People like transparency, so why not extreme transparency?
A candidate for state House in Legislative District 14 is pledging that if he wins, he will wear a body camera while serving in the Legislature.
Democrat Jason Lindstrom said the idea came to him while talking with friends about transparency in politics, but also as a result of his work as a deputy Cochise County attorney. Prosecutors work a lot with police, who are under increasing pressure to wear body cameras for the sake of accountability.
He thought, what better way to ensure heβs accountable to the people who elect him?
βBasically, itβs the only way to truly ensure transparency,β Lindstrom told me Thursday. βIt turns your representative into a direct representative, someone whoβs carrying you with them at all times.β
Lindstrom is running along with fellow Democrat Mike Holmes and Republicans Becky Nutt and Drew John. The top two vote-getters will represent the district that includes far southeastern Tucson and all of Cochise County.
Lindstrom acknowledged heβs not sure if there are times when he would be legally prevented from wearing the camera. On the other hand, he said, it would be informative for voters to see who wants to avoid being filmed and why.
βIf someone tells me I canβt wear it, theyβll be on camera telling me I canβt wear it,β he said.
Lindstrom isnβt sure how heβd make the video available. It could be live streamed, but maybe a more likely scenario is heβd upload the video at the end of every day, perhaps marking its important points.
Sounds like a good idea, of course. More transparency could make our elected officials more representative of voters. But there is a growing school of thought arguing this sort of reform is what got us into todayβs problems of political polarization and stalemate.
Political parties, leaders and consultants are a despised group now, but they are what allowed our elected officials to accomplish things, an author named Jonathan Rauch argued in his 2015 book. Its name acknowledges the unpopularity of the argument: βPolitical Realism: How Hacks, Machines, Big Money, and Back-Room Deals Can Strengthen American Democracy.β
Rauch says our current politics suffer from βchaos syndrome,β which he defines as βa chronic decline in the political systemβs capacity for self-organization.β
In an article summarizing his argument, Rauch argues, βAs these intermediariesβ influence fades, politicians, activists, and voters all become more individualistic and unaccountable. The system atomizes. Chaos becomes the new normal β both in campaigns and in the government itself.β
When I explained the idea to Lindstrom, he wasnβt buying it.
βThe argument that you canβt make deals unless youβre behind closed doors kind of offends me,β he said. βI think good ideas rise to the top.β
Candidate rolls
in dough
One local challenger is raising money like an incumbent.
In fact, Democrat Daniel Hernandez Jr. has raised more money than any legislative candidate in Southern Arizona. Of that $82,375, some big donations are coming from surprising people.
Michael Bidwill, the president of the Arizona Cardinals and a close ally of Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, donated $2,500.
Jan Brandt, a former AOL executive who lives in Virginia, donated $5,000.
Don Brandt (unrelated), the CEO of Arizona Public Serviceβs parent company and a Republican supporter, gave $500.
Jonathan Sackler, a Purdue Pharma director and member of the family that made billions on OxyContin, gave $1,500.
Hernandez, of Tucson, is running in Legislative District 2 along with Democratic incumbent Rosanna Gabaldon and Republican incumbent Chris Ackerley.
New TUSD committee
If youβve been in Tucson, youβve seen the thousands of yellow signs put up by TUSD Kids First, the group trying to unseat the school boardβs three-member majority.
Now thereβs a new independent-expenditure group trying to counter that group as much as it can at this late date. Itβs led in part by Patty Valera, a TUSD parent who is hoping to defend Kristel Foster and Cam Juarez, the two incumbents up for re-election who are part of that majority.
βWhat is bothering us is that a handful of well-financed people is bashing TUSD and our children,β Valera said.βThey are attacking the schools and consequently harming our students.β
Now, Iβm not convinced that the βChange the boardβ signs really harm the students, but they definitely oppose the status quo. Valera says the status quo is pretty good and improving.
βI really love TUSD,β she said.
The group hasnβt had to file a financial disclosure form yet, and Valera said she didnβt know how much money it has raised, but it wonβt come close to the $30,000-plus raised by TUSD Kids First, much of it from business interests in and out of the district. In any case, the new group hopes to put out its own sign to counter the yellow ones, perhaps as early as this weekend.
Prop. 205 up or down?
Two new polls out this week give opposite impressions of how Prop. 205, the marijuana legalization measure, will fare.
The Arizona Republic/Cronkite News/Morrison Institute poll has the measure winning by about 50 percent βyesβ votes to 42 percent βnoβ.
A newer poll by Data Orbital, a political consulting firm, has the measure down by 53 percent to 41 percent.Β