[Ed. note: Let’s all give a warm Lost Coast Outpost welcome to Richard W. Salzman, our newest political columnist! He joins local mover/shaker Matthew Owen in providing you, the Lost Coast Outpost reader, with basically everything you need to think. Both generously give these services to the community with the expectation of absolutely no recompense whatsoever, apart from the SEO boost.

Longtime Humboldt residents will remember Salzman as the swashbuckling campaign manager who steered DA Paul Gallegos’ first and second campaigns to victory. He has volunteered or worked for many political campaigns since, but — for whatever reason — usually in a more “behind the scenes” kind of role. You know?

In 2012 he defeated the City of Arcata in a lawsuit brought against that town’s “aggressive panhandling” ordinance, which, Salzman argued and the court agreed, violated the panhandlers’ civil rights.

Mr. Salzman is the inspiration for the handle used by frequent LoCO commenter “salzman’s cat.”

Huzzah for Richard Salzman! Let’s hear what he has to say, shall we?]

###

I want to thank Hank Sims for allowing me to write this column for the Lost Coast Outpost.  I intend to share my own thoughts and those of people with whom I share a “point of view.”

While I can’t draw my way out of a brown paper bag, I take the title of this column from the best advise I’ve ever heard given to aspiring illustrators. Early in my career as an Artists’ Representative and a few years after first signing Everett Peck, who was to become a celebrated illustrator and later the creator of the animated television show Duckman, I accompanied Mr. Peck to a lecture he was giving to a graduating class of commercial art students where he counseled them that the most important thing for an illustrator was “to have a point of view.” It is my suspicion that the same advice applies to a columnist.

What came as no surprise but was confirmed in the Times-Standard’s headline on Feb.12, “Closing the Budget Gap with Cuts…,” was that our Board of Supervisors have essentially run our county’s budget and local economy into a ditch, and their plan to dig their way out is by further destroying our economy through budget cuts (e.g. firing county workers). 

For those of you who don’t believe that government workers have “real jobs” and who do not believe in Keynesian economics that would argue for stimulating the economy during downturns in the private sector by increasing spending in the public sector, and for those who think government employees get a free ride with their fancy health benefits and cushy retirement accounts, you may applaud this action. For the rest of us, these cuts sound like a very bad idea. 

But what made the story even more interesting was the timing with the release of the 460 contribution forms by at least two of the Gang of Four majority on the Board. Those were also posted on Liberal Jon’s blog and what they show us is that while these Supervisors have mismanaged the taxpayers’ finances and run up a $3.6 million budget shortfall, they have done a phenomenal job of lining the pockets of their own re-election committees!  

The icing on this cake is Rex Bohn’s introduction of a so-called campaign finance ordinance through which they will attempt to now limit donations to just the amounts they are most able to receive.  But, they will restrict the larger donations that our “smart growth” candidates tend to rely on by a few wealthy patrons, tribes or unions who share our desire for quality of life over short-term profits and that offset the rather modest donations that the majority of our supporters can afford, given Humboldt’s medium annual income of some $30K.  

If these Board members really wanted to reform campaign finances they’d be pushing for a limit of $100.00 per person, and not one of $500.00 or greater. Who do you know that can afford to give $500.00 as a political campaign contribution? How about $1,500.00? Rex Bohn is quoted in the Times-Standard as saying he recommends the limit be $1,500.00 per person or entity (of course if you happen to own or control a dozen different “corporations” or companies, you’d be able to give 12 times that amount).

This gang of four has had no trouble keeping pace with their political opponents by receiving multiple donations of between $500.00 and $1,500.00, which they are able to generate from dozens of different well-healed backers, so of course they’d very much like to limit the ability of their opponents to compete with the support of labor unions, or others in a position to level the playing field.

Rex Bohn approached Maggie Fleming to run for D.A. and promised her that he would raise (it’s called bundling) a minimum of $50,000.00 for her campaign if she ran! Does this sound like someone trying to keep money out of politics?  (Full disclosure, I am supporting Maggie’s opponent, Élan Firpo for DA).

If we could have public financing of elections I would be all for it. I agree that too much money can distort the electoral process, but in the wake of Citizens United when anyone can form a PAC and make “independent expenditures” of an unlimited amount without having to disclose who the donors are, the result of limiting donations in our local elections will only serve to deprive the electoral process of the transparency required of donations made directly to a candidate.

That’s my point of view.

—-

Richard Salzman represents applied artists from around the world who work as illustrators in the communicating arts.  Their clients include publishers, advertising agencies and graphic design firms in all major markets. He may be contacted my email at: Richard@RichardSalzman.com