gimmick to get votes -- talk is cheap, as they say; 2) Whether the politician is challenging the donors' fundamental interests. If you operated a widget factory, and also happened to like using the public library, you might be disappointed with a politician who advocated cutting library hours. But you might not withhold campaign contributions until he proposed a widget tax.

We're not sure where we think Kerkstra's examples about Green fall on this spectrum -- we'd have to know more about the paperless government idea etc. Just food for thought.

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Posted by Doron Taussig @ 10:51 AM  Permalink | 1 comment
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About It's Our Money
Every year, city government spends slightly more than $4 billion. Where does all that money come from? More importantly, where does it go? Are we getting the most bang for our tax buck? “It's Our Money” is a joint project between Philadelphia Daily News and WHYY, funded by the William Penn Foundation, designed to answer these questions.




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