Members and allies of the LGBT community should not be surprised that our enemy Frank Schubert is up to his old tricks. Only this time, he's attacking fair elections, not marriage equality. Schubert's latest campaign makes clear that there is a link between the oppression we feel as gay-lesbian-bi-trans individuals, and the corruption endemic to our broken political system. The LGBT community must stand against corruption and for Proposition 15.
Proposition 15, the California Fair Elections Act, is a trial program to end political corruption and get politicians out of the fundraising game by instituting publicly financed, clean elections. It sets up a voluntary pilot program for just the California secretary of state races in 2014 and 2018, allowing candidates to qualify for public financing of their campaign if they demonstrate a broad base of support and agree to strict spending requirements. The program is primarily funded through fees on lobbyists.
This good government idea is broadly supported by the California public, with 63 percent in favor in initial polls; they are joined by political reform organizations such as the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, and the California Nurses Association. It's a proven solution to the problem of government only responding to big interests like fundraisers, political action committees, and lobbyists.
And yes, it's a problem. Over $1 billion has been raised by politicians from just the 15 largest donors in California since the year 2001, according to a report recently released by the Fair Political Practices Commission. No social justice movement like ours can compete with that level of money.
Who's opposed to Prop 15's pilot project to solve this problem? No less than the Institute of Governmental Advocates. What's IGA? Oh, it's the trade association for lobbyists – the folks who lobby for lobbyists. It represents just about every bad apple in Sacramento. IGA sued unsuccessfully to knock Prop 15 off the ballot, and during that case promised to spend "millions" of dollars toward its defeat.
To a master of the dark political arts like Schubert, the key word in that last sentence: dollars. And so, next we see Schubert's minions out attacking Prop 15, as he apparently has won a contract to consult on the campaign.
Schubert, you might recall, is the political operative who zoomed to national fame with his nasty, misleading, hateful attacks over the course of the Yes on Prop 8 campaign in 2008.
There's no doubt that Schubert ran that campaign brilliantly. He sowed discord among Californians, lobbed missiles at gay families, and put millions of dollars of out-of-state money toward convincing voters that there's a thin line between gay marriage and child abuse. My husband and I got married before the Prop 8 campaign, and to watch Schubert's nasty lies and insinuations spread across the state felt like a hate crime had been committed against us.
Hate crime or no, this kind of success is just what political operatives need to gin up more customers, and more business, and more revenues, and, then, well, more of the good life. Schubert did so well that he's become a leading anti-gay marriage spokesman nationally, and last year worked on the successful campaign to block same-sex marriage in Maine.
Little noticed by the LGBT community – so far – is that Schubert apparently has a new campaign, and, no surprise here, he's not on the side of angels again. Nothing has been filed with the secretary of state's office yet, and little information is available, but spokesmen associated with Schubert's company have lately been trotted out to attack Prop 15. A Los Angeles Times blog post last month about a fundraiser hosted by state Senator Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley), a leading proponent of Prop 15, quoted Richard Wiebe, a partner at Schubert Flint Public Affairs, and identified him as a spokesman for http://www.StopProp15.com.
Schubert's work on Prop 15 is not directly related to gay rights, but it could affect each of us nonetheless.
This tale is larger than just one politico and a couple of campaigns. There is no doubt that our LGBT community has little influence at the highest level of government. Hateful discrimination in terms of housing, employment, public facilities, marriage, the military – and on and on – all remain the law of the land. In large part this is because our government shuts out the voices of everyday people while it busily does the work of lobbyists.
So, a qualified thank you to Frank Schubert. Your campaigns – Yes on Prop 8 and No on Prop 15 – have at the least made very clear that political homophobia and political corruption are linked. As members of the LGBT community, and our allies and friends, we are all obligated to advocate against these hateful institutions whenever we can.
Don't just take my word for it. Here's what the San Jose Mercury News recently wrote on the subject: "Proposition 15 authors spent years studying how the strengths and flaws of other states' systems would relate to a big state like California. What they've proposed will make government more accountable to people, not special interests. There's no doubt that this is worth trying. Vote yes on Proposition 15."
Learn more at www.YesFairElections.org.
Michael Meyers is a high school teacher in Alameda, California and notes that Schubert also brags about his success bargaining against public school teachers.